At The Beech Hill School, we ask students to concern themselves with how they treat one another. Nowhere is this clearer than in our Foundations of Community. These guiding principles are printed and displayed in every classroom, invoked regularly by students and faculty alike, and quite simply, the framework by which we expect our students to think, act, and live.
In the Foundations, it states that members of our community, “embrace and celebrate diversity.” On its face, this statement seems obvious. It is hard not to see that in a community that is comprised of individuals trying to learn and to grow that a multitude of points of view, of stories, of perspectives is preferred. Or in the most basic language – variety is better than homogeneity.
The sentiment that a diverse world is richer and should be embraced is seen as common sense by the students at The Beech Hill School. As such, it seems almost absurd to imagine that in the lifetimes of people they know, segregation was preferred by some to integration. That is to say that diversity was not embraced by all. Not only was it not embraced - it was not celebrated; it was feared and it was fought.
Fortunately, great strides have been made in embracing diversity throughout The United States. Tomorrow we will celebrate Dr. Martin King Jr.’s life and legacy, as his leadership in this domain was so critical to that progress. However, we have yet to realize the totality of Dr. King’s dream, as we have yet to fully transform “the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
Tomorrow, The Beech Hill School Community will continue to work to make Dr. King’s dream a reality.