Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Lab's Diversity Statement

Diversity is integral to the educational mission of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Ideally, in the course of learning, our students will encounter a rich profusion of diversity.

Diversity at the Laboratory Schools includes the thoughts and worldviews, identities and affiliations, aptitudes and aspirations, races and cultures, genders and sexualities, and experiences and economics of our students, families, faculty, administrators, and staff. Through their engagement with diversity, students will gain the preparation they need to live and lead in a complex world, with an inherent sense of inclusiveness and justice.

Our diversity has its roots in social justice. Amidst the racially segregated reality of Chicago and greater America in 1942, a parent arose to call for integration. Governed by the principle of equality, as demonstrated by its then long-standing history of enrolling Asian and Jewish students, the Laboratory Schools took action to become the first private school in Chicago to admit African American students. As a result of the early and ongoing attention to diversity, the Laboratory Schools are endowed with an extended family of diverse alumni who have entered and influenced all walks of life.

In our vision, we strive to appreciate fully the role of diversity in education and to define the crucial and continuous commitments we must make as a community to foster diversity at the Laboratory Schools. We believe our diverse community plays a vital part in our students’ academic, social, and individual growth.
 

The object of a democratic education is not merely to make an individual an intelligent participant in the life of [their] immediate group, but to bring the various groups into such constant interaction that no individual, no economic group, could presume to live independently of others.”
—John Dewey

In the Classroom

In Reverse Art Exhibit at ESH-thumbnail

Early Childhood teacher Tracy Aiden’s Snake Room in Earl Shapiro Hall curated the “In Reverse…” art exhibit after being inspired by Nick Cave’s artwork.