Dialogue Provides “A Bridge to Understanding and Growth”

Ravenscroft introduced the Dialogue Across Difference program in 2021 as part of the school’s commitment to cultivating a welcoming and inclusive community for all students, faculty and staff, and families. Since then, 44 faculty and 93 students have been trained in leading dialogues. Upper School students participate in several peer-led dialogic sessions each year, and trained faculty in both the Middle School and the Upper School use a dialogic approach to build trust and communication among students in their classes.

Here, Director of Dialogic Campus Lorre Gifford reflects on how student-led dialogues — including an Oct. 15 dialogue exercise for parents and guardians — have helped members of the school community find greater connection and understanding during the heightened tension of the 2024 election.

At Ravenscroft, we are not a community of sameness. Indeed, we welcome and celebrate diversity — diversity of all kinds, including diversity of thought and values. At the same time, we’ve been in the thick of election politics, and election seasons are often times when differences divide us, the strongest views dominate and it feels like everything is at stake. The question that we found ourselves asking, as we moved into the fall election season, was How? How can we hold onto our beliefs and convictions while keeping an open mind, when the election season insists we choose only one perspective? How can we build communities that are strengthened by different views and mutual understanding — especially when we disagree? How will we navigate this election season and emerge stronger than before? The answer we came up with was a tool that we had been developing and using for several years: dialogue.

During the student facilitator training this fall (clockwise from top left): Chris Nickolas ’27 discusses a topic with members of his breakout group; Shriya Bhatnagar ’28 and Arianna Laughinghouse ’28 work on a dialogue prompt using their Chromebooks; Director of Dialogic Campus Lorre Gifford, in front at far left, and Essential Partners trainer Cara Cargill work with the new facilitators.

I am incredibly grateful to be a member of a community that has the courage to seek out and execute positive solutions during challenging times. After all, it might have been easy (or at least easier) to ignore the polarizing elephants in the room and simply deal with whatever might happen when it happened. Instead, Ravenscroft chose to engage our community — all of our community — proactively in election-related dialogue with the purpose of inviting participants to reflect, share and listen deeply to others about what matters most to them in this election season and, ultimately, challenged participants to identify common ground, regardless of political leanings. These were courageous conversations, structured and reflective, led entirely by students trained in dialogic facilitation. In total, the student dialogic team ran six large-scale election-related dialogues between Sept. 1 and Nov. 5, including dialogues with both the Middle and Upper School faculties, parents and the entire senior class. 

Yes, students in grades nine through 12 facilitated tough dialogues that prompted adult participants to talk about what mattered most to them during this election season and why. The results were remarkable! I continue to be in awe of these amazing student leaders. 

Student facilitator Grace Garney ’26 wrote of leading a dialogue with faculty, “I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to facilitate this dialogue. The dialogue approached a difficult topic and made it something that everyone involved could grow and learn from. It reminded me that not only are teachers human, but they have valuable stories to share that I am often too intimidated to ask about in the normal school setting.

“I was deeply impacted by some of the stories the teachers shared, and the safe environment the dialogue created is something I see being beyond valuable to tackle future complex conversations,” she added. “By approaching topics that often divide people through dialogue, we can realize the similarities and join together to create a better community. Simply put, the dialogue was a massive success.” 

Ravenscroft parent Judith Street wrote of her experience as a dialogue participant, “The intergenerational space was fantastic. Another way to model for students how to benevolently engage in controversial topics that may be deeply polarizing in nature, but this space shows them that we can disagree and still be in community. Thank you, Ravenscroft!”

In my three decades of work in education, I have never been more impressed with student leaders than I am with the 42 student facilitators on Ravenscroft’s campus this year. It has been an honor and a privilege to watch them use dialogue to strengthen our community by creating a space for connections and bridging across differences. I can’t wait to see what they do next — at Ravenscroft and beyond.

To date, Ravenscroft has trained 93 students in dialogue facilitation. That is Lead From Here in action!