Photos of famous faces adorn the back wall of Lynelle Gamage’s first-grade classroom at Crestline Elementary School: Ruby Bridges, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr.
Beneath them, in the untidy handwriting of 6- and 7-year-olds, are descriptions of what those pictured accomplished.
“Rosa Parks got arrested because she would not give a white person her seat.”
“When Ruby Bridges was a little girl she was the only black kid in the school.”
“Martin Luther King Jr. and other people marched to end racism.”
Gamage knows her students are already recognizing race. Crestline is one of Evergreen Public Schools’ most diverse campuses, with 57.7 percent of students identifying as people of color.
And students are recognizing the power that individuals have to make things better.
It’s what prompted the school’s change-maker project, a partnership between Crestline and Fort Vancouver High School Center for International Studies. First-grade students from the elementary school last week interviewed high school leaders of the Pacific Islander Club, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Black Student Union and other organizations.
The high school students are teenagers; that makes them cool while still accessible for young children, Gamage said. But they’re also doing things to support their peers on campus.
“The students are defining making change as making change in their local community,” she said.
Students asked questions about what’s been unfair or hard, why it’s important to make positive change and what they hope will improve in the country in the next decade. Highlights from the interview will be compiled into a book, along with illustrations by the first-graders showing what they’d like to change in their community.
When you’re talking about institutional racism and systemic inequities with first-graders, things have to be simplified — a lot.
“White people get most of the stuff,” said Avaya Lagers, a student in Gamage’s class. “Black people don’t get most of the stuff.”
For Gamage, that’s why these conversations are important.
“I don’t want to introduce things that scare kids, especially kids of color,” she said. “How can we have conversations at a first-grade level that are age appropriate?”
Bethany Rivard, a Fort Vancouver High School English teacher, said it’s good for her students, too. They’re learning how to explain issues they’re passionate about to a different, less-entrenched audience.
“They’re really having to think about what is the essence of these questions,” Rivard said. “They’re learning how to connect with these younger kids.”
After class at Fort Vancouver High School, recently, the campus’ chapter of M.E.Ch.A., a Mexican-American student group, was organizing a mental health fair for Latino and Hispanic families. It’s just one example of the change they’re creating on campus, Rivard points out.
Jordy Ramirez, a 17-year-old junior, was among the student organizers.
Ramirez said he’s spent his high school years trying to make a positive impact and raising awareness of injustice, such as mental health access for people of color.
Fort’s demographics are comparable to Crestline’s, with 61.6 percent of students identifying as people of color.
For Ramirez, it’s a big deal to bring that message of “cultural acceptance” to students as young as first grade.
“We hold a special place of trying to lead by example; to try to make a positive impact,” he said.
Choskin Andon is a 17-year-old senior and member of the Pacific Islander Club.
To Andon, there’s no point in trying to hide children from tough conversations.
“They’re going to eventually run into it in the future,” he said. “Why not prepare them now?”
