(article is from the news section of the Jamestown Post Journal)
4/29/2004 - By TRACY
RZEPKA
A tinge of anticipation coats Isabella Zurowski's voice. The topic of intrigue
isn't the hottest trend to hit the sixth-grade class, nor is it the scandalous
happenings of a popular reality television show.
Her anxiety is connected to the visit of Linda Brown Thompson and Cheryl Brown
Henderson - the two women who, 50 years ago, were behind the landmark Supreme
Court case that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
''I'm really excited because those two ladies changed the world and how the
world saw our nation,'' Isabella said.
The Bemus Point Elementary pupil and hundreds of other school-age children
will trek to the Amphitheater at Chautauqua Institution today to attain a
more personal account of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan.
Most of the crowd
gathered for the sisters' visit will be students - at least 800, according
to Rolland Kidder, Robert H. Jackson Center executive director - with some
traveling from as far away as Hamburg and Rochester.
Daniel Lewis, Southwestern Middle School seventh- and eighth-grade teacher,
defined the chance similarly to other educators making the trip with their
classes.
''You don't get many opportunities to actually have first-hand contact with
people you read about and hear teachers talk about,'' said Lewis, who is bringing
about 100 eighth-graders and 50 seventh-graders. ''I'm just thankful the Jackson
Center has been able to bring some pretty good programming into our area.''
Lewis said segregation is part of the eighth-grade curriculum, but usually
not studied until the end of May. Like many other teachers, he has reviewed
the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, which paved the way for the ''separate
but equal'' concept domination, and touched on some Jim Crow laws. The students
have also been exposed to the details of the famous case at the center of
today's event.
The teacher has helped students formulate questions if time allows. A popular
question, he said, concerns how the Brown sisters were treated after school
systems became integrated.
''They want to know if it was difficult to make new friends,'' Lewis said.
''One student wondered about the hearings - if they attended them in the process
to leading up to the decision.''
''I would ask them how they found the courage to do this,'' Isabella said.
A fellow sixth-grader at Bemus Point, Madeline Apperson, said she would ask
the two about ''what their parents taught them - how to act and how to treat
other people as they grew up because it must have been hard for them to grow
up in a community that's so judgmental. I just want to hear how their parents
told them how to deal with it.''
As part of their classroom assignments, the two have read various books to
prepare for the event.
''I've taken it for granted the world has always been like this,'' Isabella
said. The lessons have ''really taught me to appreciate everything we have.''
The two will be part of about 125 fifth- and sixth-graders from the district
experiencing the speech. Aside from the historical importance, the topic of
conversation correlates with the school's heavy emphasis on character education.
Recently, their weekly Monday morning assemblies have focused on diversity
and bullying.
''This definitely is a form of bullying. This is where one group takes avenge
of another group. In this case, it's a race,'' said Scott Sawyer, Bemus Point
Elementary School principal. ''We talk about bullying, sexual harassment.
Child abuse is
bullying ... If you're in power and have authority, you can exert your will
on others. Just because you can - because you're bigger or stronger - it doesn't
give you the right to dominate others. I think this is the case in our country.
We were in power and dominating a race of people. It's a real-life example
of bullying.''
Julie Holmes, a fifth-grade teacher at Bemus Point, said the character education
values of the case are most important. She wrote, ''Lessons of courage, justice,
perseverance, diversity and tolerance are among the virtues inherent in their
story.''
''I've learned to be a better person and to stop and think before you really
say something,'' Madeline said.
According to Mrs. Holmes, various aspects of the case complement the fifth-grade
curriculum, including examination of the U.S. Constitution, its amendments
and the process by which laws are made.
''Our students are better for knowing some of America's ugly past so that
we strive to secure justice now and in the future,'' she wrote.
Segregation is studied at deeper and more analytical level in high school,
as Dan Scapelitte explained.
''In seventh and eighth grade, the experience is typically just glossed over.
'Here's all the things that happened in New York history,' '' said Scapelitte,
Randolph Central School teacher who instructs U.S. history and government.
''What I'm hoping for, if it's anything like it was today, I'm hoping they
understand the human aspect of the case.''
Scapelitte took his college-level class to the clerk discussion at the Jackson
Center on Wednesday. Today, he takes all the juniors, numbering about 60,
to Chautauqua.
''I'm not sure how it affects their studies as far as taking the Regents exam,
but I think it personalizes history and, coming away, these are real people,
real things that happened to them and major changes happened because you've
got these regular, everyday people that made a stand and did something extraordinary,''
he said.
Some of Jamie Sharpe's students at the Cassadaga Job Corps are finding heroes
through studies related to the case. One has grown to respect the father of
the Brown sisters who fought for his daughters to be able to attend a school
five blocks away instead of 20.
To obtain a ''ticket'' for the journey, the 44 students were required to write
an essay about an aspect of Brown v. Board of Education. Sharpe has made copies
of the essays and bound them into a booklet for the Jackson Center and Brown
sisters '''as a small token for their father's bravery and perseverance of
overcoming social injustices.''
Some of the writings focus on predecessors to the case. The majority revolve
around Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice appointed to the Supreme
Court.
Sharpe, the GED instructor, said about half of the job corps' population is
comprised of black students. ''Since such a large part are African American,
I feel it's important to have a connection to their roots, their own history.''
Such diversity is not existent at Southwestern, but Lewis wants his students,
too, to gain a closer connection to history. Sawyer, at Bemus Point, also
reflected on bringing history to life.
''As I reflect back on my days of school, Brown vs. the Board was just one
of many civil rights amendments that didn't have much life to it. When you
can actually see the people affected by it - Linda and Cheryl Brown,'' he
said, trailing off with his thoughts. ''I think this will make a lasting impression
on students, that they'll certainly understand what the Brown vs. Board of
Education was and also have a sense of how we treat other people.''