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Adopted April 2021

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Self: How can I understand my own identity and interests and improve my well-being?
Positive relationships: How can I cultivate rewarding relationships with others, even across differences?
intellectual character: How do I learn most effectively?

Community: How can we nurture the culture we want at Sequoyah?

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Anti-Bias Curriculum Development with Consultant

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Anti-Bias Curriculum Development with Consultant

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Social Emotional Learning Specialists at K-8, Director of Counseling and Student Wellness at HS

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Social Emotional Learning Specialists at K-8, Director of Counseling and Student Wellness at HS

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Even babies notice differences like skin color, eye shape and hair texture. Here's how to handle conversations about race, racism, diversity and inclusion, even with very young children.
A few things to remember:

Don't shush or shut them down if they mention race.

Don't wait for kids to bring it up.

Be proactive, helping them build a positive awareness of diversity.

When a child experiences prejudice, grown-ups need to both address the feelings and fight the prejudices.

You don't have to avoid topics like slavery or the Holocaust. Instead, give the facts and focus on resistance and allies.

In addition to Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president for Social Impact at Sesame Workshop, we spoke to Beverly Daniel Tatum: We recommend her TEDx talk as well as her book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race.
Additional Resources:

Babies begin to notice race at 6 months old - in fact, according to this pair of studies by Professor Kang Lee at the University of Toronto, they actually show signs of racial bias by this age.

One in 10 children is multiracial - according to Pew Research Center. This includes children with parents of two different races, plus those with at least one multiracial parent.

Watch the whole "I Love My Hair!" video from Sesame Street.

Thanks to Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton. Derrick Gay, and Jinnie Spiegler of the Anti-Defamation League, which has a wide range of resources for anti-bias education.

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Even babies notice differences like skin color, eye shape and hair texture. Here's how to handle conversations about race, racism, diversity and inclusion, even with very young children.

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4th/6th Grade

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Ha, no!! Don't read it. Don't do it. You will regret it!!Ha, no!! Don't read it. Don't do it. You will regret it!!
Basically, it'll take you five minutes to read, and any book that short is probably not going
Basically, it'll take you five minutes to read, and any book that short is probably not going to leave any impression on you. Plus, it's kind of racist at times. There is absolutely no character development or plot whatsoever. It's about a garden. Some people plant stuff in the garden. They are happy. There! I've summarized the entire book!(less) ...more

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Ha, no!! Don't read it. Don't do it. You will regret it!!Ha, no!! Don't read it. Don't do it. You will regret it!!Basically, it'll take you five minutes to read, and any book that short is probably not goingBasically, it'll take you five minutes to read, and any book that short is probably not going to leave any impression on you.

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Kwame Alexander

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literature circle book/Read aloud 3rd-6th Grade

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Sometimes, on the weekend, I take about 8 books off my shelves that I have never even dipped into at all, sit down with a cup of tea and a blanket, and read the first 15-20 pages of each book. The result: I usually end up with a priority-ordered stack of what I most want to continue reading right now and work my way through the top of that stack until I hit reader's block again for whatever reason. (It's hitting me a lot this year.) This weekend's stack had an unlikely winner: The Circuit: Stori...more

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Sometimes, on the weekend, I take about 8 books off my shelves that I have never even dipped into at all, sit down with a cup of tea and a blanket, and read the first 15-20 pages of each book.

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Member of the Independent School Alliance

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Member of the Independent School Alliance

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A leading organization in private school admissions counseling & placement. | Independent School Alliance

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Since 1985, the Independent School Alliance has provided educational access and opportunities to thousands of students across Southern California.

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Member of Southern California People of Color in Independent Schools

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Member of Southern California People of Color in Independent Schools

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Skip to content

SoCal POCIS welcomes administrators, faculty, staff and community members of independent schools in Southern California who are interested in learning about and giving support for equity, diversity, and social justice on independent school campuses.

SoCal POCIS welcomes administrators, faculty, staff and community members of independent schools in Southern California who are interested in learning about and giving support for equity, diversity, and social justice on independent school campuses.

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SoCal POCIS - Southern California People of Color in Independent Schools

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Skip to content SoCal POCIS welcomes administrators, faculty, staff and community members of independent schools in Southern California who are interested in learning about and giving support for equity, diversity, and social justice on independent school campuses.

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Over 50 students, staff and parents from Pasadena's Sequoyah School marched from campus to City Hall Tuesday morning armed with signs in hand and chanting synchronized slogans to protest President Trump's Executive Order restricting individuals from seven Muslim-majority nations to enter the United States.

"The students organized the entire march. When the Executive Order was signed, students came into the classroom sort of having heard a little bit about it so we paused our lessons and we talked about it. They made signs and they came up with chants in the response to the Executive Order that is restricting travel to the U.S. from people that are from seven of majority Muslim countries," said Sequoyah School Teacher Cynthia Lee.

The students were puzzled, according to Lee, with the results and why the Executive Order was signed and put into action so quickly.

