Black History Month Exchange

Third grade and eleventh grade students met to discuss some of what they worked on in February during Black History Month. The result: a very enlightening exchange and a sense of comradery between third graders and juniors.

 

Mrs. Rebman’s class spent time in February creating biographical pamphlets on important African-American’s throughout history. During the exchange, each third grader taught Upper School students about their historical figure.

 

Honors U.S. History students used part of their study on Reconstruction to investigate contemporary issues, such as Reparations. After reading part of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ highly acclaimed The Atlantic article, “The Case for Reparations,” each student wrote a thesis paper on Congressional Bill HR40. In their papers, students noted the complexities around reparations, how reparations have implemented in the past (Germany for the Holocaust and the U.S. for Japanese internment camps), and their specific solutions going forward. While they didn’t present their paper, small groups put together short presentations that displayed various arguments regarding the topic.

 

At the end of the historical exchange, we met together for a debriefing session and a group photo. The juniors were impressed by the third graders, and really enjoyed getting to know the younger students. In addition, Mrs. Rebman noted that her third graders also enjoyed the experience immensely.