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Students get extra history lessons
Regular classes are interrupted so Parks' contributions, impact can be discussed.
Students at Renaissance High School in Detroit are getting a history lesson this week over lunch.
A video commemorating the life of Rosa Parks will play during each lunch period as a way to help students better understand her historical impact on the nation -- and help them realize there's still a long way to go, said Antoinette Pearson, social studies curriculum leader.
"We think and feel that a lot of our students are kind of removed, and they don't really understand the impact the civil rights movement had on the way they live today," Pearson said.
Metro Detroit school districts are using Parks' death as an opportunity to teach their students about her life and what she stood for. They're tossing aside their regular class lessons and instead are assigning writing assignments, encouraging class discussions and watching videos about her life.
Samantha Pensko, 17, a senior at Dakota High School in the Chippewa Valley district, said it felt good to talk about Parks' contributions to society during her American Law class.
"You have to take what's going on around you and apply it to what you learn from our textbooks for your education to go further," said Pensko, of Macomb Township. "I think she was a great woman. She did a lot for America."
Penny Herrington spoke to 95 Renaissance students Monday about the right to vote and stand up for your beliefs. The California resident is in town for Parks' funeral and to accept an award from the Wayne State University Black Alumni Association for her mother, Viola Liuzzo, a white homemaker killed in the civil rights movement.
"It's very important," said Herrington, noting that her family used to live in Detroit. "We still have a ways to go. It's on our children now."
She spoke about the struggles her family faced because of her mother's involvement in the civil rights movement. A cross was once burned at her home, and two of her family members changed their names.
Detroit Public Schools also plans to honor Parks by observing a moment of silence today during her funeral, said Lekan Oguntoyinbo, district spokesman.
"Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement, made America a better country, not just for black people but for all Americans," he said. "This is just a small way of paying tribute to her and to her memory. We also believe that this is a good way for our kids to continue to remember their history."
In Eastpointe, social studies teacher Susan Ford put aside her curriculum on Western Europe to tell her seventh-grade students at Oakwood Middle School that anyone can make a difference.
"People have to fight for what is right," she said. "If they believe in something strong enough ... they can make a difference. I want them to know there's no way you can ever accept intolerance."
Ford said her students listened intently to her stories of growing up in the 1950s and asked questions.
"You have to put your lessons aside when something like this comes up," she said.
Bloomfield Hills Middle School social studies teacher Amy German said Parks is a good role model for her seventh-grade students.
"I always considered her as Detroit royalty," she said. "I want them to learn that one voice can be heard and can be heard for decades."
One of her students, Jayme Groth, said she enjoyed talking about Parks' contributions to the civil rights movement, including her defiant act of refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955.
"It took a lot of courage to do that," said Jayme, 12.
You can reach Christina Stolarz at (586) 468-0343 or cstolarz@detnews.com.
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