Willard School
Culture & Climate
"in diversity there is beauty and there is strength." -Maya angelou
An Anti-Bias approach underpins all of our equity work at Willard. We believe that ALL children benefit from The four guiding goals of the anti-bias committee at Willard School come from Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards published in 2010 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (naeyc). This is evident in our Willard School Mission Statement:
Willard School educates and inspires our multilingual and monolingual students to think and act critically with empathy, kindness, and curiosity. Each member of our community - staff, students, families, and caregivers - actively contributes to a caring, safe environment through both their words and actions. Our entire school community will take the steps needed to address and end all forms of racism, bias, bigotry, and bullying at Willard School; it is our collective responsibility to ensure our students feel connected, ready to learn at higher levels, and able to grow to their fullest potential.
Four Goals of Anti-Bias Education
Goal 1 - Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities.
Goal 1 strengthens social, emotional, and cognitive development. As children develop a strong sense of both individual and group identity, they also develop more tools for success in school and in life.
Goal 2 -Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections.
Goal 2 honors a child's innate curiosity abut the world around them, including the people they share this world with by providing the tools for expression.
Goal 3- Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts.
Goal 3 develops the ability to think critically strengthening children’s sense of self, as well as their capacity to form caring relationships with others.
Goal 4 -Each child will demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.
Goal 4 empowers a child by providing tools and supports to recognize and respond to bias in the world around them.