December 17, 2004

SJSU students teach ESD children
Embracing diversity through project learning

A 9-year-old sipped herbal tea while singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” in Mandarin.

When the song ended, Ling-Mei Wong, a senior majoring in journalism at San Jose State University, showed a dozen attentive children how to write Chinese calligraphy.

Dressed in a native Croatian costume, Josipa Caran (at left) and Luis Barrios (in middle) show off the children’s artwork that celebrates the Croatian culture. Photo by Dona Nichols

Students at Cadwallader Elementary School don’t typically sing songs in Chinese. However, this semester they have done just that as part of a unique program aimed at teaching children about diversity.

SJSU students traveled to Cadwallader in San Jose’s Evergreen school district every afternoon to teach elementary school children to embrace diverse cultures and lifestyles as part of a unique program called “Embracing Diversity.”

A documentary film by the same title that focuses on this project will be shown at Cadwallader Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. and the children will be officially recognized as mentors in diversity.

In exchange, the SJSU students get a different perspective on culture and, while they’re at it, learn something about working with kids.

“Who would have thought that a lesson in life could come from an elementary school?” SJSU student Luis Barrios said.

“This is the best birth control we could ask for,” said SJSU student Judith Dominguez, who learned that working with kids takes a lot of patience and endurance.

Brian Hastings, another SJSU student, is also getting a lot from the experience as the director of the film portion of the project.

“We thought we were going to the school to teach the kids, but we had no idea how much we were going to learn from them as well,” Hastings said.

“As we get older, we are so busy searching for complex answers to the problems we face, that we overlook the simplistic explanations that we were able to see as children,” Hastings said. Working with the students of Cadwallader Elementary school was a reminder to many that sometimes the truth isn’t always as hard to understand as most people make it out to be.

The diversity workshops are part of a class project for Dona Nichols’ SJSU mass communications class. “Diversity and Media” examines the relationship between the diverse groups and how media affect perceptions.

As the class syllabus reflects, the students in the course are taking what they have learned in their time dissecting society and culture, and utilizing their knowledge to make a difference in their community.

Elementary school children were chosen for the project because Nichols wanted students who were young enough to have open minds about such complex issues as ethnicity and diversity.

Nichols’ students benefit from what she calls the “trickle up effect,” by working with children from different cultures.

“The “trickle up” effect is based on the notion that adults can learn from children,” said Nichols, who lives in Evergreen. “I learn from my students all the time, so why shouldn’t my students have the advantage of learning to embrace diversity from those who have no prejudice—the kids?”

SJSU mass communications students adopted Cadwallader Elementary School as their partner in diversity in hopes of doing something that could make a difference.

Cadwallader was chosen for two reasons … its cultural diversity and its principle, Denise Williams, who has a habit of saying yes to anything that will enrich the lives of her students.

My Anh Le and Alexis Nichols have fun with bubbles during a diversity jeopardy game. Photo by Dona Nichols

Williams announced the creation of the “diversity club” that would meet every day after school, and nearly 20 students signed up. These children chose to be there because they wanted to make a difference.

“I can lecture on diversity and tolerance for hours, but if I’m going to really make a difference with my students and with my community, I have to go outside the classroom,” Nichols said. “It’s like trying to teach people to swim. I can tell you about it and even show you some of the strokes while standing here on dry land, but sooner or later you’ve got to jump in the water. My students are in the water, and sometimes I jump in with them.”

Nichols believes that many of the solutions in overcoming discrimination related to race, religion, disabilities, gender and lifestyle preferences can be solved by educating children and adults together.

“Children are smart and open to anything creative and stimulating,” Nichols said.

“However, if we don’t get them by the time they finish sixth grade, they’re lost. Once they’re in middle school and high school they’re no longer willing to embrace cultural and physical differences. It’s just not cool.”

The SJSU students take turns going to Cadwallader throughout the semester-long class. Each student is responsible for creating a lesson plan dealing with diversity and preparing an ethnic dish as part of the lesson.

Children learn lessons on race, gender bias, stereotypes and diverse cultures. The kids learn by singing, playing games, sampling cuisine from different cultures and discussing such issues as media and race in society.

One day they create haikus, another they’re sipping English tea or learning how to use chopsticks. Yet another day they receive a lesson on Scotland, complete with a bagpiper and shortbread cookies. Every day is a new cultural experience in music, food, sports and art.

We’re teaching them, but they’re also teaching us,” Thuy Nghiem, an SJSU student said.

“They are blunt, rambunctious, thoughtful, curious, courageous, energetic, witty, eloquent and sly, and they’re 10-year-olds,” said Roderick Bersamina who taught the Cadwallader kids how to write and perform for a poetry slam.

“It is amazing how fast the walls people build to protect themselves from being hurt by their peers, come tumbling down when you are in a safe place and forced to talk about issues that most people try not to even think about,” said SJSU student, Victoria Gothot. “It feels so good to finally be able to pass some of the things that I learned on to a new generation.”

One recent workshop had fourth and fifth graders discussing how the Disney movie “Mulan” portrayed gender in a non-stereotypical ways.

No matter the topic, Cadwallader students have learned important lessons about living in a diverse society as part of the “Embracing Diversity” program.

David Carbajal, a sixth-grader, said, “You can’t judge people by how they look on the outside like if they have zits or something, you have to look to the inside and you just might find a friend in there.”

“I like how we learn new games from other cultures,” said 9-year-old My Anh Le.

Parents of these children are also pleased with the program.

Evergreen resident Leslie Gallagher brings her daughter, Pearson, to the diversity program about twice a week. Pearson attends Matsumoto Elementary School so it’s not as easy for her to attend.

“I grew up in the South and I saw so much of the hurt and pain that grew out of prejudice,” Gallagher said. “I was really excited when I heard about this program, and knew I wanted my daughter in it.”

“We are about helping our students be all they can be,” said Denise Williams, Cadwallader’s principal. “Starting with the inner-self and knowing who they are and knowing who their peers are, is just a really good way of letting them know that it’s great to be different. Just because we have different skin color, different eyes and different hair, we all are one body here at Cadwallader and that is what we try to instill in our students.”

The diversity program continues Monday through Friday until winter break. Plans for spring semester project learning are still in the works. For more information, e-mail Dona Nichols at dnichols@casa.sjsu.edu.

This story was written by San Jose State University students in the mass communications-105 class, “Diversity and Media.” Students who contributed to this story include: Luis Barrios, Roderick Bersamina, JulieAnn Bornales, Josipa Caran, Victoria Gothot, Brian Hastings, Ashley Little, Emmanuel Lopez, Janette Najera, Westiann Paulson and Eric Rucker.