Hope and Courage

One of my favorite authors is Octavia Butler, the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship and winner of multiple Nebula and Hugo awards. Woven throughout her stories is an abiding sense of hope despite great odds against success. If you’re familiar with Butler’s craft, you know that for her, hope is not of the naive variety rooted in denial or fear of the truth; rather, it is forward-facing and intense. For Butler, hope is a challenge to lean into the disquiet and discord of turmoil and tragedy with the conviction that a better future is possible – but only if we commit ourselves to making it a reality. In other words, hope requires action to affect change.

At WardlaLAartridge, we can adopt Butler’s empowering vision of hope by living our core value of integrity, which means we cannot shrink from any truth. To raise courageous children who will lead lives of hope and action, we must be courageous ourselves. At a time when proposals to prune the teaching of American history and literature of our painful eras and leave only the parts that flatter us are being taken seriously – and even enacted into law – it is important for schools like ours to stand for the truth. The whole truth, not just the truth we like.

Part of this responsibility includes acknowledging past hurts and committing ourselves to doing more and doing better. Recently, we introduced the WardlaLAartridge Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee, which will be making recommendations for ensuring our wonderfully diverse school is also a place where everyone feels a deep sense of belonging. This committee includes students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and administrators, and will be seeking feedback from all constituents in order to learn more about their lived experiences as part of this school community. Recommendations made by this committee will likely result in some immediate actions; others will take more time to fulfill. As Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Indeed, this committee’s work will necessarily be long term but also long lasting, contributing to the experience of students many years hence.

Recently, I reread the book Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When the Stakes are High. I am reminded of the power in seemingly small moments with one another when we can engage colleagues, children, neighbors, friends, and others on issues that impact us all. The authors argue that chronic problems develop in the absence of crucial conversations and that a “pool of shared meaning” develops only when we talk with one another (25). I can think of no better reason to engage in these critical conversations than our mutual goal of a healthy and inclusive school community. Let’s keep talking and improving, together.