Dear Families,
As a follow up to Chap’s post from last week on social justice work at LREI, I thought I’d highlight some work that is happening in our eighth grade classes.
Each year, our eighth grade students embark on a project to better understand and personalize the social justice issues that emerge from their study of post-Civil War US history. This project connects them to individuals and organizations that are making a difference in the community and beyond. Through this process, our eighth graders come to better understand the rewards and challenges of active citizenship and the need for all individuals to choose to participate. One benchmark point on what we hope will be a life-long journey is our annual spring Social Justice Teach-In during which the eighth graders plan and run a set of workshops and assemblies for the rest of the middle school.
This year-long journey begins in the summer as students read the novel Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, which chronicles the experiences of the Little Rock Nine and the efforts of many others to desegregate Little Rock’s public schools. This reading serves as frame for our students’ critical examination of our nation’s history from the Civil War through the Civil Rights era.
Inspired buy the Little Rock Nine and the Civil Rights Movement and their investigation of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, each eighth grader created an action art project and a supporting artist’s statement about their work as it related to a current civil or human rights issue. Their art work and writing ask us to stop, think and, ultimately, to act. Click here to view a few representative pieces of this work.
On a related note, the following letter from eighth grade core teacher Sara-Momii Roberts highlights how one of last year’s social justice projects has created some new possibilities for this year’s eighth graders:
Recently, eight eighth graders and I traveled to Inspiration Academy in the Bronx to deliver the school supplies that were collected from last year’s
Getting Tools to City Schools drive (
http://gettingtoolstocityschools.org/home) and to meet some students in hopes of building a relationship with them as a part of our Social Justice Project.
Inspiration Academy is a 200-student high school near 174th street and Grand Concourse that was founded in 2005 by students activists who had grown tired of the sub-par conditions that they were used to at their large, overcrowded school. They banded together, met with council members and teachers, and established their own school. Now, in its sixth year, Principal Marta Colon-Jusino tries to keep with the original vision of the founding class by leading a democratic school that aims to be as progressive and as social justice-oriented as possible. Before we came she had read all about our Social Justice project from the blog and was eager to meet us and connect our two groups in shared vision.
We arrived around 11:30AM and entered Inspiration’s crowded hallways. Big high schoolers towered over us, passing from class to class, and our kids seemed a bit intimidated, but excited as we entered the school’s main office and were welcomed by a contingency from the school. A group of Inspirations’ student leaders, the Assistant Principal and the Principal took us to a basement classroom where we sat in a large circle and began by introducing ourselves one by one.
Our kids shared about their recent Human Rights Project, the Tools for City Schools campaign, and how we’re embarking on a new round of community work. The Inspiration students who joined us (a mix of 9th-12th graders) were so impressed and excited to begin a collaboration. They talked to us about their struggles: no internet, plumbing and building conditions, basic school supply needs. They also shared how last year they had set up meetings with the Bronx borough president himself to ask for more funding for their school. To say the least, our eighth graders eyes were opened, not only to the challenges the students faced, but also to the vibrant community of their school.
We ended the meeting by bringing in the bags and boxes of binders and school supplies into the main office — Inspiration’s staff practically applauded. Next steps include brainstorming about how to work more closely on similar civil rights/human rights issues this year.
