The school prides itself on welcoming challenging conversations and encouraging its students to ask hard questions. Topping the list of controversial topics in the world right now is the conflict in the Middle East. Debates and disagreements abound over many issues, including the United States’ involvement, human rights and media coverage.
Upper School (US) Director Jessica Keimowitz said the US is teaching content on the Middle East conflict in The Making of the Modern Middle East course for sophomores, Global History I and II, AP Comparative Government and Politics and senior electives where the topic is not central but relevant.
“Our approach to difficult conversations and contentious issues is not so much teaching the content of the issue. We could be talking about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Sudan, Ukraine or immigration in the United States. Our goal is to equip members to talk about difficult issues writ large, engaging with groups and tools to try to improve our ability to talk with each other across differences, to help our students talk to each other across differences and have that throughout the whole community.”
The school relies on its values instead of adopting a position of institutional neutrality.
“If something very clearly violates our mission and value of integrity, we will absolutely take a stance,” Ms. Keimowitz said. “Inquiry is being curious, not judgmental; taking in different perspectives and discussing not to win an argument but to understand another person’s perspective.”
Like all other courses, The Making of the Modern Middle East relies on sources with varied viewpoints, Ms. Keimowitz said.
“Our teachers are extremely intentional about ensuring that there’s a diversity of sources, and The Making of the Modern Middle East is a course that touches on many cultures, practices and conflicts far beyond and inclusive of the current Israel-Palestinian conflict.”
This year, US History Department Head Stacey Spring and US History Teacher Jennifer Wallace are teaching The Making of the Modern Middle East. In preparation for teaching the course, Dr. Spring read five books and listened to two podcasts on the Middle East, she said.
Ms. Wallace has been studying Middle East history since her undergraduate degree, has taught this course for over 30 years at many schools and has lived and taught in the region, she said.
Gaining media literacy to understand new perspectives is a core component of The Making of the Modern Middle East.
“It’s much more nuanced than, ‘All authors from The Wall Street Journal are right of center,’” Ms. Keimowitz said. “Just like not all people in a community — like the Jewish community — are a monolith, authors aren’t either. The editorial pages have a certain leaning, but all of these news outlets are trying to moderately diversify their authorship.”
“Our teachers are extremely intentional about ensuring that there’s a diversity of sources, and The Making of the Modern Middle East is a course that touches on many cultures, practices and conflicts far beyond and inclusive of the current Israel-Palestinian conflict.”
Over the summer, the senior leadership team analyzed student survey data to see where the school can improve, Chief Learning Officer Jed Lippard said.
“Resounding from students is that our school could be doing more with media literacy and social media, and we’re excited to delve into that, whether exploring the development of new courses or continuing to embed these skills into existing courses. We pride ourselves on being adaptive, responsive and forward-thinking, and we’re in a moment around many topics where building our collective capacity to become critical consumers of information is an essential life skill.”
The school’s all-teacher orientation before the year begins doesn’t focus on distinct topics, Dr. Lippard said. To pursue a specific interest — including the Middle East — teachers can apply to attend conferences or external workshops.
Summer curriculum grants are also offered for teachers to significantly revise or design new curriculums.
“Our orientation to professional development focuses on the skills and dispositions that we feel are useful to all people,” Dr. Lippard said. “We don’t ever pick specific content that we roll out to all people as part of our professional development agenda.”
Around 30 faculty members, including the senior leadership team, attended a three-hour Project Shema antisemitism education session on Aug. 19, which was introduced by Head of School Jennifer Price. For Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Global Education (DEIG) Officer Leila Bailey Stewart, Project Shema enabled her to ask questions about Jewish people’s lived experiences.
“The training helped us collectively have more knowledge and understanding of antisemitism’s impact on Jewish people, especially the complexity, breadth and history of antisemitism,” Ms. Bailey-Stewart said. “While it wasn’t specifically targeted around the Middle East conflict, it gave a foundation to understand multiple perspectives. We need to be equipped to make sure we understand how to provide safety.”
DEIG is preparing to support students affected by events in the Middle East, Lower School DEIG Practitioner Emma Arky Solomon said.
“We’re thinking intentionally about who’s most impacted, and ‘How do we support those students in feeling heard and recognized in the impact of the Middle East conflict while not making any assumptions?’” she said. “Knowing who’s feeling impacted, who our Jewish and Palestinian students are and who has family in the Middle East allows us to hold people with compassion and intentionality.”
“The training helped us collectively have more knowledge and understanding of antisemitism’s impact on Jewish people, especially the complexity, breadth and history of antisemitism.”
Throughout the 2025-26 academic year, the school aims to provide support spaces for those affected by the Middle East and enable its students to develop informed perspectives, Ms. Keimowitz and Dr. Lippard said.
