"This place looks like college"
"How do they find their way around?"
These were just some of the murmurs heard by Jeanne Loh’s American Writers of Color class as they sat in the English Resource Center watching their counter parts from McClymonds High School in west Oakland come through the doors.
Since the beginning of the second semester the students in Loh’s classes have discussed topics involving race and racism in American Literature. A handout distributed by Loh about a month prior to the event explained the class’ discussion involving self-segregation and racial inequality in our society.
"The students [from both high schools] showed genuine interest not only in racism and prejudice," Loh said, "but also in the roots of ratial segregation."
The class compared their educational experience in Palo Alto to that of students from McClymond High School in West Oakland. The purpose of swapping schools was to observe educational inequalities.
Students from Palo Alto visited McClymonds on April 7 and the students from McClymonds came to Paly one day earlier on April 6.
As McClymonds students entered the Paly campus, they said they were shocked by how large the campus was. They wandered into the English Resource Center smiling and laughing.
Loh introduced herself and then partenered Paly students with each McClymond student.
The partners talked for about two minutes, they seemed to jump right into conversation. Everyone sitting together seemed very comfortable, they looked as if they got along well.
After the introductions, McClymond’s chaperone introduced herself as Alicia Yang, who went to University of California at Berkeley with Loh, gave a short bio about herself. The McClymond students were part of a class elective and after school program called YELL. YELL also known as ‘Youth Engaged in Leadership and Learning’ was at Paly for the same reason Paly went to McClymonds, to learn about educational inequalities.
Yang described her students as "change makers," all interested in making a difference in our society, in making things more equal.
After all of the introductions were completed the two teachers decided to start off with an icebreaker. The name of the game was ‘two truths and a lie’, each group would come up with two things that they had in common and one thing that they did not have in common. The partners seemed to focus on favorite colors, and siblings.
"The game helped us get to know each other and it made us understand that even though we come from two completely different areas we can still have things in common." junior Erica Westly said.
After the game, a group of Paly students talked about the ups and downs of going to Paly, and also about traditions.
Seniors Amanda Weisner and Gerardo Roland raved about Paly’s open campus, InFocus, and the helpful college and career center.
"We are lucky to have a college and career center at Paly," Weisner said. "They help everyone by making college applications easier and [helping students in] deciding what they will do after high school."
Other topics brought up by Paly students were the amount of stress put on students by peers, teachers and parents. The students complained about excessive amounts of homework and SATS.
The presenters showed concern about stereotypes that cloud over Paly. They explained how everyone assumes that just because you go to Paly you must be rich, smart, preppy, white and ivy league bound.
The students at McClymonds seemed genuinely interested in what the presenters had to say. They listened and seemed to agree with complaints about SATS and too much homework.
McClymonds students didn’t pre-judge Paly, they were very open and willing to give everyone a chance. "I expected to see what I see everday," McClymonds student said, "I didn’t think that Paly would be that much different than McClymonds."
However; not everything was like they expected.
"When I came to Paly I expected to see the same thing that I saw everyday at McClymonds," said Yell member Jeremy H’oard, "I was shocked to see that everyone was actually in class."