In May, a diverse group of 60 eighth-grade middle school students and their teachers gathered at Hofstra University to examine their similarities and differences, to debate the implications and symbolism of the rap video This is America by Childish Gambino (a/k/a Donald Glover), and to discuss where do they go from here as they prepare for high school and the next step in their educations.
The students were from Lawrence Road Middle School in the Uniondale School District and Oceanside Middle School, both in Nassau County on New York’s Long Island. While the schools are less than six miles only apart, the students live in very different and largely segregated communities. The 750 students who attend Lawrence Road Middle School are 51% African American and 47% Latino. The student population at Oceanside Middle School, over 1,200 students, is 78% White, 14% Latino, and 8% other (including 2% Black).
The Bridges program originated in 2015 out of a conversation on race in America involving Oceanside and Uniondale High School seniors in. At the time of this conversation the news cycle was dominated by Michael Brown, an eighteen-year teenager from Ferguson, Missouri, who was killed by a police officer. Brown’s death was a major stimulus for the expanding Black Lives Matter movement. At the initial meeting a number of the Black and Latino students from Uniondale shared very negative experiences that had with police. This discussion convinced school officials of the importance of ongoing dialogue and the decision was made to start with seventh graders who could create and maintain friendships over a number of years.
The Bridges program epitomizes the approach to teaching and learning promoted in the Hofstra University School of Education. The Hofstra program prepares teachers to engage their students as active learners who are comfortable living and working in diverse settings and examining difficult issues. The goal is that these young people, as they grow older, will become change agents who will work toward a more equitable and just future. The School of Education places participant-observers and student teachers at Lawrence Road Middle School who work with the students and teachers to prepare them for the program’s meetings.
Students at Lawrence Road Middle School join Bridges through their honors program and Social Studies Teacher Richard Tauber. Students at Oceanside Middle School “apply” to participate via an essay that asks them which societal issues they wish to see addressed. This was the fifth time this group of students has met to share experiences and build bridges across communities. Earlier meetings were at each school. Each session is organized around a specific issue in the news or a topic they are discussing in English and social studies classes. A number of participating teachers and administrators in their schools, including Richard Tauber from Uniondale and Mitchell Bickman and Michelle Mastrande from Oceanside, are graduates of the Hofstra University School of Education. Other educators involved in the program are Paula Trapani, the Lawrence Road librarian, and Joseph LaTorre, an English teacher in Oceanside.
Past meetings focused on topics such as United States immigration policy. Because of mass shootings during this school year, the most recent session focused on gun violence and student responses. During discussion students from both schools felt that the portrayal of violence and racism in the rap video was not exaggerated. About 75% of the students play the video game Fortnight. While they were upset with gun violence in American society, they almost all defended playing the game because it is cartoonish and the violence isn’t realistic. A theme in This is America is that we have become so accustomed to violence that we don’t even see it when it is in the background. Mitchell Bickman, director for social studies in Oceanside, pressed the students, wondering if games like Fortnight did not immunize us from seeing the violence around us, but on this issue the students would not relent.
The goal of the Bridge program is for students to continue meeting through high school and eventually launch joint civic action projects that can impact on both communities. The teachers in the program and Hofstra faculty believe this is an approach to learning and relationship building that can be brought to other communities on Long Island and in the United States.
Follow Alan Singer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ReecesPieces8