THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170286
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 82 lines
Ann Bixler's second-bell Honors 10 literature class was emancipated at 10:31 a.m. Monday. The students had counted down the seconds.
For the previous week, the sophomores wore bright pink and blue armbands that made them ``different'' from the rest of the Great Bridge High School population, and they didn't like it.
This difference meant they had to sit at the back of the bus on the way to school. It meant other students called them ``scum,'' ``freak'' and ``retard.'' Teachers ignored their raised hands in class. At school and at home, they could drink only water while others drank juice or soda.
Chris Moore, 14, couldn't get a second helping of mashed potatoes at home.
The students participated in a class project to study the persecution of ethnic and religious groups in American history through literature. In addition to reading stories about the Puritans coming toAmerica to escape religious persecution and tales of the Native American experience during the next nine weeks, Bixler wanted the students to get a true understanding of oppression.
The students said they did.
``It was like, weird,'' said Eric Stuekerjuergen, 15. ``Sometimes people really got in your face. You knew it was a project - it wasn't real - but sometimes it didn't feel like a project.''
The project began last Tuesday after Bixler sent letters home to parents and to teachers asking them to participate in the exercise. The premise was that the students would be labeled with armbands that read, ``Mrs. Bixler's students,'' and because they were her students, they should be persecuted.
More than 60 of Bixler's students had to wear armbands at all times, except during athletic activity. Students kept journals to log their feelings and activities but the booklets also served as a pass, like papers freed slaves carried for identification. Bixler's students without badges or journals were reported to Bixler. As Bixler's students, they knew to get in the lunch line last and to sit only with other Bixler students during lunch. They could drink only out of shorter water fountains.
Bixler offered extra credit to students who ratted on other students not wearing their badges or sneaking soda, similar to privileges offered to slaves who reported on runaways.
``Students began telling on each other the first day,'' Bixler said. ``It told me they were excited about the project, interested in participating.''
Bixler came up with the idea to do something unique and relevant for the students.
``When school started, I asked the students to raise their hands if they had never been persecuted, and everyone except my black students raised their hands,'' Bixler said.
``It occurred to me that when students read things, they can have a cognitive understanding, but can't feel it. Having them experience it could help them feel it.''
And they did.
Christin Williams, 15, said she was embarrassed when she and two other Bixler students were told to do the Macarena line dance in front of their Spanish class. Another student was frustrated when he was told to clean up his classroom and then his classmates dumped extra paper onto the floor.
Security monitor Joe Silvasi was known for barking at Bixler students who made the mistake of sitting at the front lunch table.
It was an interesting experience for Silvasi, who grew up in a Pennsylvania town where kids from his Polish neighborhood knew not to venture into Italian or Irish neighborhoods ``unless you wanted to get beaten up.''
``And they knew not to come into our section either,'' Silvasi said. ``And later in life I realized what I had done and what had been done to me. That was just life. . . .
``These kids today haven't a clue of what others had to go through.''
Some Bixler students said they didn't have to experiment with persecution.
``I didn't have to put on the badge to see what it felt like,'' said Andrea Harrell, a 15-year-old African-American student.
She said when she's the only black student in class, she's typically the last picked for group activities. During arguments with her white peers, she's been called ``nigger,'' she said.
Another African-American student, Brandi Redd, 15, said she raises her hand in class even though white students are usually called on first.
``The exercise will be good for some,'' Redd said. ``But others will just never know.'' ILLUSTRATION: STEVE EARLEY
The Virginian-Pilot
Ramah Johnson, left, and Melissa Noble were part of Ann Bixler's
study of persecution in America. by CNB