Sopris Stars analysis by Vivienne Shapiro

Every moment in our lives can influence who we are. 

Our culture.

Our beliefs.

Our values. 

Every single day we have the opportunity to make choices that will determine not only who we are in the privacy of our heads, but also who we are to the world around us. But, for some of us, a path is paved before we even touchdown on this earth. 

To many, there will always be that kid on the school playground who looks at them funny; not because of what they have to say, but because of their lineage. Their race. Their language. Their religion. Discrimination is inevitably present within society, and when it’s not direct persecution, it still  creates division. The answer may not be to become one, but to remain many who value all. 

“I don’t like the image of the melting pot … the idea of us all just melting into one glob. I like the image of a salad. We’re all mixed together and some of us are tomatoes, and some of us are cucumbers. The best salads have the most stuff in them,” Shira Stutman, lead Rabbi at Aspen Jewish Congregation, told The Sopris Stars. 

People partially mold their cultural values while engaging in their communities, surrounded by others — and for kids, that means the classroom. When it comes to cultural education and inclusivity in schools, what’s the best way to inform kids, while also fostering respect?   

“Cultural education … It’s a critical component to how we make sense of the world around us,” Carbondale Middle School Principal Micheal Logan said. 

But it’s not always so simple. Schools face the challenge of ensuring that respect is maintained, but can still battle pushback when making decisions regarding how much culture and religion is appropriate within schools. 

Mandi Franz, the principal of Ross Montessori school explained the school’s navigation of religion. 

“How do we want to present ourselves to our community? And what would be inclusive to everybody?” she asked. “We, as a Montessori school, try to honor the cultures and beliefs of all our students.” 

However, the school participates in no “commercialized holidays,” according to Franz. Instead, they have an “events and happenings” calendar. “That’s like a list of the things that we do celebrate … without making it specific to different holidays,” she added.  

Examples of these events include Harvest Festival instead of Halloween, among others. While Ross doesn’t celebrate any mainstream holidays, Carbondale Middle School celebrates a few. 

“On Halloween day, when kids [were] streaming in and wearing costumes, [it’s] definitely a joyful experience,” Logan said. “We also try to acknowledge that not everybody celebrates Halloween, and in our announcements that I send home we made it clear what expectations are.”

Taking in lessons from both local educators and spiritual leaders has an impact on the perspectives of local youth. 

“I mean, it’s kind of fun to do it in a different way, because our school is kind of unique,” said Lucy Sontag, an upper-
elementary student at Ross, emphasizing that kids are paying attention to how culture and religion are approached. 

While the approaches of all of these educators vary, their goals are coherent. Mandi Read, a former Carbondale Community School teacher and the youth pastor at The Orchard Church in Carbondale, hopes students develop “a true love for other people, and respect for other people.” When asked why she feels it is important to learn about different cultures and religions, she said, “As a Christian, I would want to know about other religions, so I know how to love you … know where you’re coming from,” she said. 

Just like there is more than one way to teach about culture and religion, there are also different approaches to educating youth about discrimination that could help decrease it in the community. 

It can feel impossible to educate about culture without educating about persecution simultaneously. The prospect of teaching about the horrors of the past, such as the Holocaust or slavery, can be overwhelming for educators to teach, much less for students to understand. And perhaps it doesn’t have to be related to religion.

“We teach about anti-Semitism the same way we would teach about racism or homophobia or sexism,” Stutman said. “To teach about hatred in a vacuum … without teaching about the joy and the gifts, feels to me like it’s checking a box but missing the point.”