** Since the publication of this article, a community member pointed out that the individual I described as a Student may not be a student. I went back to the original documents I received from the District and it is not clear as to whether the individual who wrote the email referenced in this article is a student. Please keep this in mind when reading.**
The District and the Community can benefit from stepping back in re-evaluating their approach to the issue of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
In reading community correspondence to the BOE for March through April, I noticed an email written by a student to the Board of Education requesting that Eid al-Fitr be added to the school calendar. Excerpt from the email sent by the student:
I am writing to appeal to the board to add Eid al-Fitr to the school calendar as so many nearby schools have already done. Plainfield made the move to add Eid this year just a month ago. And the exciting news is that North Plainfield just announced the addition of Eid two days ago. https://www.tapinto;net/towns/north-piainfield-slash-green-brook-slash-watchung/sections/education/articles/north- plainflGld-school-calendar-changGs-for-2023-24-include-8id-ai-fitr Other nearby towns like Warren, Watchung and Scotch Plains have also added the holiday to the calendar. Muslims represent the largest non-Christian minority in the state of New Jersey (see graph below).
I’m highlighting this email for a few reasons.
The first is that it demonstrates the importance of the BOE following the laws and its policies on transparency and family engagement. Critics often spin the demand for adherence to these laws and policies by community members as an ideological issue connected to right-wing politics or a mechanism used by enemies of diversity. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The BOE, in no longer sharing correspondence with the community, robbed the community of hearing this student’s concerns and desire to have her faith tradition acknowledged in the same way Judeo-Christian traditions are acknowledged. It prevented the community from advocating on behalf of this issue. I don’t recall the Superintendent or any BOE member bringing this up in the meeting that occurred after this email was received (I could be wrong on that, but I’m not rewatching that circus again).
Preventing the public’s access to emails robs the community of taking ownership on the issues connected to diversity – to help lead change from the ground up and demonstrate the community’s ability to solve issues of diversity in our schools on its own versus a top-down one size fits all approach to the issue whose details are largely hidden from the community and are not connected to any measurable outcomes.
This email can also act as a call for attention to the issue of diversity on the part of our community. DEI is not the boogeyman many community members believe it to be. This perception is largely driven by incompetent and opportunistic implementation by our District that lock community members out. To accept the District’s framework (whatever that is) and implementation is to hand the concept over entirely to those least capable of implementing it effectively.
Instead, as a community, we can acknowledge challenges, accept the need for solutions, and tap into our expertise as neighbors to advance and advocate for an evidence-based common sense approach to the issue. We can avoid the untenable and unrealistic position that “DEI is all bad” and take a more pragmatic approach that removes the need for a top-down approach to make our schools more welcoming environments. We can define, as a community, what DEI means for our schools.
The complete and utter lack of transparency and inclusion in the District’s approach to DEI is, I believe, a large reason for much of the resistance and confusion surrounding the initiative.
This article isn’t a call to virtue – but is based on pragmatism. Viewing the issue through the lens of virtue is what ends up contaminating the entire discussion.
Change can start with the community supporting this one small and big step with the school calendar to make it more congruent with other faiths families practice in our community.
Email I sent to the BOE:
Good Morning, In reading the Board Correspondence, I noticed a student request to have Eid al-Fitr added to the school calendar. I am writing to fully support this request. While I am not particularly religious, I think schools need to begin to embrace religions and faiths from all walks of life. A connection to the Sacred can be a valuable coping skill for children and young adults, and religion can connect to a cohesive understanding of morality and ethics. It can also lead to tragedies in obscure Texas towns and weird theories about aliens- but I think we can all agree those fall into the minority. Having this on the Calendar would affirm our recognition of students and families with a Muslim faith tradition, validate their connection to this faith tradition and create a more inclusive and warm school environment. I also think we should explore incorporating Eastern faiths and traditions as well.
If you would like to support this student’s request you can write our BOE:
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