POTTSTOWN >> Perhaps no Dr. Seuss story better skewers the shallowness of racism than the story of “The Sneetches.”
So that makes it the perfect teaching tool for Rupert Elementary School teacher Nicole Leh to teacher her fourth grade students about discrimination and segregation.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Sneetches are typically amorphous Seuss-like creates who have one outward difference – some have bellies with “stars upon thars” and others do not.
The star-bellied Sneetches consider themselves better than their non-starred cousins, and so keep them from their beech cook-outs (think segregated lunch counters).
But along comes huckster Sylvester McMonkey McBean who provides the star-less Sneetches with a “Star-On” machine. It doesn’t take much imagination to intuit what happens next – McBean then sells the star-bellied Sneetches on his “Star-Off” machine and soon enough no knows who is elite and who isn’t.
But Leh’s students didn’t have to imagine how it feels to be discriminated against.
After the video, she put stars on the hands of some of her students who were then permitted “privileges.” They could get a computer or iPad and play games. They could get a snack. Those who did not have “stars upon thars” were told to continue their schoolwork.
“That’s child abuse” grumbled some star-less students.
“I feel bad they don’t get a snack,” said student Albert Neysmith, whose hand star allowed him privileges. Leh said one student went on a boycott of her privileges … but then changed her mind and got a snack.
“Stars were very important in the world of the Sneetches,” Leh told the class. “Do you think skin color matters in the real world?”
After students broke up into small groups to discuss the question, they were asked to name things “we can do to make people feel they belong, out in the community, here in Pottstown?”
Suggestions ranged from inviting someone to eat lunch with them, asking to be their friend or to play a game.
“This goes hand-in-hand with the (Social-Emotional-Learning, or SEL) program we’re implementing said Leh, who confessed to being a Seuss-fan as a child.
“This really helps them tune in to what it’s like to be discriminated against,” she said.
Downstairs, in Sally Foose’s music class, tunes were being used to show how slaves used music to find freedom and their descendants used music to lift themselves up.
Second graders in the class soon knew about “Peg-Leg Joe,” a freed African-American who made his way around plantations of the south, teaching songs like “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and “Wade in the Water.”
What sounded like nonsense to plantation owners and slave masters, Foose said, were actually directions about when and in what direction for runaway slaves to make their bid for freedom, and tips on how to avoid being caught.
The “drinking gourd” meant the Big Dipper constellation, whose most prominent feature is the north star, the direction in which the slaves had to flee.
“Wade in Water” was advice on how to avoid being tracked by the dogs used by slave owners to track and recapture escaped slaves.
But the lesson of the rich heritage of African-American music did not stop there.
Foose taught the students about “The Blues,” so named because of the difficulty of life for African-Americans, even after being freed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.
“Even the music sounds sad,” she said as Muddy Waters sang “I woke up this morning, and everything I own was gone.”
Then, as their prospects improved, so too did the tempo and outlook of African-American music from Ragtime, to Jazz and artists with names like “Jelly Roll Morton” that made the students giggle.
African-Americans used music as a way to climb the economic ladder because, with the advent of radio, listeners didn’t know what the musicians looked like, so it became more difficult – and ultimately more pointless – to try to separate “white” music from “black.”
And so African-American musicians gave American culture such genres as rhythm and blues, soul, gospel, rock and roll, disco, rap and hip-hop.
Ultimately, they became famous in their own right,said Foose, pointing out something the children already knew for themselves – “everyone in the world knows who Michael Jackson is.”
“Today, everybody who lives in American has the opportunity to decide what they want to do with their life, and what they want to be, and can get help getting there,” Foose said.
“So you have an opportunity that, 200 years ago, might not have happened,” Foose said. “That’s why we like to look back on Black History Month, to see where we were, how it changed, and where we are now.”
