The Country School is an independent, coeducational, Pre-K through 8 school founded in 1934.

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Why Diversity Is Important

By: Cindy Orban
Librarian and Director of Diversity Cindy Orban shares the history and reasoning behind The Country School's commitment to enhancing diversity in the student body and beyond.
Why is diversity important for The Country School?
 
Diversity is not an issue we embrace in order to make amends for historical wrongs, because it is politically correct, or because it is “the right thing to do.” Diversity is key to achieving excellence in an educational environment.
 
From the AIMS Diversity Statement:
“Because human variety plays an important role in the intellectual, social, and emotional development of children, diversity is closely related to educational excellence. Students ‘learn more and think in deeper, more complex ways in a diverse educational environment  . . . and they are better prepared to become active participants in our pluralistic, democratic society.’ Diversity also brings texture and richness into students’ lives and challenges them to grow intellectually and emotionally through a process of understanding and synthesizing differing points of view.”
and
“Support for diversity in its many forms will encourage students to challenge their assumptions, take intellectual risks, and learn to work collaboratively with different kinds of people. Moreover, the acquisition of multicultural competencies is now critically important for every student.”
 
The school’s commitment to diversity has evolved and strengthened over the twenty-six years of Headmaster Neil Mufson’s leadership. For two accreditation cycles, in both 2005-2006 and 2015-2016, diversity has been one of our school-wide goals. We have seen significant progress, but we know the work must be ongoing. Twenty years ago, less than 2% of our students identified as representing racial or ethnic diversity; today, that number nears 20%. When we engage in diversity work as a faculty, our conversations are not limited to race and ethnicity. We examine topics of gender, religion, family configuration, sexual orientation, ability, age, and socioeconomic status as well. All these are enumerated in our Diversity and Inclusion Statement, approved by the Board of Trustees in 2012. 
 
We will continue to work to increase the diversity of our student body, families, and trustees, and will strengthen our efforts to diversify the faculty, staff, and administration so that they more closely reflect the diversity of our Talbot County community. In faculty professional development, we will continue to examine and refine our curriculum, consider issues of identity, and ensure that we are paying attention to the language we use. Above all, we want to make certain that all students and families feel welcomed into the Country School family and included as members of the school community. We will do all this because it is key to building academic excellence, but also because it is consistent with our philosophy.
 
In our philosophy we state our belief in the importance of “educating students academically, socially, emotionally, and morally,” in addition to valuing academic excellence. We know that our commitment to a nurturing environment and building character provides a framework for inclusion, acceptance, and tolerance. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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