Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

EBS is committed to developing an equitable and pluralistic learning environment that builds from the identities and capacities of each of our students, their families, and our staff. We work toward a more just and healthy community by addressing power and privilege created by systems like patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism. We believe that the students and staff at EBS have a responsibility to care for and contribute to the larger community it is a part of, beginning with our families, friends, and neighbors, and expanding to include the global community. In addition, intimate and authentic relationships that endure beyond a student's time at EBS are critical to the school's mission and sustainability as an institution.

Toward this end, the goals of Courageous Conversations are to build from EBS’s values in equity and social justice toward empowering the thoughtful, courageous, engaged, and justice-minded adults of tomorrow. Doing so, the students, families, and staff engaged in Courageous Conversations develop skills to locate, define, empathize, and build connections to and have healthy actions around race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, thought, socioeconomic circumstances, ability, learning styles, and religious belief. This orientation and practice is an integral piece of student, family, and staff culture.

EBS prides itself on being a community open to diverse perspectives and encourages students, staff, and parents to participate in healthy debate about politics, controversial topics, and differing viewpoints. Healthy debate requires active and compassionate listening, directly voicing one’s own opinion, and keeping an open mind and open heart about different perspectives than our own. If controversial topics arise at school in a classroom or other supervised space, teachers are asked to provide an equitable platform for discussion to allow students the opportunity to learn a healthy approach to difficult or controversial topics.