Following last year’s presidential election, Chinita Hard, Grade 5 homeroom teacher and then MS Dean of Life and Leadership, came up with a new idea to help “build a bridge” between students representing diverse political views and perspectives. She enlisted help from Danielle Passno, Director of Outreach and Public Purpose, and together, they were able to develop a partnership with IS 75 Frank D. Paulo School, located in the South Shore of Staten Island in District #31, where President Trump received a majority of votes. They hoped to find opportunities for Spence students to directly engage in considering a common topic with a peer who may or may not have the same political view.

 

In collaboration with four Paulo sixth- and seventh-grade teachers, they developed a framework for the partnership and have been working since last March with 8-10 students from each school who expressed interest in the program. Mena S. ’22, a Spence participant, noted that the majority of people she knows are Manhattan-centered, and she was interested in meeting “people I could not have met any other way.” Initially, the group focused on finding out about their respective schools—Paulo is a co-ed Middle School with 1,357 students in Grades 6-8. All participating students then completed an online survey to capture their beliefs, attitudes, political viewpoints and news sources.

 

Last spring, Spence and Paulo students began working in pairs and connecting with each other weekly via email to share opinions and insights about current events. They exchanged news articles and videos and talked about discerning how news stories are portrayed depending on the news source’s liberal or conservative stance. With a better grasp of the process, the students took greater initiative in the direction of the program this year and voted on selecting three specific topics to pursue: the national anthem and the “taking a knee” movement; national holidays such as Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day; and hurricane relief.

 

Mena said she hoped that Paulo students would not make assumptions about her based on how TV shows portray private school students in the Upper East Side. “The first thing that my partner and I talked about was ourselves; we like the same sports, have the same hobbies, and do the same things,” she said. “The only difference is our political views.”

 

In November, the students finally had the opportunity to meet each other in person and use the “ice breaker” meet up to take part in group exercises and conduct collaborative research. Meeting at Brookfield Place near the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, they polled people on their perspective on the “take a knee” movement and later shared their observations about what they found to be of interest and surprising. “I found it enlightening; it is a powerful thing that we understand each other even if we do not agree with each other,” Mena said.

 

Mena experiences the impact of participating in Spence-Paulo Partnership outside of Spence, particularly at home. “I’m now watching news with another opinion in my head; I see more sides than I did before.” And, she feels that she has more to offer when her family is engaged in debate on controversial topics. “I have more that I bring to the table, when I remind everyone to consider the other side.”