Lunchrooms in District 97 are no different from any other schools-a lot of noisy kids, talking and laughing, and plenty of social interaction among peer groups.
Unfortunately, there’s one other glaring similarity-kids mostly sit with kids of their own gender and race. Nationwide, such self-imposed grouping is a common practice in grammar schools, high schools and even on college campuses.
On Tuesday, elementary and middle schools around the country, including Percy Julian Middle School, participated in a nationwide program to break down some of those “walls.”
Julian, 420 S. Ridgeland Ave., took part in Mix It Up at Lunch, a program created by The Southern Poverty Law Center.
Launched in 2002, the purpose was to teach young people about tolerance through one of their most common interactive settings: the school lunchroom.
“This is just another way to reach kids in school,” said Booth Gunter, public affairs director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization offering educational programs and legal services in the areas of tolerance and civil rights.
Tuesday Nov. 14, was the official Mix It Up at Lunch Day, designed to get kids from different racial and gender groups to get to know one another in and outside of the lunchroom.
Mix It Up is an initiative of Teaching Tolerance, one of the center’s educational components.
Gunter said the center estimates that 4 million kids at 9,000 schools participated in yesterday’s event.
“We started Teaching Tolerance to teach kids about racial tolerance, and having a day to say, ‘We’re going to have these kind of talks,’ forces us to break down barriers,” he said.
Tuesday was Julian Middle School’s first Mix It Up Day. Julian’s sixth grade students entered the Commons, the school’s cafeteria, just before 1 p.m., no different from any other lunch period
But this time, before entering, students received a number designating a specific table at which to sit. Students were also given a letter, corresponding with that of another student. The students then sat down and asked one another questions like what each other’s favorite movie, singer, or TV show is. The questions were distributed by parent volunteers, and prepared by the District 97 Multicultural Education Program.
Lynn Allen, director of Multicultural Education, which sponsored the Julian Mix-It-Up, hopes the kids got something from the experience.
“We know that every child will not cooperate, but it’s a start to get them to think about tolerance,” said Allen. Her department decided to participate in Mix It Up Day with just the sixth grade lunch period. She hopes the seventh and eighth graders will be included next time.
Gunter said some schools across the country hold the program at different times during the year, including in the spring, and sometimes organize an entire month of activities.
At the program’s website, www.mixitup.org, schools can get materials such as posters fliers and T-shirt iron-ons.
In addition, the program provides a survey for early and upper-grade students, asking students questions like where in their school are cliques most likely to form. According to last year’s survey, 70 percent of students said the cafeteria is where social boundaries are most clearly drawn.
“We still have a lot of divisions in our society, and the schools seem to reflect this,” said Gunter.
The cafeteria wall
Kathy Lewis is a Julian parent whose son is in the sixth grade. Her daughter, now a sophomore at Oak Park and River Forest High School, was a sixth grader four years ago.
Lewis also volunteers at the school, and noticed that in the Commons, a temporary wall is set up during lunch periods separating groups of students on each side.
The school, she was told, set up the wall to keep the noise down.
But her son noticed that the group of kids who bought hot lunches at the school sat on one side, and students who brought their lunches from home sat on the other side.
The wall wasn’t up when her daughter was there, but Lewis noted that this recent revelation got her to thinking about the “walls” that schools can unintentionally put up between children.
“It’s a temporary wall, but it divides the Commons, and it ends up dividing students from one another,” she said.
Lewis said her son was too young to notice the economic factors in the group of students. Students who are low income-some of whom are also black-bring their food from home while kids who can afford to buy hot lunches at school sit on the side of the wall closest to the kitchen. That group tends to be largely white.
“Kids tend to group anyway, but I think it ends up grouping by race unintentionally,” Lewis said.
Outside the comfort zone
Allen said she wasn’t aware why the temporary wall was put up but she said it was down for Tuesday’s Mix It Up at Lunch.
She added that kids sit together for many reasons and not all having to do with race or gender. But while it’s understandable that people would want to be around their own group, Allen noted it’s good to get outside of “your comfort zone.”
“You sit with people you’re comfortable with,” said Allen. “There is a place where you have common needs, but we also want to live in a society where people feel comfortable everywhere.”