“Learn About” Questions
(informational)
- How many of the Little Rock Nine ended up graduating from Central High School? Where are they now?
- How has Central High School changed since the Little Rock Nine attended?
- What kinds of “minefields” did the Little Rock Nine experience, and what “minefields” might still be present today?
“Learn From” Questions
(transformational)
- Whose “shoulders” am I standing on?
- What kinds of “minefields” have I experienced in my life in school, work, family, friendships? How did I handle them?
- Do I feel society is attempting to dictate who I need to be? Why or why not?
Transcript:
I’m here because a community raised me and it told me, I know that wherever I go, that that’s where I belong. I have a right to be here just in who I am. And in that, there is a lot of pushback but I’ve learned to accept that or roll with it, OK? In believing in who I am, in knowing who I am, knowing that I don’t need you to validate me. When we say we are standing on the shoulders of our ancestors, well, we need to get off their shoulders and get to work, right? You know, and so the Little Rock Nine are still here and there is so much we can learn from them. Carlotta was the first black female to graduate from Central High but we don’t recognize that. We don’t talk about that. We miss so many opportunities to celebrate our similarities and our differences because we let society prescribe to us what we should be thinking. We let society dictate to us who we are, what we should believe in instead of knowing who we are and moving away from the traps that are set. Those, would you say, those minefields are there and we are constantly blowing ourselves up. And we’re talking about 61 years later.
