Hi. Trying to get the hang of this new schedule. I think I accidentally missed a day. Sorry about that.
Today’s a Do Now day, and I am going to shift some of those days to practical, hands-on recommendations from my experience.
Today, I’d encourage you to ask yourself this question in every committee meeting, open house, public event, PTA meeting, whatever, that you attend. It’s a simple question, but it can unlock a lot:
Who Isn’t Here?
That’s a question that can go deeper than race or gender, although those are crucial to look for first. But don’t stop there. Are all the faces around you of young people, or old? People with kids or no? Are there people here who are nonbinary? Newcomers? Tattooed? Homeless? Non-English speakers? On the autistic spectrum?
No group will represent a perfect rainbow of humanity, so this isn’t an exercise in trying to find and drag in a bunch of token representatives. But asking this question allows you to reframe, to shift your paradigm. It allows you to be mindful of what isn’t being said, even if you don’t know exactly what that is. Thinking about how people who aren’t there might respond to what is being said or assumed helps to break the assumptions that fence in every group.
And it might get us a little closer to an answer that works for more people than just the group that showed up.
Try that next time, and let me know what happens.
<3,
dgr