Westwood students reflect on how best to treat each other

By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

Sixth-graders in Westwood Middle School teacher Jennifer Ireland's English Language Arts and social studies classes have not only been learning about the history of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, they've been expressing that newfound knowledge physically.

The students have been involved in several projects centered on materials provided in class, beginning with reading and discussing the 1995 book "The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963." Written by Christopher Paul Curtis, the historical-fiction book recounts the experiences of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Mich., from January – September 1963, a turbulent part of the Civil Rights movement and is based somewhat on the author's own experiences.

Westwood student Kylie Mitchell explained that the book is centered around the middle child of three in the family, Kenny, who narrates and whose older brother Byron is a bit of a "troublemaker." The family decides it might be a good idea to drive Byron to Birmingham, Ala. to live for the summer - and possibly the coming school year - with his grandmother.

The book includes a trip to attend their grandmother's church, the 16th Street Baptist Church, on Sept. 15, 1963, the day 15 sticks of dynamite planted underneath the church steps exploded and killed four teenage girls. The incident has a profound affect on Kenny, who sees the bodies of two of the girls killed.

Mitchell said they also watched a video about a children's march from Selma to Montgomery. Both the book and video had an impact on her.

"It broke my heart to see someone treated differently because of their skin color or gender," Mitchell said.

Students were to pick a theme about what they had learned from the materials and create a project to represent it, along with providing their personal reflections about what it mean to them. Aaron Heal (pronounced "Hail") drew posters reflecting his theme "Racism and how it affects African-Americans" and incorporated his explanation of what it means to the rest of us, even putting in the a hashtag of his own making "#westopitgodoit."

Kate Sargent used Rosa Parks as the theme of her project, dealing with the Dec. 1, 1955 arrest of the civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus. Sargent said she retold the incident through the points of view of Parks, the bus driver and others on the bus that day, saying the driver thought it was funny when he called the police to arrest Parks.

"The joke's on them (police and others), she started the bus boycott," she added.

Vinessa Fomichev's project centered on the children's march, and like Sargent, relayed history through different perspectives. Besides the children marchers, Fomichev also relate the perspectives of their parents, who just wanted freedom for the kids, she said, and the police and firefighters, who sprayed the marchers with high-pressure water from fire hoses and allowed dogs to attack the children.

"They might not have wanted to hurt them (marchers)," she said.

Finally, Ireland's students made stars and placed them on a project board near the classroom for other students to read. Each star contained a thought from the student about "what we want our country to be like," sixth-grader Josh Storkson said.

Morgan Bro wrote on her star simply "No war."

"The different color of our skin doesn't mean we have to be separated for everything," she said. "We're all equally the same."

Kendal Omlin wrote, "I hope people would pick stuff up even it it's not theirs."

Carolyn Currin wrote ,"I hope to see kindness."

Tzuriel Jennings wrote ,"That we can stop the hatred and learn to love."

When asked how to do that, he had a ready answer.

"By learning to listen to each other, instead of just shutting them down," Jennings said.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].