Preparing for the Election Ahead

Nov. 1

Dear Atrium Community,
 
We’re all well aware that Tuesday, November 3 is Election Day.  Though early voting began weeks ago, it seems unlikely that Wednesday morning will bring definitive news. We must brace ourselves for divisive uncertainty, legal challenges, and raw emotions across a wounded America. We must also brace ourselves for the very real possibility of post-election violence in America. Members of our own Atrium community are feeling acutely marginalized and vulnerable. I never thought we’d find our best ideals of equality, fair play and progress so profoundly tested from within by prejudice and misused power.  
 
Yet, here we are, in a place of complex and cross-cutting emotions, and too much is on the line. I wish I knew how to summon words to calm and to comfort. I want to believe in Abraham Lincoln’s vision from 150 years ago, that we will see “the better angels of our nature” as a nation. And I hope––but do not fully trust––that my concerns here will seem overstated in hindsight. 
 
As educators and parents, we are called together to bring children through this quagmire, and we can be very proud of what is happening at Atrium School. In all our classrooms this fall, teachers have engaged with each other, and with our students, in learning even more passionately about democracy and civil discourse, and how to effectively teach it. Across older grades, students have learned more about our Constitution and its improvements through American history. They’ve learned how to skillfully engage in and lead civil discourse, and they have articulated the issues that matter to them most. These are vital preparations for their lives ahead; our students are citizens who will advance and sustain equity, justice and democracy wherever they go. 
 
As next week unfolds, and depending how these next few months go, we will all be called upon to balance teaching our children with shielding them. This will not be easy. To support this, here are resources assembled by our faculty Anti-Bias and Equity group and Atrium’s leadership team. The school will continue to provide resources after the election.

• 17 Tips from Commonsense Media to help steer children through the election

• From PBS, five ways to talk with young students about voting

• From PBS, “Talking with Young Kids about Elections, Democracy and Justice”

• This 2016 election article from the Anti-Defamation League remains very relevant

• This HealthLine article helps prepare children for post-election reactivity and violence

• National Association of School Psychologists’ advice on parenting in times of violence

Here at school, we are guided by these and other resources, including close work we’ve done with our partner organization Facing History and Ourselves. Atrium is the kind of place children need at a time like this. We care for your childrens’ hearts and their minds, and will hold them steady and safe with you through the turbulence ahead.
 
Warmly,
Marshall
 
PS: The arts offer hope. I often revisit this 1936 poem by Langston Hughes, which reveals both hard truths and enduring hope. It is achingly beautiful, and is meant to be read aloud.  This new duet from Alicia Keys and Brandi Carlile, written for the moment, inspires too.