Students at Robert Taft Middle School crossed social and racial boundaries on Wednesday march 25th, 2015 with a “Mix It Up at Lunch Day” event which is designed to foster respect and understanding in schools.
Mix It Up encourages students to sit with someone new in the cafeteria for just one day. Many schools plan similar barrier-busting activities throughout the day. Some just use the event to kick off the exploration of social divisions.
“I can’t believe the Mix It Up Lunch was a complete success! This was to help those kids who don’t have many friends to meet new people. I just hope they enjoyed it as much as I did. Alex Johnson, Grade 8”
Mix It Up at Lunch Day is sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance Project.
Student organizers agree that Mix It Up at Lunch Day encourages students to cross group lines and meet new people. Mix It Up also fosters school spirit and unity, raises awareness about social boundaries and helps student meet different people.
Planning and advertising for the event began weeks in advance with the help of Taft’s new Bully-Project; a team of students that facilitate anti-bullying practices in the school. Posters were hung all around the school and teachers helped in prepping the students for the event. The lunch tables were decorated with colored table runners, and each student was given a random color sticker in line and told to sit at the corresponding table. “The students were super nervous about it for days, and in the end they all had a great time and asked to have it again!” Facilitator, Danielle Litavec, 8th grade school counselor.
The Southern Poverty Law Center launched Teaching Tolerance in 1991 to provide educators with free resources designed to reduce prejudice and promote respect for differences among our nation’s children. The Mix It Up program began in 2002.