Columnist Jamala Rogers
Before you enter Jefferson Elementary School, you are drawn to a huge relief mural on the building’s façade. It is the byproduct of the school’s collaboration with the Center for Contemporary Arts (COCA) back in 1999. The school is located in the neighborhood where the old Carr Square housing projects have given way to rows of new townhouses.
As I walked down the hall to the library-turned-theater, the walls were covered in visual representations of various class assignments. I saw a peace collage, a 3-D project, Chinese calligraphy, family trees, kente cloth and not surprising, a section devoted to the new U.S. president, Barack Obama. I heard the sounds of teaching and learning – laughter, unison recitation, a teacher giving instructions. I get concerned when a school is too quiet and wonder if student energy is being suppressed instead of being creatively released.
I was privileged to witness the fruits of labor from another collaboration. A 3rd grade class and I were the audience for the performance of “Down the River” by Ms. Sue Ellen Turner’s class of 4th and 5th students. The Metro Theater Company worked with Ms. Turner on this project just as they had done last year with their smash hit production on civil rights.
The performance was the culmination of an interdisciplinary unit on the importance of the Mississippi River. Students had to explore the history, geography, language, politics and social relationships of the mid-1800s. Their research informed their production as they took on issues such as slavery, love and modes of travel.
The student playwrights created their own characters, wrote their own monologues, and helped to shape it into a full script. All this was done with the guiding hands of Ms. Turner and the theater expertise of a couple of Metro Theater staffers.
The performance was a real joy, but the true delight was after the performance when the student audience could ask questions of the cast. To see the many hands shoot up to answer the inquiring minds was inspiring. The students were confident they knew the answers since they had lived and breathed the content and characters for several weeks. And these weren’t silly or rehearsed questions. One 3rd grader asked in a very serious tone, “Why do you think we need to know this?” Deeeep.
Then there’s the unplanned learning moments. One male student caught award-winning photographer Wiley Price at work capturing the event. His eyes moved slowly and curiously up, down and around Wiley’s body, upon which all his photographic gear hung. The boy’s little face was intense as he watched Wiley focus on his subjects with zoom lens, and then hear the camera shutter open and close in rapid-fire speed.
Will his curiosity put him on course with great African-American photographers such as Gordon Parks, Ernest Withers, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems and James VanDerZee? We don’t know, but this is how many career passions begin.
At a time when our school district is fighting for its life and when most of the news is ugly and dismal, these are the bright spots that rarely get their deserving attention. A dedicated teacher with a love of literature, students eager to learn and an entity willing to partner for an unforgettable learning experience are not the elements of saucy news headlines.
As the district continues hemorrhaging, what’s really going down the river are missed opportunities to excite students, to light the fuses for future careers, and to exposed them to different worlds beyond their neighborhoods.
I’m still marveling at how the students broke out their harmonicas with a song they had learned in just a few weeks. I saw gifted students who will face society’s limited expectations, unfair labels and hostile attitudes. I left Jefferson Elementary School hopeful and smiling.