Upper School Diversity in Practice

Country Day values individuals whose differences include, but are not limited to, age, ethnicity, family structure, gender, learning style, physical ability, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.
 
For the Upper School student, we seek to make students aware of the construction and influence of stereotypes in daily life. We aim to create a safe space in our classrooms where students can engage with their teachers and with each other in the valuable work of recognizing and challenging stereotypes. We encourage frequent, ongoing dialogue that helps a student safely imagine, consider, interpret, and consciously advocate for diverse opinions, expressions, and worldviews.
 
We believe that diversity in our curriculum and our campus presents students with an invaluable opportunity to better understand themselves, their peers, and the world they inhabit and seek to improve.
 
There are many ways in which Upper School provides students with a broader understanding of diversity:
  • Diversity serves as the foundation of our curriculum through our emphasis that there is always more than one correct way to think through an issue, solve a problem, or understand a point.
  • Our emphasis on group discussion, collaborative learning, and individualized projects reflect our belief in the value of more voices and viewpoints rather than fewer.
  • Through an engagement with our immediate surroundings, students come to see how New Orleans serves as a prime example of a city and culture that challenges (perhaps even defies) categories and stereotypes.
  • Our History curriculum begins with a study of human migration that reveals our common roots as human beings, and it continues and deepens as students come to understand how people, values, and institutions are rooted in relationships that are informed by history, power, and ideology.
  • Our English reading lists span several centuries, countries, and media, all examining the myriad ways in which we can understand what it means to be a human being and a member of a multitude of communities.
  • Our Foreign Language curriculum explores the cultures, struggles, and immigration histories of indigenous peoples in a manner that exposes students to hierarchies of race and class, and the ways in which ego- and ethnocentrism affect an individual’s or a group’s engagement and interaction with another culture.
  • Students participate in an Advisory program where students are continually asked to see experiences through the eyes of others and to analyze how people are justly or unjustly perceived by others.
  • In the Senior year, all students take a course entitled Global Humanities, which explores cross-cultural interactions, with an emphasis on the Middle East, North Africa, and New Orleans.
  • The Upper School holds weekly assemblies that frequently feature presentations from students and guest speakers designed to raise awareness of diversity, world issues, and volunteer/fundraising opportunities.
  • All students participate in a Community Service program and are encouraged to develop their roles as active members of the community who address local needs.
Both in the classroom and in advisory, students are continually asked to see experiences through the eyes of others and to analyze how people are justly or unjustly perceived by others.
 
Tenth Grade
  • In English, the tenth grade year focuses on the relationship between the individual and society. Students study texts that examine conformity and power relationships that exist between people and institutions (e.g. politics, gender, religion).
  • In Government class, students study civil rights issues in depth and come to understand both the struggle for equality and the laws that protect individuals, as well as how we receive our values through outside institutions (media, government, church, etc.).
  • Foreign language classes spend time analyzing the ways in which ego- and ethnocentrism affect an individual’s or a country’s engagement and interaction with another culture.
Eleventh Grade
  • While the focus of the year is on American history and literature, junior teachers use that as an opportunity to reveal the vast diversity of our country and our city, with New Orleans serving as a prime example of a city and culture that challenges (perhaps even defies) categories and stereotypes.
  • Students study immigration policy and the history of immigration in their Foreign Language classes.
  • Students are exposed to a broadened definition of American Literature that challenges simple explanations for events and exposes them to the wide array of how a person can experience and define America.
  • By looking at the literature and history of America, students also explore the developing morality of America as a nation and grapple with the legacy of America’s past.
Twelfth Grade
  • The central focus of the year is on exploring what it means to be human throughout various cultures and time periods.
  • In English, students study texts that offer multiple perspectives on an experience (or even a single piece of literature), seeing how different people have different reactions to the same event.
  • History classes seek to expose the influence of ideology on daily life and common attitudes to help students see how people are rooted in historical and power relationships.
Back
300 Park Road, Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 837-5204
Established in 1929, Metairie Park Country Day School is a coed private school for New Orleans area students in early childhood through Grade 12. From the elementary grades through upper school, the care and cultivation of each child comes to life in our exciting academic program, creative arts, and competitive athletic offerings.

Country Day accepts qualified students without regard to race, color, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national or ethnic origin.