Educationally Speaking -- Gay Geiser-Sandoval

Local secondary schools have all received federal grant money for

school safety, which was created after the Columbine High shootings. Our

district has used its funds for police officers on campus, peer mediation

programs, school assemblies and other uses. I attended an event I think

would be more effective.

Unlike at most places, Challenge Day was held on a Saturday because

school officials weren’t too sure about it. It took place between 10 a.m.

and 4 p.m., but I came late. Within 30 seconds of my arrival, I found

myself in a large circle, getting a big welcome from the group.

The next thing I knew, we were told to disperse and find someone we

didn’t know from a different generation. I hooked up with a seventh-grade

boy, and our assignment was to have one person talk and the other person

only listen. Then, those tasks were reversed, with us talking or

listening about assigned subjects.

As I started to get filled in on what I missed, it was time to hug.

You had to hug as many people as you could, while others tried to freeze

those not hugging. To unfreeze them, you had to crawl through their legs.

This was my least favorite task because I felt like I was on military

maneuvers. But I’m sure that if you were a teen who had been sitting for

a while, it was a great way to shake some energy and tension out.

We spent the rest of the time communicating. Sometimes, the

facilitators talked to us, but most of the time we talked or communicated

with each other. That was the part I liked best about this program. This

was about how to get along by actually practicing it for the day. It

wasn’t another talking head cajoling us with “Thou shalt not” rules to

live by. My kids advise me that they get plenty of time with talking

heads and “Thou shalt not” rules on a daily basis. If more rules and

talking heads were an effective answer, we wouldn’t have had school

violence in the first place.

Our Challenge Day was different from most because the ratio of adults

to teens was about 1 to 1 instead of 1 to 5. Often, we broke up into

small group sessions, which in my case included four middle-aged women

and two teenage boys. I’m sure the boys wondered how they got assigned to

the group who used the most Kleenex.

None of the statistical information I heard that day was new to me. I

know how many people are abused as children. I know the harm that racial,

religious or physical stereotyping can do on the psyche. I still remember

the shock I felt when I read “Black Like Me” in high school. The

difference with Challenge Day is that I felt the statistics. The pain

that humans cause each other over these perceived differences were there

in a room.

The “they” I read about intellectually suddenly became the “us” when

we did an exercise called Walking Over the Line. Only the facilitator

spoke, but the communication was at its peak during that 30 minutes. That

was when parts of our group crossed over a line drawn on the floor

according to the characteristic described by the facilitator and looked

at the group that stayed behind. Most of the characteristics were those

over which we have no control, but by which we are often defined.

The most startling one was how many of our group crossed the line

because they or someone they were close to had contemplated suicide. That

moment crystallized how much we hurt others by our words and actions.

It’s time to schedule Challenge Days for all of our students. It is the

best way to ensure not only a safe campus, but also a more understanding

human race.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She may be reached by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .