For many teachers in Broward County and throughout the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic has made teaching difficult. These difficulties have required us to re-imagine how we teach and engage our students. Utilizing a project-based approach, my students and I collaborated to begin documenting the stories of people in our communities who were pioneers when schools were being integrated 50 years ago.
The goals of our current project are threefold: first, to understand the experiences of students, staff, and faculty that helped integrate Broward County schools from 1963-1973; second, to document the hardships and successes during this time period; and third, to recognize and preserve the historic contributions of these individuals. Our project was recognized by the Broward County School Board in February. See the video here (https://bit.ly/3xbC8yg). The reflections below were written by students who participated in the project. Each week, additional students will share their experiences participating in the project.
By Lonzo Taylor
Since January, my class has been working on an oral history project that has changed the way I see interviews and some of the staff at our school. Participating in the interviews has allowed me to learn about the people of South Florida who built the community up to what it is today and that these people continue serving our community. One person that my class did not personally interview is Wade George Allen, who fought for desegregation of schools and colleges after dealing with discrimination in those places himself. We were lucky that Mr. Allen spoke at Plantation High School in 2016 and our teacher recorded his presentation. Although he is no longer with us, his story lives on.
The interviews have completely changed how I understand the interview process and how interviews are supposed to happen. Before taking this class, I did not think that so much effort actually went into the questions that were asked in an interview or how much time went into developing them. I see now that there is a lot more to interviewing than just thinking of random questions, one really needs to prepare in advance. I have also noticed that the people we have interviewed actually want to participate in the project and are just as interested in answering our questions, as we were to get answers from them. Please help my class and future generations learn about Broward’s history, by participating in an interview with my class.
If you are interested in being interviewed for this project, please contact Roberto Fernandez, III at Plantation High School (754) 322-1850.
