KANSAS CITY, KAN. – Students at Bishop Ward will join more than one million other students across the country on Tuesday, Oct. 29 to help break down social and racial barriers by participating in the 12th annual Mix It Up at Lunch Day.
The event, launched by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project in 2002, encourages students to sit with someone new in the cafeteria for just one day.
Cafeterias are the focus of Mix It Up because that’s where a school’s social boundaries are most obvious. Many schools plan similar barrier-busting activities throughout the day. Some use the event to kick off a yearlong exploration of social divisions.
Mix It up Day is a school unifying activity, and complements our anti-bullying week. Mix It Up works by having all the students at the lunch table mixed. This goal will be accomplished by giving each of the students a playing card during homeroom. Each card corresponds to a different table, which the student will sit at during lunch. The tables will have no more than eight students.
Once in lunch the students will participate in several fun activities. These include fun questions, such as what is your favorite food and what would be your perfect vacation.
Another activity will be fact or fiction, where a student will write four facts about themselves but one will be wrong. The other students at the table will guess which is false. We will also provide art supplies in case the activities end early.
“Mix It Up is a positive step that schools can take to help create learning environments where students see each other as individuals and not just as members of a separate group,” said Teaching Tolerance Director Maureen Costello. “When people step out of their cliques and get to know someone, they realize just how much they have in common.”
Bishop Ward senior Tony Subasic said “I remember doing this last year. It was a fun way to meet people, different people from interesting cultures.”
Bishop Ward senior Audrey Kump said “This was a good way to meet new people. It broke down barriers between cliques.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center established Teaching Tolerance in 1991 to provide educators with free resources designed to reduce prejudice, improve intergroup relations and support equitable school experiences for the nation’s children.
For more information contact Bishop Ward at 913-371-6901 or visit www.wardhigh.org. Bishop Ward provides a quality, Catholic, college-preparatory education in a Christ centered community that nurtures the body, mind and soul of each student.
