Parker Students Make Connections with The Calhoun School in NYC

Attending school in the heart of a big city is a particular type of experience. Because of their metropolitan nature, large cities tend to be epicenters of events impacting the world. Both Chicago and New York City continue to be affected by the global pandemic and protests against racial injustice. In an effort to encourage student conversation around these topics, US history teacher Andy Bigelow partnered with English teacher Ellen Kwon from The Calhoun School in New York City to bring together students from similar schools to share their experiences in their respective cities during these unprecedented times.

 

Eight US students from each school voluntarily participated in the joint effort. After a brief discussion about the specific details of each school, city demographics and additional content for context, students separated into groups to relate their views of the world’s occurrences and their individual experiences.

 

After breakout sessions, students shared their key takeaways from the discussion. Most cited the importance of hearing different perspectives from their peers and “how cool it is” to connect with students in a different place.

 

“We all had similar ideas about what’s going on in the country, even though we’ve had different experiences,” said junior Elsie Rattner. “It’s neat that the youth are very into it.”

 

Bigelow and Kwon both deemed the collaboration a success and hope to have further conversations between students from the two schools in the future.

 

“I loved connecting two progressive schools from two very different, and in many ways, similar, cities,” said Bigelow. “It was an awesome way for our kids to hear how other kids are thinking about the world, the pandemic and Black Lives Matter beyond their school and neighborhood. I hope to keep the conversation going!”

 

Parker thrives when students explore different perspectives, and transformational opportunities such as this allow them to stretch beyond their own points of view through open conversation.