November 11, 2024
By Jenna Fournel, Director of Teaching and Learning?
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Last Monday, the day before the election, I shared a few hours with DC high school students who met at the city library on their day off. They gathered to Speak Truth with one another about the election. They came from 5 different schools, from across the city. And they represented a range of lived experiences as diverse as the beautiful city they call home.
The students shared stories with one another about what it was like to be in middle school back in 2021, during “lockdown” when the January 6 attacks took place on the Capitol. One student lives close enough to see the Capitol Dome from her apartment. She recalled watching the news unfold on her TV as the rioters were running down the street below her. One student recalled that his church was vandalized that day. Living in DC, they have a unique personal perspective on how politics affect their lives.
It’s hard today to think back on the excitement several of the young women expressed when they said things like, “It will be amazing for us in DC to see a Howard University graduate in the White House,” and “I can’t imagine what it will be like for girls like me to see themselves represented in that way.” I’ve been thinking all week about what they must be feeling now.
Speak Truth is about deep curiosity. It’s about learning how other people feel about the big issues in our world. As each student shared fears, hopes, and wonderings, their peers frequently replied with some variation of: “I never thought about it that way.”
In his book Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World, Scott Shigeoka offers readers a framework for thinking about how to cultivate deep curiosity. He calls it the DIVE model and it feels vitally important for this moment.
Detach: Let go of your ABCs (assumptions, biases, certainty)
Intend: Prepare your mindset and setting, and be intentional about making space for deep curiosity in your life.
Value: See the dignity of every person, including yourself
Embrace: Welcome the hard times in your life because they happen, are often out of our control, and require the cultivation of resilience to move through
This is a framework we’ll be discussing with Speak Truth students this year; it’s a useful way to shift our brains from reactive to engaged when encountering new perspectives. And as good as it feels to be surrounded by those who think the way we do, we can’t build bridges using only one side of the riverbank. Let’s DIVE in and figure out what’s on the other side.
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