Bartlett students mix it up!
Cartoon by Margaret Cross
November 12, 2009 • written by Lauren Haley
Filed under Opinions
In 1985, director John Hughes made a movie, “The Breakfast Club”, about a group of teens, from all different cliques, who got detention on the same day. Eventually the teens break down their social barriers and become friends. Now, Bartlett offers its own version of this popular movie: Mix It Up Day.
On Friday, Nov. 13 all students in the cafeteria will be given the opportunity to sit at a new lunch table and meet new friends. Students who participate will be randomly assigned to different tables so that they can strike up a conversation with someone they might not ordinarily socialize with. There will be ten door prizes given away at each lunch.
Schools all across the country will be holding their own Mix It Up Day, brought to schools by Teaching Tolerance (a project by the Southern Poverty Law Center). This project tries to teach them to have respect for peers of diverse backgrounds.
“You may not agree with who they are or what they are, but I think it’s important that we respect each other,” said guidance counselor Shanika Moore.
Bartlett’s guidance counselors put this event together to get students to try to make new friends and to be comfortable interacting with other people, but these interactions are only possible if students will actually participate.
“I do think there will be more participants this year because of the approach that I took this year,” Moore said.
She also said that she is trying to make Mix It Up more noticeable by advertising bright colors and by involving the Pep Crew and Bartlett Ambassadors. Also, a teacher will assist students so that they will be more comfortable with the process.
“I think the momentum last year was kind of low because students didn’t know what they were supposed to do,” said Moore.
This event has proven effective in years past. Mix It Up Day organizers who responded to a 2008 survey conducted by Quality Education Data said that 97% of students had positive interactions that day, and another 78% said that the day made them feel more comfortable interacting with different kinds of people.
Along with just changing seats at lunch, Teaching Tolerance has come up with various ways to mix it up. Some teachers have their students write essays saying how they matter to the people around them. Others have their students say ‘put-ups’, or compliments, rather than putting other students down.
Sitting at the same table with the same people everyday can get a little old. Students at Bartlett should step out of their cliques, and try to meet new people. As senior Mallory Granberry said, “We’re not asking you to be BFF’s or anything.” So come on Bartlett, mix it up!
As much as I’m for the idea of breaking out of cliques and making new friends, one has to realize it’s human nature to be segregated. People, especially teens in particular, tend to form cliques of friends and segregate themselves from anyone else. Why do they do this? Acceptance amongst friends in their group. Bartlett is a school where there is a lacking of acceptance from peers, and everyone is quick to “check” or pass judgment on. In order to escape from said judgment, people find friends who will accept them and stay with them, rather than branching out into the vast unknown of a new person you barely even know and hoping for the best.