Celebrating Our Differences: 10th Grade, 3's Delve Into Diversity

Each Thanksgiving, BT alumni come back to BT to reunite with former classmates and catch up with their teachers. This year marked a new alumni reunion first: former classmates reuniting…as BT teachers with their students!

PreSchool 3’s Morah Mekenzie Kruger '09 and High School English teacher Ms. Lizzy Solovey ’09 collaborated on a special lesson about appreciating both diversity and commonality — an expression of BT's core value, derech eretz — in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. “We have been discussing how our friends might look different from us but we still play with them because they are our friends,” says Morah Mekenzie of the classroom activities leading up to this special day.

Exploring Our Differences

That prompted a review of all the ways people can be different, including having different hair, wearing different clothes, or speaking different languages. “They said that some people speak Spanish,” Morah Mekenzie shares, “but we speak ‘American’.”

On the big day, Ms. Solovey’s students read to their PreSchool counterparts Whoever You Are by Mem Fox. Next, all the students lined up, then separated into different groups based on things they had in common with each other, such as having siblings or pets; whether they played an instrument or liked to sing; and if they have traveled to Israel or spoke Hebrew.

Finally, the 3’s had a chance to teach their new High School friends their favorite song: Sesame Street’s "We All Sing with the Same Voice." Morah Mekenzie, whose “big kids” enjoyed playing with the “bigger kids,” was impressed with her students’ grasp of these big ideas.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is such a big concept, but we made it relatable for both 3’s and High School students,” Morah Mekenzie says. “They all saw what they had in common with each other, as well as their differences.”

 

Both Yoav T. ’31 and Elizabeth H. ‘31 reported to Morah Mekenzie how much they liked when the High School students read to them, as well as “teaching the bigger kids our song.”

 

The tenth grade students gained a lot from their interaction as well. Rikki M. ’19 was impressed with the 3’s comprehension of this important message. “It was really impressive to see how much they learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. and what he stood for."

 

“Working with the PreSchoolers really opened my eyes to the similarities everyone shares,” comments Menachem P. '19. “These kids have only been on this earth for a few years, yet they are taught the same thing as High Schoolers on a more simple level: we are all the same on the inside no matter our outer differences or amount of experience in the world. Possessing more knowledge doesn't make one better.”