SGORR

In high school I took part in a group called SGORR 0r the Student Group on Race Relations. The leaders of the groups would meet every Sunday and go over lesson plans. These lesson plans were then passed down to the groups of high school students that each of the 20 leaders were in charge of. Finally, the groups would go to fourth and sixth grade classrooms to teach the lessons that they had learned. This kind of hierarchical structure forced me to not only teach the lesson to my group but also teach them how to teach the lesson to the elementary school children. Through the simple lessons designed for elementary students, there was a change enacted in the groups of high school students and even in the leaders. Through these activities, we learned basic social skills like trusting or taking a risk. However, we also learned how these skills relate to relating to people who are different from yourself.
Through SGORR I not only learned about relating to others, I learned about myself and some of the stereotypes and prejudices I hold. I've learned that getting rid of stereotypes and prejudices is impossible, the only thing that can be done to bottle them up is to put them out of your mind as soon as they enter. Through training, I've learned to push these thoughts from my mind so that I have no preconceived notions of a person's character before I speak with them. This is probably one of the most important lessons that I've ever learned. Now, instead of judging others, I wait to get to know them first which allows me to communicate and interact with them in more positive ways than if I had judged them. I know that I learned this lesson and that the other leaders learned the same thing, but I hope my high school students took away a similar way of thinking. I have hope that with the influence of high schoolers on the elementary school children, they will take our words and the activities we brought seriously.