The Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum in Ewing teaches the important precepts of nonviolence, diversity appreciation and service to others.
Bullying, cyber-bullying, stereotyping, name-calling, and violent behavior are among the many issues confronting students today. Most young people need guidance on how to deal effectively with negative emotional and physical assaults. Some children need to be sensitized to the impact of their assaults on others. All kids need proven strategies for and practice in defending themselves. They need to believe in themselves and in their power to intervene and help others. Changing the lives of children, teachers, guidance counselors, and parents by conveying important precepts like nonviolence, tolerance, diversity appreciation, and “UPstander” behavior (a term coined by author and lecturer Samantha Power) are integral to the mission of Kidsbridge.
For Lynne Azarchi, executive director of the Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum, there is a compelling need to clone successful programs like Kidsbridge. “We are in a character education crisis in this country,” Azarchi asserts. “TV and social media are teaching kids to be mean, cruel, to belittle and to exclude their peers. Parents are frequently unaware of these behaviors. All this leaves teachers and guidance counselors holding the bag. Educators cannot take on this task alone, so Kidsbridge is meeting the challenge head on. Central to this effort is a field trip to the museum flanked by pre- and post-curriculum activities and resources that help teachers reinforce lessons of tolerance and kindness, which foster more peaceful classrooms, lunchrooms, and playgrounds.”
Since 1996, Kidsbridge has recognized large voids in the learning of life skills, character education, and diversity appreciation. Building on the success of its original outreach programs in Trenton, Kidsbridge created a unique tolerance museum in 2006 at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in Ewing. With the strong support of its professors, dean, provost, and president, TCNJ generously hosts this exhibit on the ground floor of the School of Education. The colorful museum features the exhibit “Face to Face: Dealing with Prejudice and Discrimination,”making Kidsbridge the only youth-focused tolerance museum in the country and the only youth humanistic museum on a college campus.
Dr. R. Barbara Gitenstein, president of The College of New Jersey, amplifies TCNJ’s commitment. “We must educate our students and ourselves so that we can imagine ourselves in someone else’s place, so that we can really hear about experiences foreign to our own and contradictory to our personal assumptions. Only then will we realize the humanity in all of the peoples of the earth. Only then can we hope for progress against the depressing repetition of such crimes as the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, the ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe, and the horror of Darfur. The urgency of this project is undeniable; the personal commitment necessary; the difficult combination of self-advocacy and recognition of the rights of others is the foundation for the change that is needed in this world.”
Through its cutting-edge partnership, Kidsbridge and TCNJ teach skills for anti-bullying, victim empowerment, UPstander behavior, and other conflict-resolution strategies to school groups and their teachers and guidance counselors and other groups. To date, approximately 600 TCNJ undergraduates, who serve as museum docents, and 10 professors have meaningfully interacted with approximately 6,500 youngsters—approximately 1,500 per year. Visitors come from all over New Jersey and the Delaware Valley.
What happens at the museum?
During their four-hour visit to the museum, students engage with interactive exhibits focusing on such issues as racism, empathy-building, discrimination, name-calling, stereotypes, bystander behavior, self-esteem, kid heroes, respect for different gender identities/expressions, the genocide in Darfur, and sensitivity to people with disabilities.
College students and retired teachers serve as docents and lead small group discussions with kids from second through 12th grade. Following the exhibit rotation, primary school classes are broken into small groups to create and rehearse conflict resolution skits with puppets they have created. Typical skit themes include: counteracting a bully, advocating for victims and oneself, when to go to an adult for help, calling someone “gay” and the pain of exclusion. Creating and performing skits through puppetry helps youngsters process and apply the lessons they have learned from the exhibits.
After their museum exhibit rotation, middle- and high-schoolers break into small groups to create realistic action plans for local and global problems that they can promulgate and possibly affect positively. Action plans can be: how to make the school culture a safer and more welcoming place; spreading awareness and fundraising for Darfur; instilling communication alternatives to “That’s so gay,” and local homeless/hunger issues. The poster board rubric asks that students design their solutions as a museum exhibit, TV show, or a video game so creativity and fun are instilled in the process and in the final presentations.
Changes in perspectives are not the only positive impact Kidsbridge engenders. Here is a comment shared by a middle-schooler who was inspired to pursue college after his visit:
“I really enjoyed my visit to The College of New Jersey today. The tour showed me something that I didn’t know about college. It really increased my interest and I want to go to college now. I know it will take a lot of hard work to get there, and I will try my best and give it my all to get there.”
Empathy is the key
The Kidsbridge curriculum is designed to get kids to be introspective, to begin to understand their own pain so they can empathize with others. The goal is to trigger epiphanies that lead to genuine transformation and impetus for change. Equally important, the Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum becomes “a safe place to share.”
The value of connection, empathy, and sympathy are fleshed out with simple exercises that ask students to “go back in time” to events where they were victims, felt helpless, angry or scared, or took the role of a bystander.
