I am fortunate in that the school where I teach makes time, every Friday afternoon, for topics and activities that don't fit neatly into standardized test subjects. The principal worked out a schedule in which we start every day a bit earlier than the other middle schools. This gives us our full required time in classes, while still providing a two hour window on Friday afternoons for enrichment and assembly.
On Friday afternoons teachers and volunteers from the community set up sessions. The topics and activities range from college preparation to planting raised beds to yoga. Today, I presented a session on regional African American education history. My goal was to give our students a context for understanding the importance of our school's namesake, David Clarke Virgo. Although the school was built nine years after his death, in 1964, it was named for Virgo because he was a key figure in Wilmington and North Carolina education history. In 1924, under his leadership, the high school grades became available to Wilmington's African Americans students for the first time in 1924. (View the presentation on DC Virgo)
The students appreciated learning about the history behind our school, but my presentation also sparked an unexpected connection. Later in the day one of my students came up to me, her eyes shining. "Ms. Stack! That school, that building in Canetuck--I used to go there all the time with my grandma!"
She meant the historic Canetuck Rosenwald School that I had shown as an example of one of the many historic African American schools in our region. Now it's a community center, and I had shared with the students that I go out there monthly for board meetings.
It clicked for me: Her last name was the same as that of one of Canetuck's main families. I hadn't thought much of it because the name is a common one in this area, but many of the students at our school in downtown Wilmington have relatives in Pender County, where the Canetuck school still stands.
She gave me a hug. We recognized something new in each other. She is not just a 6th grader, or a child with a learning disability, she is the granddaughter of one of my neighbors. And I am not just another teacher telling her what to do; she saw that I am someone who cares about appreciating her history.
I think it's a new day for us.
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