Prepare Yourself
You’re an educator. You want to make the world a better place.
You want to create a school environment that is safe and welcoming for all students—and you don’t want to let moments of bigotry pass silently. But what to say?
The best way to avoid being stymied when the moment occurs is to prepare. Simply telling yourself that you are someone who will speak up goes a long way toward shifting from inaction to action.
Read more about how to prepare yourself here.
Prepare Your Students
This guide aims to help people in school settings handle moments of everyday bigotry—when and how to speak up. But if all we do is speak up after the fact, we will forever be responding to the problem. So, at the outset, we want to encourage prevention.
The work of anti-bigotry starts in preschool and kindergarten and carries right on through to high school graduation and beyond. It also begins on or before day one of any school year, when you consider how to build community within your classroom and how to develop ground rules or guidelines for communication.
Ask yourself, “What climate do I want in my classroom and my school?” Then ask yourself, “What can I do to promote that kind of atmosphere?”
Read more about how to prepare your students here.
