March 4, 2021

Donor Spotlight: Meet the Canterbury School of Florida

News

We’re a Pre-K through 12 independent school with character educations as one of our core values, and lending a hand to neighbors in need is crucial to our mission. As a school, our students really identify with and want to support peers who are in distress, and having a local organization like CASA with which to build a relationship is incredibly rewarding to them.

Speaking from a purely self-serving perspective, I’d love to explore ways to take CASA’s mission into schools like mine. It’s a difficult topic for me to navigate with my students, especially the younger ones, partly because domestic violence is so stigmatized. As an educator with an interest in breaking that stigma, it would be wonderful to develop or see some materials aimed at having conversations about stopping domestic violence with students.

Nothing specific comes to mind that I can share, but I can say that having been a teacher for well over 15 years now, domestic violence is more prevalent and less talked about than most realize, and it most definitely isn’t a problem of one type of neighborhood, income level, or ethnicity. I’ve seen it rear its ugly head in more forms than I could have ever imagined, and the fact that kids are often the ones that pay the heaviest price is a terrible gut punch every time.

We try and instill in our students a strong sense of empathy and justice, and they are eager to contribute in meaningful ways. Service is an integral part of our curriculum, and by working in the community our kids learn real-world problem solving and develop a whole host of skills that make them better students, young adults, and citizens. At the same time, allowing students to grapple with issues that impact them and their neighbors is the best way to make sure the next generation hits the ground running when they enter into adulthood, and can maybe even solve some of these problems for good.