The Parker Mission Statement serves as our religious playbook—a secular interpretation of the Holy Bible, Torah, or Quran.

Our Diversity Statement declares that Parker is dedicated to the cultivation of a diverse community, which seeks to educate students with a certain “sensitivity” towards all differences, ranging from the melanin in our skin to our religious practices (or lack thereof.) The statement promotes the belief that diversity “enriches learning” so that students can be educated to “honor the dignity and experience of every human being.”

Although we funnel ideas of inclusivity and diversity into the community like a vibrant church choir preaches the word of God, I can’t help but feel a disconnect between the nirvana of our Mission Statement and the reality of the yearbook pages. I feel as though conversations about diversity are limited to overt distinctions of race, gender, and socioeconomic status—Parker’s narrow definition of inclusivity further cultivates a community which is ignorant of other forms of diversity, particularly diversity of religious beliefs.

As far as secularism goes, Parker appears to fit the criteria. No single religion is practiced within school walls, taught in core classes, or pushed in our mission; however, that is not to say that that the school does not promote students to have an implicit bias towards certain religions, namely Christianity and Judaism.

The first MX of the year is marked as a continuation of the Corinthians MX tradition, in which Principal Dan Frank reads the New Testament passage, Corinthians 12:12-26, to acknowledge the importance of an individual in a community. During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, school is attended by non-Jewish students; however, many classes cannot cover substantive material due to the fact that a majority of students are absent.

Although the Islam 101 MX successfully educated students about the faith as much as a 40-minute presentation could, and other events have featured readings from other world wisdom traditions, the deeper conversation about religious and cultural understanding is halted after Upper School students file out of the auditorium.

In the spring of 2018, Dr. Derrick Gay revealed the religious composition of the Upper School and simultaneously exposed the immense failure of our diversity statement with a single number: zero.  According to the 2018 climate survey, 0% of the Upper School student body then identified as Muslim. I was disappointed, but not surprised. No one was.

As I observed my classmates engage in debates about religion in Themes in World History in 9th grade and Modern World history in 10th, I notice that my peers speak about global religions as abstractions—the use of passive rhetoric in student-led presentations and discussions exhibiting the extent to which my peers distance themselves from understanding the traditions of those who practice a different faith.

Diversity at Parker is a blurred concept. We are familiar with the feeling of looking around and seeing clones. I am not going to deny that we are all unique individuals characterized by different life experiences, but when you boil it down to labels and appearance, many of us (myself included) appear to be copy and pasted.

If we legitimately seek to become a melting pot of colors, backgrounds, and languages, we should re-evaluate our standards for diversity and continue to push those bounds. We must expand our narrow-minded definition of diversity to encompass those who bring diversity of thought and belief.

Representation in dialogue should not be characterized by a single poster-child milked for their contribution, but instead by a substantial group of individuals equipped with the strength to bear the weight of ignorance.

As students, we cannot surrender to apathy. In the least, we must attempt to understand cultures, religions, and ethnicities deemed by society as “the other side,” not because it is a requirement on a syllabus, but because we value one another as human beings.

As it stands, we have taken a detour from attaining global citizenship and cultural competency. We have settled for our tradition-based, outdated Parker ID’s.