Dear Larry Francois and Janet Quinn,
Bravo on your pledge to focus on diversity within NSD. Academics, testing, and funding have monopolized our “schools bandwidth” for the 11 years I’ve been involved with NSD. However, I believe our lack of willingness to sacrifice time and energy from these to address social-emotional learning in our students has crippled us.
Your letter to our community asserted that diversity will increase in coming years. I would like to counter that diversity has been around us in all forms since our species began, and it is what sustains and strengthens us as humans. In fact, it’s a key cornerstone of our biology, and it goes much deeper than looks and bank balances.
Imagine what life would be like if we were all neurotypical, left-brain, heterosexual extroverts, who rated 10 on all our executive functioning skills yet lacked vision. Boring. Evolutionarily dangerous. Where would we be without Oscar Wilde’s incisive writing? Sylvia Plath’s poetry? Temple Grandin’s autism activism and animal behavior work? Marshawn Lynch’s football? This is us. Our diversity isn’t something to solve. Our diversity is what makes us great.
So what to do? Your proposal is a great start. I believe we need to go much further than “Let’s Stop Bullying” assemblies. Progress must start from within. Teachers and coaches, who themselves may feel “diverse,” must be allowed to feel comfortable providing real leadership to students. Students should be encouraged and given time to come together within school to share their ideas and opinions and work to enlighten their fellow students—perhaps through greater use of homerooms that tackle diversity issues head-on, and also through clubs such as GSA/QSA and the like. We parents need to get on board with our own education process so we are part of the solution. The district needs to be proactive, strong, supportive, and willing to put diversity and social-emotional learning on the front burner for a while.
It sounds like this is happening, and, if these resolves take flight, this will be a monumental leap for NSD.
Liz Bohlin, Woodinville – Inglemoor High School parent
