Posted on 11/22/2002 5:55:57 AM PST by Valin
On school lunch menus Thursday: a healthy helping of discomfort. Goths and geeks squirmed as they munched silently together at Rosemount High School during a national attempt to defuse cliques by encouraging students to lunch outside their own social groups.
Rosemount was one of about 2,500 schools nationally — including 73 in Minnesota — to participate in the first Mix It Up at Lunch Day, an event sponsored by Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, an anti-racism group that got its start during the Civil Rights movement.
Cliques in themselves are neither good nor bad, but they are a powerful reality for virtually every teenager. National organizers hoped to make students aware of how uncomfortable they were spending time with people outside their cliques, said outreach coordinator Kalvin Datcher.
Uneasiness certainly reigned at Rosemount High on Thursday, but despite incentives — "I'd rather use the word 'motivate' than 'bribe,' " said Rosemount assistant principal Rita Gundacker — most stuck close to their usual circles.
Some students made their way to their assigned tables, but many ignored their compulsory seats, traded table assignments with others or dashed back to their friends as soon as the motivational drawings for free parking passes, theater and athletic tickets, and free food were over. "They can't force us to sit by people we don't know," said junior Tawny Hyster, who sat down for lunch with her friends despite a gaggle of yellow-shirted student and staff volunteers trying to prevent such cliquishness.
If students only spend time with others who are like them — racially, socially or otherwise — they may never learn how to live and work with people who are different, said Kay Herting Wahl, a University of Minnesota assistant professor of educational psychology. Cliques in themselves aren't necessarily harmful, she said. Some such groups can build up kids' esteem and encourage healthy behavior.
But the need to belong is powerful.
"One of the most horrifying things for junior high and high school students is to go to the lunch room and not have a group to sit with," Herting Wahl said. Instead of the usual intra-clique chatter, awkward silence was pronounced at the few tables in the Rosemount High cafeteria where strangers sat together. "I knew this was a bad idea from the start," said Terry Harris, a dreadlocked senior who's used to discussing politics with his friends over lunch. "This might have turned out well, but people are afraid."
Nathan Gentry, a skinny freshman sitting across the round table from Harris, certainly was. "I thought I'd be doomed if there was a senior here," he said.
Then a perky student organizer stopped by to read from the prepared list of five generic questions ("What's your name?" "What's your favorite radio station? Why?") in a stab at sparking some interest. Her fellow students looked skeptical. To Harris and Gentry's surprise, however, the pair found themselves in a lively political discussion covering China, the pending war in Iraq and Bill Clinton's foibles.
But throwing teenage strangers together and expecting them to have meaningful conversations that will break down such social barriers in just half an hour is nearly impossible, Herting Wahl said. Even after students change their own attitudes toward others at daylong workshops with professionals, Herting Wahl rarely sees permanent behavioral changes when people return to their social groups.
Many students said they'd make no special effort to talk to people they met Thursday. Some said they wouldn't even bother to say hello if they passed in the halls. Still, some organizers were ready to call Rosemount's day a success, even if students did keep a few friends at their side.
"It's better than we expected," said junior Erin Kopperud, who was hanging out with fellow juniors, fellow event organizers and fellow Fellowship of Christian Athletes members Andrea Kaul and Heather Ness. All three identify themselves as part of the "involved" clique.
Tammy J. Oseid can be reached at toseid@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-2171.
But we DON'T like them...and they will NOT be allowed.
The liberal trivialization of civil right continues apace.
Morris Dee's group, the same collection of nitwits who sued that Alabama judge to remove his Ten Commandments monument.
Ah, an ice breaker at any age. :)
Wonder how many chicks he will score with that trophy?
What a crock. By FORCING kids to mingle with others not of their choosing, they are stifling the very learning opportunity they are professing to encourage. Part of learning to "live and work with people who are different" is recognizing that people ARE different; that they may not share your ideas and motivations, that they may not wish to socialize with you.
There is nothing inherently wrong with adults who choose to avoid those different from them. There is nothing inherently wrong with keeping to the business at hand in the workplace and eschewing social relationships.
How funny that one of the things kids CAN talk about is Clinton's foibles. Hah.
G-damn straight. I was a punk. There was no way in hell I'd eat with the faggoty rich-kid clique at my HS, especially if some light-in-the-loafers feelgood chick made me do it.
Yes, but you're overlooking the up-side of that. Unlike boring old subjects like math or history, touchy-feely nonsense can't possibly be objectively measured. Therefore, there's absolutely no danger that anyone will get upset that the children have failed to fully learn their touchy-feely nonsense, unlike math or history. In a few more years, you won't know if these kids are learning anything or not, once the shift to an all touchy-feely curriculum is complete. The trend towards student testing (and thus more stringent requirements for teachers) will be strangled in infancy by the move to an all-self-esteem-all-the-time program...
Maybe the SPLC should set the example by hiring a few skinheads and Black Panthers for their staff. Heck, they've already got Democrats.
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