This year I made a huge push to make my school a No Place For Hate school. I say huge push not in the sense that this was a difficult thing to sell my staff on, but it was something I had to push myself to talk about. See, being kind is often overlooked. We think "of course we're going to practice being kind" but we don't continually remind ourselves to do this. We overlook how to teach our students. We assume that every individual a) knows how to be kind and b) will always practice kindness, and that's the end of the story.
This year I want constant reminders:
1) decorations in our hallways
2) lesson plans that only focus on kindness
3) stickers, bracelets, pips & ribbons that remind us to be kind
4) an ongoing conversation with staff, parents & students that focus on what we can continue to do to make our school a kinder school for everyone.
No Place For Hate is an organization run by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League). It is a self directed program that helps to equip schools maintain their climate so that every learner can thrive. In order for my school to complete the program we must sign the NPFH pledge (Resolution of Respect), create a NPFH committee made up of students, staff & parents, instill anti-bias/bullying prevention among our student body & create three school wide NPFH activities/lesson plans.
For our big signing of the pledge ceremony we performed the following lesson:
Wednesday, October 23rd Lesson Plan:
Introduction to No Place For Hate
Middle School & High School
Objective: Introduce students to No Place for Hate
Overview: Reviewing the Pyramid of Hate to demonstrate the way that biased attitudes and behaviors can escalate if they go unchecked. The Pyramid of Hate is a useful tool to help understand how words, jokes & stereotypical thinking can escalate to hate. Transition to NPFH and how this new program will help fight against hate and bias.
Materials:
4 copies of the Pyramid of Hate handout
Name tag stickers (15 per Advisory)
Pens/markers to write with
Video about NPFH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TToKokYw6SE (upload before lesson)
Procedure:
-Introduce the students to the Pyramid of Hate handout, briefly review the different levels of the diagram and share the following information with your students.
The Pyramid shows biased behaviors, growing in complexity from the bottom to the top. Although the behaviors at each level may only negatively impact individuals and groups, as one moves up the Pyramid, the behaviors have more life-threatening consequences. Like a pyramid, the upper levels are supported by the lower levels. If people treat behaviors on the lower levels as being acceptable or “normal”, it results in the behaviors at the next level becoming more accepted.
-Divide the students into four groups and assign each group one level of the Pyramid (or allow them to pick a level themselves). Ask them to discuss some of their experiences with bias at the level they are assigned, whether witnessed, directly involved, heard about or read about. Allow 5-10 minutes for this discussion.
-Reconvene the class and talk as a group about what they discussed.
-Show the short video clip of No Place For Hate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TToKokYw6SE)
-Have them write on their name tags how they personally will commit to combating hate, and following the No Place For Hate guidelines.
-The completed name tags will be the border of our NPFH banner
