Bulletin Board Brings Diversity And Knowledge To SHS

By Tanjua Damon

Sandy Hook School students have an opportunity to learn about students in their school community as well as the countries their families come from thanks to a bulletin board outside the cafeteria.

Educational assistant Dawn Ford has helped to organize the program. She has contacted the families of students with international backgrounds to come in and decorate the board or helped them with ideas. The countries Sandy Hook student will learn about this year are Canada, Chile, India, Italy, Greece, and Sweden. The bulletin board stays up for about a month before it is changed to another country.

“This bulletin board helps to get more experience for our families who have come to us from other parts of the world. It’s a different way we can share,” Ms Ford said. “We wanted to raise awareness of the opportunity to see that our peers come from all over the world.”

Families can put up items that explain their particular country’s customs, traditions, clothing, culture, food, language, whatever they feel will help other students understand and learn about their particular country. Parents often come in to speak to different classes as well. The school looked for parents who are the first generation, meaning they were born in another country but now live in the United States.

“I think it helps students understand we’re all different and that’s OK,” Ms Ford said. “I think when students understand their differences they accept each other’s differences and also find there are similarities as well.”

Lilian Nordstrom, mother of Sandy Hook student Alex; and Elisabeth Dean, mother of Sandy Hook students Matilda, Fredrick, and Albert, put up a bulletin board on Sweden where they were both born and lived for most of their lives. The Fogelberg family also contributed to the bulletin board. Alexander and Anders Fogelberg attend Sandy Hook.

“It’s fun,” Mrs Dean said as she worked on figuring out what to put where on the bulletin board.

“There are so many first generation families,” Mrs Nordstrom added

The Sandy Hook students learned some interesting things about Sweden. For instance, in the summertime it is light all the time and dark all the time in the winter; Sweden is above the arctic circle; there are nine million people living in Sweden; the country’s dimensions are equivalent to the distance from Maine to Florida; and the country has a king and queen.