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wrong; it involves cultivating values that contribute to a better world. By embracing ethical principles, people can drive positive change and work toward creating a more just and inclusive society. This includes confronting systemic inequalities, promoting equity and diversity, and ensuring that everyone has equal opportunities and access to resources, regardless of race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, abilities, or socioeconomic status. The scope and sequence of the 6th-grade curriculum begins with defining ethics and morals and progresses to explore empathy, intent versus impact, the bystander effect, honesty, plagiarism, punctuality, ethics as applied to the First Amendment, and the honor code. The Mosaic themes for the 7th grade are Culture, Religions, and Worldviews. The guiding preamble for the curriculum is to help students embrace that each person is unique, and shaped by individual thoughts, perspectives, and experiences. These differences often stem from diverse cultures, religions, and worldviews. Everyone belongs to multiple, interconnected cultures, and to truly understand ourselves and others, we must appreciate the cultural influences that shape us. The world is vast and fascinating, and it becomes even more so as we learn about the myriad ways people live and interact within it. The scope and sequence of the 7th-grade curriculum begins with defining culture, religion, and worldview and allows time for students to reflect on and share their own. Students then go on to explore the cultural origins of names, political ideologies, traditions, holidays, coming-of- age traditions, mapping cultural diversity, culture and sustainability, food and culture, languages, music, and sports. The Mosaic theme for the 8th grade is Social Media and Technology. The guiding preamble for the curriculum states that social media significantly influences teen culture, with surveys revealing that 90 percent of teens aged 13–17 use these platforms. Additionally, two-thirds of teens own mobile devices with internet access, spending an average of nearly nine hours online daily, excluding homework time. Given this heavy engagement, it is crucial to provide guidance to 8th-grade students in effectively navigating the opportunities and potential pitfalls of social media. The scope and sequence of the curriculum begins with defining social media and moves forward to explore addiction and the dopamine loop, algorithms, sharing content, consent, anonymity and social media, cyberbullying and public shaming, balance and screen time, free speech versus hate speech, knowing one's boundaries, truthfulness and authentic self, and artificial intelligence. Facilitating Mosaic is an enlightening experience. I was surprised to hear how many students really feel about social media, for instance. As adults, we may assume that teenagers love social media, but what I learned from listening to my students is that many struggle with using it and describe it as negative for their mental health. They recognize it as a means of communication and being social with peers, so they don't want to lose that connection. At the same time however, they clearly see the drawbacks. It was especially interesting to listen to them share advice with each other about how to establish healthy boundaries and practice self-care when using social media. I think this showcases the best of what Mosaic is—a space for our students to share and learn from each other with a teacher as facilitator. Students are able to share their perspectives while learning about the perspectives of others in a safe, supportive, and judgment-free environment. n Safer Social Media by Ella G. '29 and Tess M. '29 Mosaic has taught us many things. However, one lesson that has really stuck out as being important is staying safe on social media. We have learned to be careful and aware of what we are sharing with the world on social media. We learned that we can regret things that we post now later in life and that one ignorant mistake can come back to haunt us. We specifically talked about what we should and shouldn't post online. We agreed that things that were unsafe to post publicly were personal details like your address, legal documents, or private family information. We also learned how to stay away from dangerous people online and not to share too much information or make too much contact with people we don't know. Also, we learned to be aware of commenting on people's posts. Although you're just typing words into a screen, that is someone's real life, and negative words can harm them. Finally, we learned what to do if you are experiencing hate online. Social media is a big aspect of life nowadays, and these Mosaic lessons will help guide us in managing it safely. TREVOR DAY SCHOOL / 37 INSIDE TREVOR TREVOR TRANSLATES FEATURE AR TICLES ALUMNI

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