On two consecutive Thursdays this month, chaperones from nine middle schools in Schenectady County are shepherding groups of 12 students to St. Gabriel’s Church in Rotterdam to discuss racism and devise plans of action to bring diversity awareness back to their schools, as part of a program called Schenectady County Embraces Diversity, or SCED.
SCED was created in 1998 by a group of local organizations in response to a shooting that occurred in Albany County by a Schenectady County man solely based on race. The goal of SCED is to explore and celebrate the diversity of those who live in Schenectady County. This is partly done through study circles, where groups come together to discuss topics that include education, racism, public policy and urban sprawl.
There’s a general process where you can plug in any community issue if you can generate enough people to have discussions and take action, said Brian Wright, executive director of Schenectady County Human Rights Commission and one of the founders of SCED.
SCED started out as a program catering to adult groups, but soon expanded to high school groups, and, upon request of the high school students, it eventually opened to middle school groups. The program emphasizes the point that members from the whole community are welcome and needed to make the program work and to create lasting change in the community.
`One of the comments that we got from the high school program was that this kind of program needed to start earlier,` said Wright.
Currently, nine middle schools representing nine districts in the county participate. Overall, more than 2,000 people have participated, 300 of those middle schoolers.
In the Thursday program took place Oct. 23 and will meet again Oct. 30, middle school students and their chaperones of varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds will work in small groups led by volunteer facilitators, who play a crucial role in the process. After they are selected, volunteers are instructed on how to lead a conversation and how to stay objective.
`They have to be neutral in the dialogue. They can’t take sides,` said Carrie Boron, deputy communication director for Everyday Democracy in West Hartford, Conn. `Some people are better suited to be participants than they are to be facilitators.`
Boron said being a facilitator can be demanding.
`It takes a lot of discipline to keep the discussion going and to be able paraphrase back to people what they said without inserting their own opinion and helping people to feel welcome,` said Boron.
For middle school programs, the Study Circle uses a modified curriculum, which was developed by a committee of SCED members and middle school staff from participating schools. They also get some of their materials from Everyday Democracy, an organization based out of West Hartford, Conn., that started the concept of study circles. Everyday Democracy works with more than 550 communities throughout the country.
`Our organization provides programs like Schenectady County’s with resources to organize these kinds of dialogues to discuss any issue that has mass appeal in a community ` we give them the tools to engage all kinds of people in the process,` said Boron.
Those participating in study circles often have to prepare for the discussions. Since the Oct. 23 and 30 study circle’s topic is about racism, students are asked to find out about their family’s history and whether they’ve had to face any adversity or not. This will be the first topic of discussion for the students.
`We get them in touch with their cultural backgrounds,` said Wright.
Following the discussion, the group will devise a plan to bring awareness about racism back to school.
`We think that taking part in discussions in programs like this is just as important as voting,` said Boron. `There are 364 other days in the year that people can take part in democracy, and we really see people getting involved in their communities and seeing through change on a certain issue.`
For middle school students, past plans of action have included culture festivals with foods, music, crafts and dance from all over the world, involving parents and other schools. They have held `Mix It Up` lunches, where students are mixed up in the cafeteria so that they sit with students they normally wouldn’t sit with to work on diversity murals celebrating different ethnic backgrounds of the school population. In one Schenectady County School, students placed chessboards outside of the school. Various people from all over the community came and played chess and spoke with other members of the community who they wouldn’t otherwise communicate with.
`Last year, the students wanted to have small teach-ins with the sixth-graders to teach them about anti-bullying techniques. I suspect that the same thing will happen this year, but [they’ll be about racism],` said Maria Pacheco, a teacher at Mohonasen Middle School.
For more information about SCED, go online to www.schenectadystudycircles.org, or contact Kay Ackerman, SCED administrator at 393-5000.
`I think that [these programs] are very important and necessary. I wish that it could be done more. It’s a really positive experience for the students and they come back so energized. They want to share with everyone else,` said Pacheco.“