The Salt Lake City School District is hoping to make strides to foster respect, reduce hate, strengthen community and encourage civic responsibility through a Unity Summit.
The summit, held Friday at the state Capitol building, is part of a larger district campaign to become the first “dignity district” in the nation.
“We want to reduce contempt in our community, broadly and more specifically, in our district,” said Superintendent Elizabeth Grant. “Our emphasis is on dignity.”
To accomplish this, the district is harnessing the Dignity Index, an eight-point scale that measures the level of contempt or dignity in a selected passage of speech.
Lower scores (1-4) reflect a lack of dignity and the presence of contempt, with the lowest score (1) showing the most contempt. The higher scores (5-8) reflect language grounded in dignity, with the highest score (8) showing the most dignity.
“To foster this in the district, we’re getting teachers involved, students (are) certainly involved. The student leaders get it from the get-go — this difference between contempt and hate — they see it in the community around them and they find ways to mention to each other, ‘That’s not treating somebody with dignity,'” Grant said.