For thirteen years, more than 10,000 Jackson-Madison County School System middle school students have evaluated the impact of violence through classroom discussions and in essays, and in the words of educators, they are becoming “trailblazers.”
The students discuss what they think should be done to change the culture of violence while making personal commitments to do something.
Past national student ambassadors, city officials, school administration, community members and service organizations initiated the start of the challenge in a press conference at City Hall on Friday.
Traditionally, founder and chair councilman Ernest Brooks, II held the kick-off with a high-energy pep rally at different, individual schools to begin the challenge. He did the press conference to change the way the challenge starts.
2019 Do The Write Thing Kickoff: JMCSS students talk about the program and impact
Differences: more schools, workshops
Darryl Wells, Jackson Career and Technology Elementary seventh and eighth grade English teacher, said the program isn’t just about highlighting issues but providing solutions, which students do.
The students are not only writing about what happens in the community but also about solutions to those challenges, Wells said.
Rose Hill School hadn’t participated in the challenge in a few years but Teresa McSweeney, in her second year as the school’s principal, said anytime there is an opportunity to give students a voice within their communities and nationally, it’s important to take advantage of that.
“Our students need to know that they’re part of a global community and that they’re not alone in what they’re dealing with,” she said. “It’s not just in their community. Violence touches every community, every demographic, every state. They see that it’s not just a challenge in Jackson, TN.
“They’re our future leaders, so it is something they will have to address as adults.”
McSweeney saw how the challenge, in which at least a million students nationwide have participated in, impacted young people have experienced by violence in their communities.
“Violence in the Jackson community is impacting our community,” she said during the press conference. “Our children have trauma experiences that are affecting their academic success in the schools and in the classroom.”
It’s an important issue, McSweeney said.
Program coordinator Annette Graves said when more schools or previously involved schools participate, it shows unity in the community and that they have the same goals of making the community a better place and working together to reduce crime.
“We all want the same thing,” Graves said. “We all want safe neighborhoods and safer environments for our students.”
'You are trailblazers. You are our future.'
The program, which garners as many as 700 essays each year, brings the community together to talk about, address and understand youth violence, Brooks said.
Members of the Jackson, TN Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. have helped Brooks read those letter for the past six years. Former educator and member of the sorority Gwendolyn J. Whitelaw said the letters are touching and moving.
“You don’t realize what kids are going through and what they’ve been exposed to,” she said.
Some letters bring tears to the eyes of Whitelaw and others who read the letters.
“You are trailblazers. You are our future,” Whitelaw said. “We won’t be here, and it’s going to be your job to carry on this initiative to stop the violence.”
To do that, she said it will take a village to help mold the youth and create a new mindset.
“And, you are going to be the people to carry on that tradition,” Whitelaw said.
Essay packets will be due March 6. This year, there will be workshops to help teachers improve student participation and enhance writing quality.
Generation of opening up
While some students choose to write about national acts of violence, some write about their own communities, the educators echoed.
Brooks said when he and his generation were middle and high schoolers, they didn’t talk much about problems they went through, whether in the home or in society.
But, the essays students have written tells a different story of the current generation. The younger generation is writing more expressly and personally.
“It takes a lot to open yourself up and talk about some painful things,” he said.
Lasherica Thornton is The Jackson Sun's education reporter. Reach her at 731-343-9133 or by email at lthornton@jacksonsun.com. Follow her on Twitter: @LashericaT
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City councilman, educators start Do The Write Thing challenge - The Jackson Sun
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