“Never in my wildest dreams did I foresee something as rewarding.” Comment by a participant in the Amherst Study Circles: Dialogues on Race and Class.
On May 13, the Amherst Education Foundation is hosting a gala to celebrate the service of state Rep. Ellen Story, who helped start the foundation, along with Jan Klausner-Wise, 20 years ago. The goal was to enhance equity and opportunity for all students in our school district. Teachers developed terrific classroom programs over the years.
I would like to highlight one project funded by AEF that had profound and lasting impact on the discussion of race and class in Amherst. It was developed by parents and community members and engaged people from all over the school district: Amherst Study Circles: Dialogues on Race and Class.
In the summer of 2002, members of the Amherst Regional High School Parent Center Board sat around Laurie Benoit’s kitchen table to discuss plans for the coming academic year. Kathleen Anderson, an African-American parent who worked in the ARHS Library, attended the meeting and posed this question: What is the ARHS Parent Center going to do about racism in the Amherst schools?
The parent center board members – Benoit, Deb Roth-Howe, Mary Kersell, Jane Markarian, Emily MClung and myself – took up the challenge. Roth-Howe suggested a model known as study circles dialogues developed by the nonprofit Topsfield Foundation and used by communities across the nation to bring diverse people together to work on tough issues.
Its strength rested on the premise that effective community problem-solving and change is more likely to develop when a group of people from diverse backgrounds listen to one another speak frankly and honestly in a safe environment free from rancor or criticism.
Listening was the key – not judging, and not professionals or consultants telling people what to do.
The first round of “pilot” dialogue groups involved over 30 people who met for two-hour sessions with a facilitator for six weeks in February 2003. A report prepared from a survey of respondents found overwhelming support and interest to continue the work.
It was at this point that study circles organizers turned to the foundation for funding. Over the next several years, its grants were critical to support the expenses of copying announcements, evaluation forms, providing modest stipends for facilitators and other bills.
In spring 2003, five more dialogue groups were organized with two facilitators. Participants included school administrators, teachers, students, parents and guardians drawn from different racial backgrounds. And in 2004-2005, more groups were organized, once again culminating in a forum with specific steps described to address problems and to promote positive change.
Close to 200 people participated over the course of several years. As an example of the range of participants, Barry Del Castilho (town manager), Rhonda Gordon (facilitator), Momodou Saar (ARHS teacher), Russ Vernon-Jones (principal) and Pat Ononibaku (parent and business owner) all took part.
Groups formed to take action. Participants suggested projects to enhance school climate and review ARHS policies with input from students and parents/guardians. A proposal was made to ARHS to have students take a study circles dialogue for course credit in multicultural understanding. All of these projects came from volunteers.
A parent center committee was organized to continue the hard work of addressing student and parent/guardian concerns around discipline and other issues.
That group, RaDAR: Race and Discipline, Action, Rights, met monthly for a number of years. It tracked discipline statistics, encouraged the funding of an ombudsperson in the school district, proposed a mediation project for ARHS, and launched the Norma Jean Anderson Civil Rights and Academic Achievement Award presented to a teacher/administrator at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast.
Through all this work, people took ownership of the need to help schools increase intercultural conversations. We raised awareness about institutional practices that supported disparities and inequalities in education.
Trust established laid seeds for subsequent actions to dismantle the institutional racism and classism in our school district.
As I see it, the study circles work was a radical moment in the history of Amherst.
Jackie Wolf lives in Amherst.