Town examines unconscious bias

For 30 or so intrepid souls of varying ages and livelihoods, a new program through the Adult and Continuing Education department of the Concord schools is leading them to examine their personal beliefs and inherent biases.

It’s a long-term “deep dive” into subjects that aren’t often discussed or even acknowledged publicly, according to the program coordinator, Stefanie Cloutier.

Reaction from the participants has been uniformly, “we want more time,” she said. “It’s great to have people to want to do more on these topics.”

The in-depth program consists of five sessions, each one taking on a different topic, but all having a speaker to guide the two-hour meeting followed by a time for the group to coalesce and talk more intimately.

The five topics are an introduction/framework; class/culture; race/racism/privilege; gender/gender identity; and typing it together/having conversations about difficult topics.

“In your daily interactions, how do your biases affect your daily interactions,” she wondered, rhetorically. “It helps to acknowledge and recognize that we all have biases, how they color our daily life.”

The program is limited to 30 and sign-ups are for the whole five-session gig in order to foster a safe space to share feelings. Drop-ins are not allowed, nor can one go to just one program.

Cloutier said the feedback so far has been consistently positive.

“They’ve said they wished it would last longer,” she said. “They want more time to discuss the topics.”

Cloutier said in the future, other topics might be considered, but for now, she is inclined to respond to the participants and arrange for more time per topic.