In a school cafeteria, cliques usually determine where students sit. An event aims to mix it up.
By MATTHEW WASSERMAN
Published December 1, 2005
SPRING HILL - Lunch at Powell Middle School was all mixed up one day in mid November.
Normal social boundaries fell apart at the cafeteria tables. Cheerleaders sat with nerds. Rockers ate lunch with rappers. Preps conversed with slobs. Nobody knew which table anybody else belonged to.
"Everybody's always so divided up in the cafeteria," said eighth-grade student body president Dell Barnes. "Hopefully this will make it so more people get to know each other and there's more diversity within each type of group."
The cause for the giant amalgamation was the fourth annual National Mix It Up at Lunch Day, sponsored by the Study Circles Resource Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center's Tolerance.org Web site. Both organizations use the day to promote tolerance and communication among all students at middle and high schools around the country.
"What we're trying to do is get more communication on campus," said assistant principal Michael Varn. "We want the student population to interact more and give the different cliques a better understanding of each other."
Over the summer, Marguerite Kling, an eighth-grade history teacher, applied for a curriculum materials grant called "Lessons Learned Teaching Tolerance through the Lens of History." Since the grant was approved, the school has been working that theme into its history classes.
"I had been using information from Tolerance.org for my class," Kling said. "When I read about Mix It Up at Lunch Day, I thought it was a good example of tolerance that kids could really participate in."
More than 15,000 schools participated in the program on Nov. 15, according to Tolerance.Org. And the reason the event took place at lunchtime was because surveys revealed that social distinctions are most clearly drawn in the cafeteria. As one way to combat that, Powell art students drew their own distinctions on cutouts on the front stage of the cafeteria.
"They visually represented all the different cliques at the school, from the ballers to the hearing-impaired students," said art teacher Anna Spagna. "The whole purpose was to analyze why there are different groups and come up with a deeper understanding of them and then visually communicate that."
As the black and red cutouts loomed over the commotion in the cafeteria, Spagna smiled because everything really was mixed up.
"It looks chaotic, but the different kids are starting to talk to each other," she said. "You're less likely to be disrespectful to someone you know. People won't just be a face in the crowd or part of a group. It makes people individuals."
Before the event took place, eighth-grade history teachers had been focusing on tolerance and intolerance. The theme of January's school History Fair will be "Taking a Stand Against Intolerance."
"The kids knew a lot of history about the subject before Mix It Up at Lunch Day," said Kling. "The majority of the kids had even taken a survey from Tolerance.Org about tolerance and cliques in schools which prepared them for the event."
Although the students knew the reasons behind and the importance of the day, some were shy or hesitant to stir things up.
"I've been going around to all the tables and getting everybody to change seats and move around," said eighth-grade student body vice president Chereka Roberts. "Most of the people are doing it; others just need some motivation."
When the necessary motivation was a little much for one person to handle, some conscientious students helped out.
"I think it's a good idea, so I wanted to get more active with it," said Quan Mason, a 14-year-old eighth-grader who wandered from table to table, sitting down with people he had never spoken to before. "Anything that helps people accept other people for who they are is a good thing."
Another 14-year-old eighth-grader, Olivia Nelson, was at one of the tables Mason went to.
"I guess it's just not me to go out of my comfort zone to go to new tables and sit with new people," she said. "But if anybody comes over here, I'll be fine with the chance to meet new people."
Kling said she was pleased with the feedback she got from the activity, and because of it she plans on having another Mix It Up at Lunch Day in January.
"Some of the kids came up to me afterward and said that it doesn't make sense to do something like this and then drop it," Kling said. "The kids are telling me we need to do this and things like it more often to promote tolerance. All I could tell them was that they were right."
