Bringing Kindness to and Respect for all at A&D 

Students and teachers at Art & Design agree on what a perfect school environment looks like — and the fact that A&D has room to improve. 

The school environment is important to both teachers and students because it impacts their safety, mental health and overall experience. For example, Ms. Xiao, an art history teacher at A&D, emphasized that 

kindness and support are essential in a classroom. She said communication is key to avoiding toxicity. 

“As a teacher, I want it to be like a safe space where everyone feels the chance to be able to talk and to ask questions,” Xiao noted. 

On the other side of the building, Mr. Gerber, a physics teacher, gave insight into how the school could better support teachers. He said he would like to see more opportunities for teachers to meet each other would be beneficial for teachers and the school community, and notes that for students “School can definitely be a stressful place, but I think there’s a difference between productive stress and non-productive stress”.

Not only are the opinions of teachers important to the school’s environment, but so are the students’. Sophomore Lia Johnson said she felt that adding resources like a therapy club where students and teachers can talk about their feelings would be very helpful. That goes for learning styles, too.

“Everyone learns differently. So if someone learns a certain way, they should be respected just as much,” Johnson said.

Lastly, student Liam Mcallister said he feels that teachers and students alike should feel motivated to come to school, and there should be mutual respect between them. School should be a place for both fun and learning, he said, and balancing that is important. 

“Even if you aren’t good friends with someone, being able to want to help them and to be like, ‘I don’t know you, but I’m going to help you if you need help.’”