Other activities include a discussion about differing abilities (i.e., physical and mental disabilities) and one on college aspirations. The purpose of the differing abilities pedagogy is to enhance students’ sensitivity and expand their awareness about individuals who are both different from themselves and overcome daily challenges. The college aspirations module starts with a tour of the TCNJ campus. Ensuing discussions emphasize the importance of hard work, good grades, and provides knowledge about college life and financial aid. Especially for urban youth, discussing college aspirations plants the seed that many options are available and that they can break the cycle of poverty.
The adult perspective
Administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, and parents regularly express a strong need for building peaceful relationships, particularly among groups of children with different ethnic backgrounds.
Says Kidsbridge Board Chair Rachel Stark: “Prejudice reduction and tolerance are critically needed in New Jersey as evidenced by recent hate crimes in our state. Longstanding racial tension has resulted in students and adults being verbally and physically assaulted because they are different. Kidsbridge strives to teach youth earlier and more consistently in order to reduce prejudice and discrimination in the pipeline.”
Interviews with New Jersey teachers also reveal deep concerns about loss of teaching time, owing to frequent student conflicts and name-calling. As a result, prejudice and racism impede classroom learning. If Kidsbridge can help both teachers and students reduce and resolve conflicts, quality teaching time will increase.
Third-grade teacher Barbara Ricketti of Hedgepeth Williams School in Trenton called the field trip Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum the “best and most effective trip I have taken students on in my 13 years of teaching. This hands-on interaction with college students allowed my students to open up to young people. The children were exposed to prejudice and negative attitudes and taught how to deal with these issues. They learned how to make positive choices, increase their self-esteem, and it empowered them to make the right decision when confronted by adversity. We hope we can come again!”
Régine Pitts-Ramsey, a guidance counselor at Grant Elementary/Middle School in Trenton also appreciates the Kidsbridge mission and programs. “Kidsbridge is the program of choice for our students to begin the dialogue for values/character instruction. Through the Kidsbridge experience, students practice what they learn so that it eventually becomes natural to them. At Kidsbridge, students use opportunities for decision making to help take ethical action and see positive results by the interactive activities provided there.”
Pitts-Ramsey has noticed other positive outcomes. “The Kidsbridge experience has enhanced our school’s Counseling Program whereby students can better articulate their feelings and to find their voices with respect to conflict resolution. The pride that students feel from learning on the college campus has inspired them to thirst for more education in their futures. Kids need exposure to this type of program or they will never fully understand the extent of the damage that can be done due to name-calling and stereotyping.”
For Pitts-Ramsey, the relationship between Kidsbridge and her school will “continue to grow for many more years to come. As the school counselor, I have seen such a growth in our children with respect to what they have learned at the tolerance museum.”
Measurable attitude improvements in just four hours
The effectiveness of the activities at the tolerance museum on the youth’s attitudes are statistically measured through a pre- and post-test, both administered and analyzed by two TCNJ psychology professors and their college student researchers. Before entering the museum, the children complete a survey that asks about their attitudes toward bullying, name-calling, people who are different from themselves, what to do in certain situations, aspirations, and other issues. After completing a four-hour experience at the museum, they take a post-test asking them the same questions.
Key findings of this assessment are the positive correlation between a visit to the museum and an increase in both empathy and stereotype knowledge. Through research completed by James Graham, Ph.D., and Julie Hughes, Ph.D., full-time psychology professors at TCNJ, it was found that a four-hour visit to the museum had a “statistically significant improvement in empathy” among the youth. Research indicates that increases in empathy lead to positive pro-social actions because the individuals have a better understanding of the victims’ feelings.
In the upcoming academic year, Kidsbridge aspires to measure attitude changes in the realms of self-esteem, gang awareness and resistance, and aspiration to college for at-risk youth. While attitudinal improvements are indicative of an effective program, testimonials of the visitors themselves are further indicators of the transformational potential of a museum visit.
Azarchi concludes: “Academic achievement and success are pillars built upon a foundation of self-esteem, empathy and respect for oneself and for others. Without that foundation, too much youth potential gets squandered. Parents, guardians, governmental agencies, and nonprofits must amplify the heartfelt commitment and the selfless dedication shown by so many of our teachers, administrators, and counselors—we all must work harder to combat the morally bereft, character-deficient void of popular culture and strengthen character education in our schools and homes to help kids build productive lives and a more socially responsible society.”
Committed to cultivating character education and diversity appreciation, Kidsbridge strives to instill self-worth and teach personal accountability by showing kids that there are choices; Kidsbridge recognizes and rewards students who demonstrate the courage and creativity needed to make the right choices and do community service.
Tanisha, a sixth-grader from East Orange, sums it up best: “I learned that one small voice can make a difference in someone’s life. From offering a bus seat to telling someone to stop teasing, we can make the world a better place.”
For more information about Kidsbridge or to schedule a field trip to the museum, visit www.kidsbridgemuseum.org and click on “Teachers Portal,” e-mail LynneKidsBridge@aol.com, and visit the Kidsbridge blog, www.kidsbridgemuseum.wordpress.com. If you are a retired teacher or guidance counselor who wants to get involved, Kidsbridge is seeking volunteer docents to lead small group discussions at the Tolerance Museum. E-mail lynnekidsbridge@aol.com for more information.
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