The happiest space that I had the pleasure of visiting in my school wasn’t a class, or an office, it was our middle school student of color affinity group. This group of students that meet every couple of weeks during lunch on Friday. It is made up of students who identify as students of color. No one is required to come to this lunch meeting, it’s completely volunteer, and it’s membership is created through student invitation, not through teacher prompting.
The teachers who organize this meeting order food, and have activities prepared for the students. Sometimes there’s a topic of discussion, other times it’s an art project, and it’s always student focused. If one of the teacher facilitators brings up a topic and the students end up talking about something different, they let the students have that discussion.
The first meeting I went to, I was immediately struck by how the teachers facilitator gave so much power to the students. Even in my school, with its progressive teaching philosophy, the power in the room lies with the teacher. The teacher control the conversation, they choose who talks and when. Even in situations when classes do not follow a traditional lecture of discussion setting, it is still clear when you talk in the room, who is the teacher.
The feeling during this lunch meeting was completely different. Teachers were giving student space in the conversation. If a teacher started talking and wanted to responded before a teacher had completed their thought, the teacher immediately stopped talking, and let the student take over. Allowing the students talks, really talk without corrections from teachers, without having the teacher determine whose turn it was to talk, created a feeling of support. You could tell in the way the teachers moved around the room, and in the way they were aware of how much space they took in the conversations, that they were really there for the students.
In this room, I saw students talk more openly, more energetically, and often with more volume then I saw these same students converse in classrooms and in the hallways. It was like they were horses, finally able to run free, and like watching horse run in the wild, there was a sense of freedom, safety, and joy in the room.
The teachers created a beautiful space free of judgement, and full of support with comments of affirmation, nods of agreement, and body language that was relaxed, open, and full of care. Sometimes goodness does engender goodness, and sometimes when you give all of the power to students, they use it to do something wonderful.
I would go to these meetings, and observed, and enjoyed all of this positivity. They didn’t need me talk, I take up enough airtime in this school. I heard student reflections about how this group made students feel free, helped them find friends, and helped them feel less alone. Students shared stories of micro-aggressions and empathized with other’s pain. They candidly asked questions about other people’s racial identity in the room, and people shared their thoughts and feelings, while other listened, eager to learn.
This affinity group is hope, it's community, and one of the most important group in my school. It's all that we hope for our kids, and it's proof of the positivity, and greatness that lies within all of our middle school students.
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