Srishti Gummaraju
Student, Kyiv International School
When a student comes to school, it should be the goal of every teacher and student to make sure that everyone feels welcome. No matter what their background, ethnicity, or orientation, they need to feel safe and comfortable in a place they call school. As a member of the Student Council, myself, alongside all the others, take on this responsibility. The Student Council’s main objective is to not only make students feel welcome and part of our wonderful community, but to also help them if they feel excluded. In an effort to ensure that students in our high school don’t feel left out, simply because of their diverse backgrounds, we wanted to take action.
It is only natural that most people like to avoid conversations relating to what they consider delicate topics. It can be easy to assume that in this day and age, high school would already come equipped with such tolerance to diversity. However, this is not always the case, as people do come from a wide range of cultures, beliefs, values, and backgrounds which help form their perspectives and actions. The primary goal of Student Council is to raise awareness and promote respect for these diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We are hoping to achieve this goal through a campaign relating to the four main divisions of diversity: racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia.
In order to promote tolerance, it is crucial there must be more conversations about these topics, not less. So how do we do that? It is important we really start asking questions and having conversations we’ve never had before. Whether it’s talking to friends or explaining this to a child, these conversations need to start happening now. I am aware that it can be hard to explain some of these ideas to a 6-year old. However, these big ideas can be put into simpler terms for younger children. For example, in our campaign, instead of saying “no sexism”, we want elementary students to know that “both girls and boys can play.” We want children to know that they were born equal and can live equal. As these children grow older, they can take this idea from the playground to the real world. The simple idea of being equal on the playground, will later influence how children act and respect others. In this way, we can get the younger generation involved and aware of these issues.
I understand that there are unique challenges of promoting tolerance and conversations in a diverse international community. In such a community, so many different cultures are present, each having its own values and beliefs. Before promoting conversations about any of these issues, it is really important to understand one’s own culture. Essentially, we must learn to respect one’s beliefs and ideas, even when they contradict our own. I am not saying we have to agree with them, but rather acknowledge the different points of view, and agree to disagree in a way that doesn’t develop into hatred and animosity. In fact, we need to be doing the opposite. It is important to move away from just “tolerance” of diversity to the love of diversity. Although tolerating and respecting different cultures is a great start, loving diversity takes this idea to a whole other level. Even though this perspective might be harder to achieve among a large community, this is what we are really striving for. The idea of “love diversity” should not only be encouraged within the boundaries of our school, but also the outside community, reaching to many more than the students. Although this specific campaign will end with a Day of Diversity Leadership Summit that brings students from multiple schools together, this idea is one that must continue in order to make a change. So far, we have received nothing but support and positive feedback from our school community, which is the needed environment for change to flourish.
It is not easy to get everyone to agree on the same lifestyle, but ultimately we hope we can get people to respect other cultures, ideas, values, and beliefs. I am sure we can get people to not only tolerate diversity, but love it.
