To keep from being too narrowly focused on a set of academic skills and disciplines, reinforced through standardized assessments, accountability measures, and other policy levers, we look to our youth and others for additional measures of performance, growth, overall success — and courage.

With the rise of the pandemic this past spring and the national fight for racial justice, society is forced to evolve quickly. At the same time, many of our young people are encountering death, food insecurity, trauma, and unemployment in their own homes all while getting a front seat to how democracy is—or isn’t—working for them. What has this meant for their educational experiences?

Carver young people and youth around the country are displaying inner reserve, resiliency, self-regulation, leadership, service, and citizenship in ways that are inspiring and anticipated.

Carver’s Courage Mosaic is an opportunity for members of our community to express their individual examples of courage and/or offer tribute to the courage of others during these fraught days.

We know that there is much we won't be able to control this coming school year. We also know that this is the world we are being called to help prepare our young people to enter. Carver is working closely with our many partners, especially Norwalk Public Schools and other school systems, to equip our students to build a more sustainable future.

Carver’s learner-centered, community-grounded approach demonstrates that when students develop a strong sense of identity and agency in one area, they are able to transfer the strategies they develop to other contexts. This strategy has proven effective even as the pandemic has challenged it.

And all of that calls upon our youth to be courageous, and they are — something we celebrate.