The Paris News

Challenge Day was awesome.

Challenge Day was fantastic.

Challenge was a day I will never forget and so on.

These are just a few of the remarks I have heard from students and adult facilitators of Travis Junior High and Paris High School that took part in the Challenge Day Program Oct. 26 -Oct. 28 at Paris High School.

Having this program come to the Paris School District was the brain child and dream of Assistant Principal Althea Dixon at Paris High. About three years ago I was substituting at Paris High and she asked me had I seen the Challenge Day Program on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” I had seen the show.

Althea said, “ I wish we could have it here at Paris High.”

When the Diversity Task Force of Paris was organized she became a member of the education committee. She had not forgotten Challenge Day. She explained Challenge Day to the committee and ask the task force if it would sponsor the program at Paris High. With the help of the United Way and other donations, Challenge Day became a reality.

I attended on Monday, Oct. 26 with Travis Junior High. I went to observe and participate — and did I ever participate. The morning sessions were spent playing games and dancing. I can do many things — dancing is not one of them.

I’ll share some of the things I observed during the eight-hour program.

Challenge Day leaders Chris Foster and Katie Salvage made sure everyone had a chance to be a part of the program. Chris made the statement that Travis Junior High students were the most diverse group they had worked with in his four years of working with Challenge Day. There are at least six different races of students at Travis Junior High.

The Challenge line was really an eye opening experience for me. The line was a strip of blue tape on the floor of the gym. Students and adults stood on one side of the line. As Katie asked a question and if that question affected you, you crossed the line if you chose to do so.

She asked many questions from “What race are you? Do you ever go to bed hungry? Do you have anyone in your immediate family in prison?” and so on. One of the most profound questions for me was, “Have you ever been a child?” Katie said before you cross the line think about this question. As I crossed the line I looked and there were about 10 students that did not cross the line.

There were many tears shed that day by students and adults. I saw students apologizing to other students for what they had done to them or said about them; and they were very open with their apologies.

I had one student tell me that the next day the student and another student had been having a problem with each other. They ate lunch together and talked about the problem.

One parent had this to say. “It was awesome. I learned something very valuable that day and I will remember and share it with others for the rest of my life.” Oppression has no boundaries. Oppression doesn’t care about the color of your skin, where or when you were born, your gender, your education and etc. What we choose to do with oppression is up to us. We can keep our bad experiences bottled up till we explode (anger, violence, hatred, etc), or we can use healthy outlets to relieve them.

We all have had things in our lives at one time or another that has caused us pain. What Challenge Day did was provide an outlet for me and others to “get over it.”

According to Althea, Challenge Day will not be just a three-day event. There is more to come. I would hope that students in the other schools in Lamar County will get a chance to experience this program as well.

Marva Joe is a Paris resident and co-chair of the Diversity Task Force of Paris.

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