Photo courtesy of Allie Vaccaro

The Department of Education held its annual Tempest Day event, part of their Anna Reese Tempest Distinguished Educator Lecture Series, Monday, March 26, 2018. Nearly 100 students, as well as professors and faculty, gathered in the Susquehanna Room to learn about the importance of keeping an open mind, recognizing privilege and how it impacts everyone’s lives.

Coordinator of Multicultural Programs and Residential Communities Stephanie Diaz led the attendees through Soar Above Hate training, a program offered by the Mosaic House. In Soar Above Hate, participants examine how certain aspects of their identites can give them different privileges and advantages.

“A lot of that in [the education department] is keeping an open mind, and we have to advocate for our students, and we can’t do that if we can’t advocate for ourselves,” junior Ryan Thomas said.

Students then had smaller group discussions on the topic of conflict within the classroom and how to de-escalate conflict before it becomes a bigger issue. They focused on ways teachers could prevent conflict by addressing microaggressions in the correct way as well as strategies to handle microaggressions in the moment, whether that is interrupting and redirecting or asking about it directly.

“[De-escalation strategies look] very different for quite a few of us,” Thomas said. “The way I de-escalate a conflict between two juniors is a lot different from how my friend would de-escalate something between two first-graders. I can tell the high schoolers things they can’t tell the elementary schoolers.”

One important aspect in conflict de-escalation is always assuming good intent from all parties. By assuming people did not intend to hurt each other, it is easier to resolve the problem.

Other suggested methods included narrowing the conflict to a specific behavior or broadening it to human behavior. One technique, which could be particularly useful for early education, is to simply say the word “ouch” when one’s feelings have been hurt by another.

“I think the biggest help was that I learned how to properly deal with microaggressions without allowing the situation to escalate,” first-year Kaedy Masters said. “Now I know how to handle situations in the event that I have an individual in my classroom who has and expresses bias.”

Students also received a Soar Above Hate t-shirt, which they could tie-dye to represent parts of their identity. Different colors stood for different qualities they had, i.e., red for courage, and dyeing their t-shirt with the colors showed they valued those characteristics.

“Discrimination is everywhere and isn’t something we can protect our students from,” first-year Emmett Ferree said. “We can, however, educate and empower them in order to prepare them to overcome challenges.”

Attendees were encouraged to take pictures and share the event on Twitter and other social media sites using #edtempest.