Bahá'í Language Educator's Roundtable:
Bahá'í Teachers and Diversity at a Rural West Virginia High School:

Dara Gay Shaw, Ed.D. and Kathleen Holsinger

presented at the Association for Baha’i Studies Conference
August 3, 2004, Calgary, Canada


Last year Ms. Kathleen Holsinger and I were both teachers at a high school in West Virginia. Kathleen teaches history and I taught Spanish. The school has about 1300 students from 9-12th grade. In this school there were about 50 students from diverse backgrounds, other than European American. The faculty had little diversity. One counselor at the school was African American, and another Asian American. Occasionally, students were to be seen wearing garments with the confederate flag, which, however was against school rules. A large number of the faculty had attended high school at the same institution, and had returned to teach there. The students from diverse backgrounds, however had a few advocates! Here are some of things which we were able to do last year that directly and indirectly taught the students about the Bahá'í Faith and the Bahá'í principles.
  1.   Kathleen, advisor of the Junior Civitan Club, a service organization, started the year off with an international fair, where her students brought food they had cooked, which they displayed at attractively designed booths with displays of the countries they represented. She invited me to speak about the experience of traveling abroad, something that few students from this high school do. The price for entering the fair was a can of food, which were then used for a community food program.

  2.   I started a diversity club, which worked together with the Junior Civitan Club and the Spanish club. There were about 15 members of the diversity club. Many of the students said they were very grateful that such a club existed, and that it made them feel more comfortable and supported in the school. In inviting the students to participate in the Diversity Club, I included a Bahá'í quote in the morning announcements over the intercom. "So powerful is the light of unity, that it can illumine the whole earth"

  3.   The next big event was the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh community celebration. Together Kathleen and Dara invited many people from the school to attend the dinner and presentation. 5 faculty members from the school and 5 students and some of their family members also attended the dinner and Persian dance at a wonderful restaurant owned by one of the Bahá'ís in the community.

  4.   After the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh dinner, a fellow Spanish teacher organized a school supply drive at the school among the Spanish speaking students. Plastic pencil cases were filled with supplies, which I carried in two large suitcases (with a few of my clothes) to Guayaquil, Ecuador where we then delivered them to the Baha'í elementary school, Escuela Ciudadanos del Mundo (World Citizen School) to a public high school, and to another private school. The students in the Bahá'í school wrote special thank you notes to the Spanish students

  5.   The history students under Kathleen's guidance made flags from many nations for a Bahá'í float with a world citizenship theme for the community Christmas parade. Participation in this event has been a long standing tradition of the Bahá'í Community in Jefferson County.

  6.   Also in December the Diversity Club, and the Spanish students organized an Hispanic Services Community Celebration. They did another food drive, and filled plastic tubs with food which were distributed to Hispanic families in the area as gifts from the students.

  7.   Kathleen organized many special activities and assignments for Black History Month and Women's History Month including an optional assignment to produce a Power Point presentation on famous women and people of African descent.

  8.   I invited a speaker and friend, from Cuba to join us at the school in December. She stayed at the school for two days. She helped me do a Latino food cooking day, and then spoke to all the Spanish classes the following day about her country. She is a Cuban (not an immigrant, but an international student) of African Descent, and a strong friend of the Bahá'í community. In her talk, she mentioned the Baha'í Faith, as a "religion that she did not know existed, nor did she know that it existed in Cuba, until she came to the United States."

  9.   For Valentine's Day, the Diversity Club distributed "There is No Room in My Heart for Prejudice" stickers, and distributed them to the faculty, as well. The stickers could be seen on many classroom doors.

  10.   The Bahá'í Fast was a highlight for us, the students knew we were both fasting. They were very curious, and asked lots of questions. We met several times during the fast for prayers during our lunch break.

  11.   Kathleen and I hosted a lunch for the school counselors during Naw Ruz. They were pleased and surprised!

  12.   The final activity that was Bahá'í inspired, was the invitation of the Multicultural Team from the local college. They did a wonderful job talking about prejudice. They then invited the students to sign the "High School Diversity Pledge". Over a hundred students signed up to do so. The large poster-sized pledge was displayed in the front hall of the school.

    13. 13. One young woman became very interested in the Bahá'í Faith and attended the West Virginia Bahá'í Family Retreat that was held after school was out.

Kathleen and I were very fortunate to have each other last year. I have never had the experience of working at a high school with two Bahá'í teachers! However, many of our teachers and other colleagues were so supportive of our Bahá'í inspired activities. We hope that you can add additional ideas that we may be able to implement in our schools in the future.

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