LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Inside Kristin Wallingford's fifth grade classroom at Trunnell Elementary, students are learning about Louisville's Black History.
Wallingford said she wanted to take the lessons beyond standard readings in textbooks. Students are split into small groups and research various activists and events. They then write short plays based on what they learned to understand more what each person may have gone through.
The class is mainly focusing on three main groups: pros, poets and playwrights. Some notable names include Muhammad Ali, Charlene Holloway, Raoul Cunningham and Frank L. Stanley.
Students also learned about how segregation impacted various places in town, such as the Mary Anderson Theatre.
"The two girls that were in that group, they're best friends," said Wallingford. "They could not believe and they could not fathom they couldn't go some place together as friends, so they really focused on that for their storyline."
Inside Kristin Wallingford's fifth grade classroom at Trunnell Elementary, students are learning about Louisville's Black History. (WDRB photo)
The students first discuss what happened among their small groups, before sharing their findings with the rest of the class.
Multiple students told WDRB News they were surprised to learn many historical events happened more recently than they thought.
"My favorite thing that I've learned is learning about new people. It feels pretty shocking because I thought slavery was long ago, but it was not too long ago," said fifth grader Carmen Jones. "It's really good to tell Black History and tell what they had to go through to get here, and to try to have our rights to a normal life and to have equality."
"It makes me feel very mad and angry because right now it's not like that, but just to see what my people went through. They weren't seen as humans, they were seen as dogs and monkeys and not equal. It inspires me because I just want to live up to what they did because they were brave, they were strong, they were inspiring," said fifth grader Kaiden Bell.
Wallingford said her students of all backgrounds have been eager and excited to learn more about Black History in their community.
Inside Kristin Wallingford's fifth grade classroom at Trunnell Elementary, students are learning about Louisville's Black History. (WDRB photo)
"The fact that they're 10 and they can talk about things like this that maybe make people uncomfortable at times, it blows my mind. I was like you know what, I'll make it fit the standards, if they're so passionate about this in our community, then it's way too important just to skip over it," said Wallingford.
Wallingford said she feels honored to be their teacher and is hopeful her students will take the discussions beyond her classroom.
"I think it is so important that kids know the real history," said Wallingford. "If we do not share this history and celebrate how much people overcame and what's going on, they're never going to know and it might just develop into just forgetting about things certain people went through for them to be in a classroom together."
Wallingford said through doing research, students discovered other teachers and staff at Trunnell Elementary lived in Louisville during various civil rights movements. She said they plan to interview them to learn more about their stories and continue the projects far beyond the month of February.
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