"They brainstormed a whole bunch of different measures to take. Some students started writing letters to Congress, some started making signs and a group organized this march. What we really want to show and express are the positive things that we want to see in the world," explained Lee.

A Sequoyah School math teacher performed a lesson where the students had to figure out the percentage of Muslims in America who were actually involved in terrorist attacks, according to Lee.

"Students came in after election day with tears and with a lot of worry and so we decided to crack it open and talk about it and let them express themselves," said Lee.

Math teacher Chad Robinson took matters in his own hands to create a math lesson that gave students real numbers of Muslim individuals in the country that were proven have been convicted or implicated in terrorism-related crimes since September 11, 2001.

"In math class, students used recently acquired knowledge on ratios, fractions, and percentages to examine the numbers behind the Executive Order," said math teacher Chad Robinson.

According to Robinson, students found that Muslim terrorists were responsible for approximately 0.05% of all homicides, barely more than from domestic Nationalist groups. They also compiled the amount of known American Muslims where were involved in terrorist acts in 2016 and compared them to the total amount of Muslims, which was about 0.008%.

This math lesson resonated with students and prompting them to take action in a peaceful manner.

"After the lesson, a group of students asked me what they could do to prevent the ban and that's when students started organizing the march," Robinson explained.

For some students, marching to City Hall was a the first step in letting adults know that minors hold just as valuable opinions as anyone else.

"I want a lot of people to know that kids care about the problems too and it's not just adults," said sixth grade student Aidan Grimm.

"It's not fair that adults are usually the only ones taken seriously. Us kids have a voice and an opinion as well so we think it's important to state that opinion and make sure people realize that there are kids our age who feel that this is really important," said sixth grader Sofia Wilson.

Parents in the march were supportive of the school's marching efforts and overall student participation.

"I think it's a really big change in our community now that we're going to have to learn a different way of communicating with a greater group of our society and that learning how to stand up for your rights whether it's with a group or individually, doing research and learning how to tell those ideas to everybody, I think, is really a big change," said Sequoyah School parent Renee Dake Wilson.

Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.

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Students March To City Hall To Voice Their Concerns Over President Trump's Immigration Order

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Over 50 students, staff and parents from Pasadena's Sequoyah School marched from campus to City Hall Tuesday morning armed with signs in hand and chanting synchronized slogans to protest President Trump's Executive Order restricting individuals from seven Muslim-majority nations to enter the United States. "The students organized the entire march.

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ABOUT SUNRISE L.A. Youth

After joining Sunrise in late 2019, a group of teens felt the absence of their peers in L.A. Sunrise hubs. Not only did L.A. lack middle and high school hubs, but the hubs that did exist were mostly made up of college aged (or older) Sunrisers.

The goal of a youth LA hub is to both seed more middle and high school hubs and provide a region-wide space to build community and strategy for young students to participate in the wider movement with their peers.

Together, L.A. Sunrise teens will help make climate change an urgent, national priority, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and well being of all people.

Have an idea for us? A question? Want to help us with our next action? Fill out this form and someone from the hub will reach out to you.

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ABOUT SUNRISE L.A. Youth After joining Sunrise in late 2019, a group of teens felt the absence of their peers in L.A. Sunrise hubs. Not only did L.A. lack middle and high school hubs, but the hubs that did exist were mostly made up of college aged (or older) Sunrisers.

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Parent Education Resource

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As part of a series of videos about race, we are featuring personal stories that reflect the breadth of experiences in the United States.

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6th Grade Seminar

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Faculty & Staff Summer Read

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"The problem is that the pressure to disprove a stereotype changes what you are about in a situation. It gives you an additional task. In addition to learning new skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking in a schooling situation, or in addition to trying to perform well in a workplace like the women in the high-tech firms, you are also trying to slay a ghost in the room, the negative stereotype and its allegation about you and your group. You are multitasking, and because the stakes involved are high--survival and success versus failure in an area that is important to you--this multitasking is stressful and distracting.

...And when you realize that this stressful experience is probably a chronic feature of the stetting for you, it can be difficult for you to stay in the setting, to sustain your motivation to succeed there. Disproving a stereotype is a Sisyphean task; something you have to do over and over again as long as your are in the domain where the stereotype applies. Jeff seemed to feel this way about Berkeley, that he couldn't find a place there where he could be seen as belonging. When men drop out of quantitative majors in college, it is usually because they have bad grades. But when women drop out of quantitative majors in college it usually has nothing to do with their grades. The culprit, in their case, is not their quantitative skills but, more likely, the prospect of living a significant portion of their lives in a domain where they may forever have to prove themselves--and with the chronic stress that goes with that.

This is not an argument against trying hard, or against choosing the stressful path. There is no development without effort; and there is seldom great achievement, or boundary breaking, without stress. And to the benefit of us all, many people have stood up to these pressures...The focus here, instead, is on what has to be gotten out of he way to make these playing fields mere level. People experiencing stereotype threat are already trying hard. They're identified with their performance. They have motivation. It's the extra ghost slaying that is in their way."

