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This year, Winter Week took place the during last week of January which abuts the beginning of Black History Month. On Thursday, Jan. 30, METCO coordinator and Academic Liaison Mark Liddell presented The Blueprint: A Black History Template of Success for students and staff in the lecture hall during the third block as a Winter Week activity.
His aim for the presentation was to spark curiosity throughout students and think about aspects of black history that are not in their everyday curriculum at WHS. Last year, Liddell conducted a form to ask students who were not being represented in the curriculum. Liddell kept the presentation interactive including videos and time for students to answer questions as well as sharing his information on the slideshow.
“Students often graduate without knowing much about the culture of the person sitting next to them in class,” Liddell said. “I think this thing that I’ve done for the last two years, with the black history piece, is exposing students to things they don’t know about their peers that are sitting next to them.”
Not only did Liddell focus on black history, he also spoke about other cultures. The presentation was interactive, with Liddell asking questions for students to answer.
“I’m always intrigued when a student raises his or her hand to express something because so much of it is not known,” Liddell said. “It takes some courage and vulnerability in that space with a lot of other kids to offer up something, and there were a few kids who did that today, and it’s always inspiring to me.”
Liddell wanted not only students to think about their curriculum, but also wanted teachers to question what they are teaching. Teachers that brought their classes to the winter week activity also had a chance to interact with Liddell as learners opposed to their usual teaching position.
“As a member of the English department, it’s an important reminder for us to make sure that the text that we’re teaching offers diverse representations of humanity, which I think the department does a good job of,” English Teacher Philip George said.
According to Liddell, there is an endless amount of Black history that students can engage with in and out of classrooms. Some students found Liddells’ presentation engaging, learning about major black leaders such as Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.
“I’ve seen it before, but it’s really interesting because it really shows how much of our history we don’t cover or we don’t see and how many people of color have influenced [our history],” junior Addison Voight said.
Some of the information was completely new to some students and some were inspired to continue on with learning about black history.
“I’m very excited to take that knowledge that I learned and go further with it and research more in depth on the topics in the slideshow,” sophomore Grace Willis said.
