As with Cultural Club, the purpose of the Cultural Co-op is to investigate different cultures. With the co-op each family in the co-op takes a week and teaches about a specific country or state. They can teach about the country’s history, geography, currency, famous monuments or politics. They can utilize videos, books, food samples, dance, game or songs. Basically anything about the country can be taught in any form.

Recently, our cultural co-op, which meets during what we call Monday Classes because we meet for 8-weeks on Mondays, decided to explore the different cultures of each of our 50 states in the U.S. As someone who grew up in Alabama I decided to introduce this very southern state to these northern kids. But I did not want to do a cursory explanation and so I decided to tackle teaching the Civil Rights Era.

Now some would say 6 to 10 year-olds should not be taught about that era because at times it was very violent. I disagree. The overriding concepts can be taught without teaching about every detail of violence. It was with this premise that I prepared for teaching Alabama.

When I was in college I took many sociology classes. While I learned a lot, I found them more fun because of the many social experiments we were assigned. To this day, I still remember my Professor’s name. One day she broke up the class to teach about class systems and racism. The blue and brown-eyed experiment, as it is known, was first introduced the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 by Jane Elliott to her group of then third graders. The experiment works by dividing the class into the blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups. I decided I would use this experiment to help me teach about the Civil Rights Era.

Since our class was smaller than a regular class I slightly modified the racism experiment. Before I began I explained the purpose to the parents and asked if anyone would have a challenge. All of the parents thought it would be a great learning experience for the kids. When the children arrived, I quickly divided the class by eye color. I only explained that we were going to do an experiment. They were to leave the classroom and re-enter but this time I wanted the blue-eyed kids to walk through the door that was closer to the table. The brown-eyed kids were to walk through the door further away from the table.

When the children walked in, slightly confused, I told them that the blue-eyed kids could sit at the head of the table, while the brown-eyed children would have to sit in the middle. Then I presented PBS video excerpts from “Eyes on the Prize”. Most libraries have this video. As we began I told the blue-eyed kids they would determine when we could start and stop the video. As the video played, I explained certain aspects of the Civil Rights Era. We discussed what it was, why it began, how the black citizens organized, why they marched and did sit-ins, how they succeeded and so on.

I then offered some traditional Alabama foods including pecan pie and a recipe from the Alabama First Lady Patsy Riley, which is included below. Since the racism experiment continued the blue-eyed kids decided who would get served, who could eat first and when they would be done. While the complete experiment lasts two days, ours only lasted about 40 minutes. Nonetheless the kids understood the point. The brown-eyed kids became very irritated that they could not eat when they wanted, had to walk in through a different door, sit in a less desirable section of the table and had no say in the video among other things. The blue-eyed kids became very uncomfortable. Since this is not how they are raised, they did not like making those decisions. And even with a small group of kids the blue-eyed quickly became uncomfortable with hurting their friends.

In the end, I explained how the blue-eyed kids represented the whites while the brown-eyed kids represented the blacks during the Civil Rights Era. (This could be adapted to any type of discrimination, based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex or educational choices.) We then discussed the following. -What is racism? -How did it feel to not be able to do what you wanted as a brown-eyed? -How did it feel to make every decision as the blue-eyed? -As a brown-eyed did you feel like you were being singled out just because you had brown-eyes? -How did it feel to the blacks in the 60’s who were not allowed to sit anywhere on the bus? -Why do you think the blacks walked so many miles to and from work instead of taking the buses? -Would you have wanted to live during that time? Why or why not? -Were the sit-ins, bus boycotts and marches effective? -What did you learn? -Is there anything you would change? -How can you make a difference today in dealing with other people of different races?

In the end, the children gained a better understanding of a tumultuous time in our history, learned about Alabama and decided they did not like or agree with racial discrimination. Someday they will learn all the details of the Civil Rights Era but for now they got it. They learned that discrimination on any level is not right. With understanding they can make a difference in the world.

The following is the recipe from the Alabama First Lady Patsy Riley:

Fresh Tomatoes 3 large tomatoes or more ½ c. white cooking wine 1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese ½ c. Italian breadcrumbs

Cut tomatoes. Place on cookie sheet that has been sprayed with garlic-flavored spray. Spray tomatoes lightly. Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese and Italian breadcrumbs. Pour white cooking wine over each slice. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese melts.