Carroll's 8th Grade and Ruby Bridges

On Thursday, October 30th, Carroll’s eighth grade students had the privilege of going to hear Ruby Bridges. Ruby Bridges is an African-American woman who was six years old in 1960, when she was enrolled in an all-white school in New Orleans. She shared with us her story of courage and perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds. The program was moving and meaningful and gave eighth graders, who had seen various film clips of the Civil Rights Era, a real sense of living history.

The event was at the Fessenden School, an all boys’ school in Newton. We joined Fessenden’s seventh – ninth graders in a large auditorium. Our eighth graders had been asked to look “sharp”, and they did! They did not need to be asked to be a good audience – they were superb. Our students participated actively in the interactive format, boys and girls equally. Several hands even went up to do a role-play, alone with Ruby Bridges, at the front of the entire audience of 300 people.