Educator Resources
Ideas for Classroom Activities
- Use literature circles for comparative reading with choices from the reading resources.
- Conduct interviews with adults who were bused or were the minority in a school.
- Conduct interviews with adults who taught before, during, and/or after that time.
- Give students a map (real or imagined) with segregated neighborhoods as would have been the case in the 1960s. Include areas of all degrees of wealth. Have students devise equitable options for school placement.
- Have students create VENN diagrams comparing public schools and private schools. Make a list of the reasons Nell’s mother chose private school. Make a list of the reasons Fergy chose private school for his children. What can each type of school learn from the other?
- Research the term “white flight” and watch the documentary “The Lost Class of 1959.” Many who decided to flee would make a different decision today. How has thinking evolved over the years? What has made it evolve? Where does it still need to change?
- Discuss the timeline of school integration in the United States. https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/spring-2004/brown-v-board-timeline-of-school-integration-in-the-us Why are our schools still so segregated? Is it possible for us to become “one nation”? If so, what are some concrete steps for getting there?
- For fun, create a 70s collage with original art, fonts, photos, color palettes, and popular brand labels.
- Listen to albums by 60’s & 70’s artists and create another form of art (painting, song, poem, etc) that illustrates what you’ve heard in the music and lyrics.
- Go to a store or a movie or a restaurant in a different part of town. What does it feel like to be out of your neighborhood? What reactions did you get from other people? Were your parents resistant to you doing this?
