How Do I Wow With My Now How?

I’ve been wondering about how I can integrate the lessons learned from this class into my school, and our time with the INEMA students this week has solidified it for me. I plan to implement some cultural sensitivity training and while I’m certain this will not be recieved as a huge “wow” factor at first, I am also sure that if we could see five years into the future, we would indeed be “wowed” by the changes we will have experienced as a community over that time period.

Working alongside many new faces from different nations this week, I realized the importance of cultural sensitivity in the workplace. As educators, we teach our children how to accept differences of opinions, how to resolve conflicts peacefully and how to have a growth mindset. As professionals however, I don’t believe we model these elements to the best of our ability. Our school is a multicultural community made up of families from over 30 different countries. (Montessori education is worldwide and present in 110 countries and thus is widely known and respected.) These international families are divided into two groups; those who have children born in the U.S. and those who don’t. Likewise, our staff hails from 15 different nations. However, we don’t have any formal or informal means of helping these people integrate into our community.

How can we create a more inclusive environment for our multicultural families and staff? I’m going to start with taking a look at the cultural humility model as an initial framework and build from there. It may not have an immediate “wow” factor but I’m willing to wager a bet that the impact will be powerful over time.