Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Posted on 01/26/2006 10:26:37 AM PST by Puppage
BRANFORD - Through an informal seminar and improvisational theater format, Branford High School's Cultural Diversity Club provide the eighth graders at Walsh Intermediate School with an in depth look at name-calling, teasing and harassment and how to deal with these issues.
All realities that occur on a daily basis, WIS Principle Robin Goeler said that he and other teachers have been enthusiastic about the annual assembly entitled "Worse Than Sticks & Stones: Why Name-Calling Hurts Everyone" and believes that it is instrumental in readying the students for their transition into high school.
"We think it's great," Goeler said. "I think it prepares them for some of the things they're going to be facing at BHS or any high school for that matter." Following the assembly's opening, dubbed powerful by Goeler, on Jan. 19, BHS Assistant Principle David Maloney was encouraged by the students' response to the club members' skits that dealt with the acts and consequences of bullying, discrimination, stereotyping and prejudice.
"We're just ecstatic about it," he said. "The faculty and students in eighth grade received it very, very well. I think that our kids felt very good that the message got through." Members of BHS clubs Asian Awareness and Gay Straight Alliance collaborated with the Cultural Diversity Club to give the eighth graders a chance to learn, reflect and discuss these issues that occur in and out of the classroom. The assembly occurred over a three-day period on Jan. 19, 23 and 24.
"The approach for the whole program is for the student leaders at the high school to empower the kids at Walsh to recognize that words really can hurt and words have powerful messages," Maloney said. "So through the improvisational theater and through the skits, it's a very non judgmental way for them to pass the message along and they do it very effectively." By presenting ways they learned to face their tormentors and the remorse they experienced when offending others with unkind actions, the club members use the skits to communicate both sides of bullying. Students are then given the opportunity to react to the sketches, express their opinions and answer questions posed to them.
Some of the questions posed to WIS students inquire about their perceived role in in helping others deal with the issues raised by the presentation and what can be done, individually and collectively at the school, to increase respect for diversity and decrease prejudice and discrimination.
Maloney said that the program was an "action plan" developed by the Cultural Diversity Club eight years ago, that was aimed at helping students deal with name-calling, teasing and messages of "hate and harassment." All are very real concerns that students will most likely face within today's "imperfect world," he added. Building "positive" relationships amongst kids, parents and teachers is just one way to overcome these realities and are of equal importance in school as are "curriculum and assessment and instruction," he said.
Through the diverse aspects of the program, the club members are emphasizing just that and helping the students to realize their full potential in an environment where everything from a bad haircut or an uncool outfit to sexual orientation and religious affiliation can lead to teasing. Over the last eight years, Maloney said that the assembly has been looking closer at "cyberbullying," which is a newer form of harassment that occurs over the Internet and has become more prevalent. By focusing on this current phenomena and others, the Cultural Diversity Club and others have been working to shatter the barriers of prejudice and racism and the realities that often accompany them. Overall, the members have been placing their time and efforts into the program with the overall goal of forging communities of mutual respect at WIS and BHS.
Jeez, makes my old "sliderule club" sound pretty exciting after all.
Never belonged to a club, but I did use a sliderule back in the '60s...
LOL! Wait until these pansies go looking for a job. Talk about hurt feelings...LOL!
Last night, ironically while I was FReeping, one of our social work students came into my workplace, the library. He was openly (& noticeably) gay, but a generally nice guy.
He was about the graduate. He told me how he enjoyed social work school, in spite of some of the professors who were "homophobic." (This is a religious college.) He said he wanted to bring the head of the gay-lesbian-bi-tranny alliance to meet with other students (most of whom are religious or conservative).
He then said he was worried about starting life in the "real world." I don't blame him at all. Wait till he finds out it ain't like Manhattan.
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
This article really hurts my feelings.
/s
That's right you jerk!!! (just kidding) LOL...
hey! I briefly thought less of myself!
Where's my big pot of money!?!
When I was a kid, the accepted practice -- well, maybe not accepted, but effective -- was going up to the kid and breaking his nose with your fist.
You'd be surprised how well that worked.
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