Freedom School Focuses on Literacy, Civil Rights
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- It wasn't a conversation normally heard on the first day of school, but Summer Freedom School doesn’t aim to be a typical summer school.
As Donielle Lisbon, an Youngstown State University education intern from Struthers, led a discussion about the impact of Negro leagues baseball on the Civil Rights Movement, the hands of eight students from the elementary schools in the Youngstown City Schools District started shooting up as they asked questions.
After Lisbon answered them, she posed a question to them, “Have you ever felt nervous or scared before a performance?”
“A little,” said one girl who plays the violin.
“Not really,” a boy answered. “I'm wide receiver. I don't have to hit anybody.”
The point of the discussion: to teach these students that they could relate to the fears that players in the Negro leagues had to live with, from segregated hotels to the threats and jeers of hostile whites.
The purpose of the Freedom School, held in Tabernacle Baptist Church, is twofold. In addition to teaching students about not just the Civil Rights Movement, but also about civil rights as a whole, the school is looking to ensure that summer vacation doesn’t hinder the students’ education.
“We're changing students lives. What we're doing is providing them with an opportunity to not experience summer reading loss and enhancing their world view by immersing them in the Civil Rights Movement,” said Allan Irizarry-Graves, site coordinator.
The Freedom School is a nationwide program operated by the Children's Defense Fund -- headed by civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman -- that focuses on serving students healthful meals, summer education and involvement in their communities. This is the first time the Freedom School has had a location in the Mahoning Valley, says project director Lois Thornton.
Each Freedom School location is funded through grants, which the program must secure on their own. Thornton said the school received $70,000 in grants from area organizations including the Raymond John Wean Foundation, Neighborhood Ministries and PNC Charitable Trusts.
A minimum of $60,000 was required to start the school, she noted.
Students who were recommended by their teachers and principals begin each morning with a reading curriculum that features books about the Civil Rights Movement. While the focus is literacy, the students also have the chance to learn skills outside the classroom, such as cooking, art and board games.
As the summer goes on, those activities will include field trips to Oh Wow! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science & Technology and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.
“There's numerous things going on so that they can grow and expand their horizons and experience, things they may not have been able to previously,” Irizarry-Graves said. “They also have have the opportunity to participate in the National Day of Social Action so they're able to get in there and do the work [they're being taught].”
Even on the opening day of the six-week program, both Thornton and Irizarry-Graves said, students are enjoying their summer education.
Irizarry-Graves also noted that the students don’t see the program as summer school, usually seen as something to be avoided.
“The kids have loved it,” he said. “They're saying things like, 'I'm glad I came today,' or, 'I made this new friend.' It's been really encouraging and enlightening to me.”
Parents, Thornton said, are excited because of the educational benefits the Freedom School offers.
“They want their kids to maintain … what they've learned in the past [school year],” she said. “It's not just an average intervention program. It's a program that helps them to think and gain momentum [in education] and think outside the box.”
While the school does have six interns YSU teaching classes every day, retired teachers also will come in to help.
“There will be intergenerational learning where we have volunteers who are retired and coming in to work with our students, which is important for us as a community to come together as a collective body,” she said.
Having retired volunteers also helps the students have a better understanding of civil rights, Irizarry-Graves added.
“Civil rights is more than African-Americans. All people [have civil rights],” he said. “Children have a voice and if they come together as a collective body, they can change some things in this world. We want our kids to know that they do have that voice.”
Pictured: Donielle Lisbon talks with students at the Summer Freedom School about the impact of Negro League baseball on the Civil Rights Movement.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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