Little Rock Nine: An Interactive Middle School Course
By Jennifer Arrington
Teaching for Change

Deena Barlev, English teacher at White Oak Middle School, uses role-plays, simulations, drama, oral histories and lessons from Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching in her unique full-semester course The American Civil Rights Movement 1954-1965.

This high school level seminar is offered to 8th grade students at White Oak Middle School in Montgomery County, Maryland. Today's lesson, The Story of the Little Rock Nine.Deena Barlev immediately reminds us that this is an onion story. It is not what it appears to be. There are layers of information to uncover, and frankly, it just makes you want to cry. The overhead projector magnifies the question for the day, Should people be forced to do something they don't want to do? Uh-oh, I thought, trick question. Students ripe in teenage rebellion, resoundingly protest, NO. Barlev, aware they would, says, So if I say desegregate schools and you didn't want to, you'd say no? There is a moment of nervous silence as minds fluster to figure out what the truth of the matter is. Where is the line? This strategy of critical thinking is repeated throughout the 90-minute class. Furthering not only these students understanding of what happened in Little Rock that day, but what happens in life. These students are not just learning to be active citizens; they already are at least in Mrs. Barlev's class.

In 1957, three years after the Brown decision that made separate schools unconstitutional, the Little Rock school board decided to gradually desegregate the schools. Entitled the Blossom Plan, after the superintendent, Central High would be the only school to accept black students. Aware of the delicateness of the matter, the school board asked the Little Rock NAACP chapter president Daisy Bates for support. Bates recruited volunteers to attend Central High. Barlev had students do the same. Quickly she went around the room asking students to shout out their sales pitch to elicit volunteers.

What would you tell them? she asks.

They would be making way for others. They would be revered, remembered.They would have better books and materials.They would end up with better jobs. They would be college bound. They'd be the first.

Barlev asks, Do you know how many students volunteered at first? Two students shouted out, None and Nine.
400! Barlev reveals.

Four-hundred students signed up to be hated, tormented, discriminated against in exchange for a chance to do better for themselves and their families. Of course four hundred students was far more than the school board was ready to allow. Instead, they allowed nine. How do you get from 400 to 9? a young man demands. more >>