An Important Note on Yesterday’s Election Program

Dear SLA families,

Yesterday, we suspended regular classwork in order to learn about, process, and critically discuss the 2024 presidential election. Regardless of the outcome, we intended to use this year’s election as a continuing opportunity throughout this semester’s programming for SLA students to engage with electoral politics, the media and journalism, and the role of the electoral college in the American political system.

Students began their day in grade-level discussions. They shared in circle what they knew about Tuesday’s election and the results. They reflected on how they and their families spent election night and shared their own experiences and impressions of this moment in history. In Middle School, this discussion was followed by an electoral map exercise and a deeper analysis of the role swing states play in presidential elections. In the Upper School, students engaged in a more refined analysis of data, polling, and the electoral map, considering factors outside of direct voting polls. They looked at state-by-state data broken down by unemployment, average income, state income taxes, and many more variables. We found Upper School students in particular appreciated the chance early in the day to process their feelings and thoughts.

Students in both the Middle and Upper Schools then engaged in a media exercise in which they rotated from classroom to classroom, watching different cable news channels’ live coverage of the election results. Students took notes and were asked to analyze what they watched. We discussed how the buzzwords, themes, advertisements, and points of emphasis varied network to network—and interrogated the why behind such observations. We asked questions such as, What kinds of words are you hearing? Is one candidate or issue being discussed more than others? What commercials are you seeing? and What experts or other voices are being brought into the coverage? After lunch, students had the opportunity to meet with their affinity groups or their Check & Connect and complete an assignment to capture and reflect on what they learned—and what they had been feeling—over the course of the day.

We understand that students and families are processing the results of our challenging political landscape in innumerable ways. We in fact have members of our community who have been acutely affected by local and global events and who are likely to face challenges in the months and years ahead. We are proud that many folks have chosen to gather on campus throughout this election season to share and learn in community. SLA students consistently model their curiosity and willingness to engage with our world, weigh varying viewpoints, and show up for one another. We finally want to express our gratitude to SLA faculty and staff for the extraordinary effort that went into yesterday’s programming. We are sincerely thankful for the ways you stepped up, remained flexible, and executed a day of truly meaningful programming for students.

At SLA, we have always been a school that engages our world and works with students to reflect critically on complex issues—contemporary or otherwise. SLA students draw from and participate in the trajectories of their city, country, and world, and our role as a school is to help them think, discuss, listen, and be in community with one another. Continuing that ethos, we are excited to announce that later this semester, students in our Latinx Studies courses will be embarking on a Service Trip that will focus on immigration and the U.S. border. We look forward to sharing their experiences with our community as SLA students once again grapple with one of the most pressing and present-tense issues of the day.

Sincerely,

Dr. Kenneth Rodgers, Jr.
President and Head of School

Dr. Nicoli Stamps
Assistant Head of School