Community Meeting to Start the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action

By Allison Acosta

On Monday, February 3, Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS 1st through 5th graders participated in a community meeting to kick off the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.

After students greeted each other, Principal Shannon Kane led students through an activity that explored the question,

What happens when we have the same goal, but different starting points? What does privilege mean?

A student from each class came to the center of the room and Kane told them where to stand. She asked them to try to toss a paper ball into a basket on the floor. After the ball toss, Kane asked the crowd to reflect on what they noticed. Students replied that the taller students were positioned in front of the shorter students, both closer to the basket and blocking the shorter students’ view and access to the basket.

Kane then asked students to turn and talk to each other about what could have been different to allow each student a more fair shot at the basket. Initially, students considered the idea that everyone could be placed the same distance from the basket, but upon reflection, recognized that would still put the shorter students at a disadvantage. Kane pointed out that the taller students hadn’t done anything or earned their way to a better chance at making a basket.

Principal Neoka Smith then played a short video of Barbara Jordan (1:17-44), and read a passage from What do you do with a voice like that? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan.

Students then brainstormed ideas about how to use their voices to draw attention to privilege and inequity to influence change -- from including everyone on the playground, to participating in an organized march.

Finally students read this message together:

Good Morning Lower School!

Today is the first day of the Black Lives Matter Week of Learning and Action in Schools. This year, the Inspired community will have activities every day to remind us of the importance of using our voice to impact change. Our first activity this week is creating our Black Lives Matter mural.

There are 13 principles of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Your teacher will be able to share the 13 principles. As a school we will focus on the last of the 13 principles, “Loving Engagement.”

Loving engagement, definted as “We are always trying to make our words and actions fair and peaceful in order to treat other people with love. We have to keep practicing this so the world will get better and people will change.

With Warm Thoughts,

YOUR ITDS COMMUNITY