Citizenship Day 2020
Students participated in Factuality: The Game during this year's Citizenship Week.
La Jolla Country Day School continues the tradition of providing community-building opportunities as an integral part of the curriculum, which fosters empathy, dignity and critical thinking. During Citizenship Day 2020, Middle and Upper School students participated in Factuality: The Game. Factuality is an online, interactive game and facilitated dialogue in which each participant examines structural inequality from the vantage point of someone with a different identity/background than their own.
“One of the underlying themes was respect,” shares Aydan Carey ’25. “Even if I couldn’t understand something fully without experiencing it firsthand, a point that was made was to respect and listen to the viewpoint being shared.”
In addition, Middle Schoolers participated in two workshops addressing cultural identifiers, including race and gender identity, and Upper Schoolers participated in student-facilitated Zoom discussions related to the theme “Perspectives on Inequality.” Students could choose to participate in discussions on inequality in the legal system, sports, medical field, access to mental health, Queer identities, education, media and more.
“Citizenship Day triggered a lot of thoughts in me and provided insight into how minorities have been treated in this country,” shares Siri Bhavaraju ’26. “I learned how different people go through different types of discrimination. I also saw that no matter how good anyone thinks they are, they are biased in some way. Everyone has some form of implicit bias, intentional or not.”
Middle and Upper Schoolers came together in the afternoon for reflection facilitated by faculty members to unpack their emotions and learnings in a safe space using the Torrey Norms.
Citizenship Day was the last day of Citizenship Week, a week that included a focus on the national election and Upper School students’ efforts to “Get Out the Vote.” Students were offered a safe environment to process the election and engage in thoughtful discussions with those on different sides of the political spectrum.
“Civic engagement cannot and must not be boiled down to paying attention to one electoral contest or one political office,” shares Jonathan Shulman, director of the Center for Excellence in Citizenship. “True citizenship requires that we do our best to understand and address the inequalities present in the system that we’re all a part of—a system that we are all shaped by, and that we can all help shape. Our goal was not to suggest that there is one ‘right’ answer or approach to any of the complex questions we discussed, but rather to insist that we must not look away from them and that we will all benefit from tackling them together.”
La Jolla Country Day School
9490 Genesee Avenue
La Jolla, CA 92037
858-453-3440
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La Jolla, CA 92037
858-453-3440
© 2024 La Jolla Country Day School
Privacy Policy
COVID-19 Prevention Plan
