SLS recently hosted Every Word Counts, a mini-conference for Middle and Upper School students, faculty, and staff featuring conflict mediator and leadership coach Jason Craige Harris. This community-wide event extended SLS’s civil discourse platform and emphasized the importance of mutual respect and human connection, especially in times of division.
In The Best of Our Human Instincts, we acknowledged the strength of SLS diversity — rooted in the many voices, perspectives, and needs that shape our community. We are also a school deeply committed to moral compass development, civil discourse, and ethical leadership through our Leading with Humanity curriculum. These commitments call for strong skills in active listening, emotional regulation, reflection, and perspective-taking. Every Word Counts was designed to help strengthen those skills.
During his keynote, Jason Craige Harris shared practical strategies for effective communication. The subsequent advisory scenario discussions further highlighted the importance of self-awareness, personal responsibility, and the distinction between feeling discomfort vs. unsafe. His approach aligns with St. Luke’s Community Goals for Learning and emphasizes open-mindedness and constructive disagreement.
He centered his message on three essential values: empathy, curiosity, and humility.
Empathy requires more than understanding — it involves attentive body language, checking for understanding, and reflecting back on what we hear. Empathy and curiosity ask us to listen more and speak less.
Curiosity encourages us to ask open-ended “what” and “how” questions that clarify intent, invite perspective, and focus on understanding rather than judgment. In a culture often quick to “cancel,” curiosity is an invitation to engage rather than retreat. Questions might include:
“Could you say more about that?”
“What experiences shape your perspective?”
“How did it impact you?”
“What might you do differently?”
Humility allows us to question our assumptions, speak from personal experience, and own our impact, regardless of intent. It can look like taking a breath, pausing to reflect, or stepping away to reset. Key questions include:
"What might I be missing?"
"Is there another way to view this?"
"Could I have gotten something wrong?"
Every Word Counts offered a shared framework for thinking about inclusion and belonging through the lens of civil discourse. In a dynamic school community, we grow stronger when our efforts are transparent and responsive. To extend this experience beyond the Hilltop, the keynote was live-streamed to parents, caregivers, alumni, and trustees — an invitation to join the conversation and see how the Office of Equity & Inclusion is helping to shape thoughtful, respectful dialogue at SLS. The ultimate goal of this gathering was to inform, empower, and enrich members of the SLS community as we all work together and Lead with Humanity.
See more photos from Every Word Counts.
Read more from Director of Equity & Inclusion Jacqueline Nelson
We See As We Are
Creating Durable Communities: Fostering Belonging & Respect on the St. Luke’s Hilltop
Leave a comment