"Some years ago, two social psychologists, Edward Jones and Richard Nisbett, argued that when it comes to explaining people's behavior-something like achievement problems, for example there is a big difference between the "observer's perspective"-the perspective of a person observing the behavior-and the "actor's perspective"-the perspective of a person doing the behavior. As observers, Jones and Nisbett said, we're looking at the actor, the person doing the behavior we are trying to explain. Thus the actor dominates our literal and mental visual field, which makes the circumstances to which he is responding less visible to us. In the resulting picture in our minds, the actor sticks out like a sore thumb and the circumstances to which he is responding are obscured from view. Jones and Nisbett held that this picture causes a bias when we try to explain the actor's behavior. We emphasize the things we can see. We emphasize things about the actor-characteristics, traits, and so on-that seem like plausible explanations for her behavior. And we deemphasize, as causes of her behavior, the things we can't see very well, namely, the circumstances to which she is adapting."

More quotes...

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Trevor (I no longer get notified of comments)

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"The problem is that the pressure to disprove a stereotype changes what you are about in a situation. It gives you an additional task.

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Parent Education: Culturally Sensitive Communication 

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Parent Education: Culturally Sensitive Communication 

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Leaders in Equity and Diversity (Faculty & Staff Committee)

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Morning Meetings  - Perspectives & Voices

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Morning Meetings  - Perspectives & Voices

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HS - whole school
K8 - classroom

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Writing letters to the Pasadena Mayor about homelessness.

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K-12 Student Councils in Class & Advisory

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K-12 Student Councils in Class & Advisory

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We used this resource as part of our MLK celebration 2020.

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HS summer read 2019

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I began this reading only because my friend liked it well enough to recommend it. My own response about Africans, both in Africa and in diaspora, has I began this reading only because my friend liked it well enough to recommend it. My own response about Africans, both in Africa and in diaspora, has been unhappy. This book, however, has elicited a very positive response, though it explores many of the same issues that the others have. The difference seems to be the lyrical and forthright and non-judgmental point of view of the author. I loved it and wait for another book by Yaa Gyasi ...more (less)

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I began this reading only because my friend liked it well enough to recommend it. My own response about Africans, both in Africa and in diaspora, has I began this reading only because my friend liked it well enough to recommend it. My own response about Africans, both in Africa and in diaspora, has been unhappy.

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Parent Education Resource

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What is implicit bias? NYT/POV's Saleem Reshamwala unscrews the lid on the unfair effects of our subconscious.

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Faculty & Staff summer read

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I am not sure that Coates ever offers a "way forward." I don't think that's within the scope of the book. I think his aim was most of all to throw a bI am not sure that Coates ever offers a "way forward." I don't think that's within the scope of the book. I think his aim was most of all to throw a brutally honest illumination on the past (and most especially the present), so that we can attempt to formulate a way forward only after we've been honest with ourselves about what's been going on, and the harmful delusions we've been living under. I don't think there is a way forward until everyone understands the volume of lies they've grown up with. Robert Westbrook...more (less)

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I am not sure that Coates ever offers a "way forward." I don't think that's within the scope of the book. I think his aim was most of all to throw a bI am not sure that Coates ever offers a "way forward." I don't think that's within the scope of the book.

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for students
1. Approach issues of identity and equity with courage and curiosity.

2. Understand the ways that systemic oppression was historically created and is currently maintained, resulting in present societal inequities.

3. Recognize the ways your social positionality informs your perspectives, reactions, and interactions.

4. Identify how current social inequities manifest within your classrooms and communities.

5. Envision opportunities for positive change.

Adapted  from 7 Principles of Critically Conscious Education © S. Schmidt, A. Barclay, A. Williams, 2018

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Empowering us all to envision opportunities for positive change and to make those changes is our ultimate goal. Hopefully this is a life-long pursuit.

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In 1958, Sequoyah’s founders envisioned a progressive school for a better world. Central to that vision was a dedication to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive educational environment...

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Faculty & Staff of Color
LGBTQ+
White Anti-Racist Faculty & Staff

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Latinx

African American & African Decent

LGBTQ+

Multiracial

White Anti-Racist

Asian & Pacific Islander

Jewish

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Through classwork and projects, students learn about DEI concepts like the difference between Equity and Equality and how to disrupt bias in everyday life. Faculty & staff participate in multiple trainings each year, like using Windows & Mirrors to develop culturally responsive curriculum. Starting with DEI sessions in parent orientation, parent education opportunities are offered throughout each year.

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We look for resources that serve as Windows & MIrrors for members of our community, as well as providing specific and important training in content and skills. Here are some examples.

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Dialogs are important opportunities for members of our community to share their experience and hear about others' experience.

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Affinity spaces are used for people who share a common identity to meet and provide support and community.

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Students of Color
White Anti-Racist Students
Neurodiversity

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Latinx

African American & African Descent

LGBTQ+

Asian & Pacific Islander

Jewish