The Windward School faculty and staff members participate in summer reading each school year. In advance of the 2021-22 school year, Windward employees had the opportunity to choose from one of three books: So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo; Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving; or Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele. All books were ordered through The Lit. Bar, a local, Black-owned business. 

All faculty and staff members recently joined virtual discussion groups to review the book they read and explore how the lessons from their readings can be applied in the classroom and in their day-to-day lives. 

About Windward’s 2021 Summer Reading Selections: 

New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life. 

Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race is the story of author Debby Irving’s experience coming to understand her identity as a White person as well as the historical context and current implications of her racial socialization.  Packed with scholarship, this book is highly recommended for our White faculty and staff members and for anyone who would like to learn more about Whiteness in America. 

Social psychologist Claude Steele’s Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do offers compelling evidence of how stereotype threat negatively impacts the performance of individuals stigmatized by stereotypes based on identity markers, and his book offers practical remedies for how we can reduce the effects of stereotype threat in all kinds of performance contexts, including classroom participation and academic evaluations as well as creative and athletic endeavors.