At the start of my teaching career I noticed that each term I would have to start at zero with my student and build — brick-by-brick — a respectful and nourishing culture-of-learning. By the time the term ended, the students were so accomplished in their respectful communications and (in most cases) their overall regard for each others’ differences. The the term would end and the reset button pressed. I would have to start all that culture-of-learning rebuilding all over again.
Eventually, I was inspired to have each cohort of students write a letter to the future in-coming student to teach them about what would happen in my course. Invariably, past students described the culture-of-learning: having an open mind; learning to analyze personal biases; deeply respecting all; etc. The “Letter to Future Students functioned like an inoculation that quickened the time for the new students to understand and then practice a positive culture-of-learning.
Here is a PDF of the instructions I gave to my law enforcement studies students describing the Letter to Future Students assignment.