IN THE CLASSROOM:Food for talk

Teacher Stephen Harper circled his first period U.S. history classroom, a sugar cookie in hand with the words “Pro-Choice” written in icing on the top. Somewhere among his students another cookie with the words “Pro-Life” waited to be matched up with his.

The students, from Orange Coast Middle College High School in Costa Mesa, came up with a novel idea to spur discussion about the women’s rights movement in the ‘60s. They baked the cookies with the pro-and-con messages on them and their classmates were each randomly handed one. When they got it they were instructed to find a student with a cookie with the opposing view on it and then discuss the issue.

But it wasn’t just about abortion. There were other groups of students with cookies advertising other opposing points of view, such as equal pay versus lower wages for women, and housewife versus working wife. The treats, prepared by Briana Eigenmann and Kayla Coxen, spurred an intense discussion of women’s rights. It was all part of Harper’s lesson plan to help students understand the various protest groups of the mid-20th century.

On the other three days of the week-long lesson plans other groups of students from Harper’s two U.S. history classes made presentations about how Latinos, hippies and Native Americans were involved in the civil rights movements. Some used PowerPoint presentations or videos, and they were all instructed to bring in ethnic food related to the group that was part of their project.

“I really encouraged that group to bring the food of their culture, because it reminds them that they take place in that culture on a daily basis,” Harper said. Next time one of them orders a taco, they are participating in that culture, he added.

Briana, Kayla and their four groupmates impressed Harper with their creative and edible effort. After the two-person discussions, a number of pairs were asked by the group to stand up and share their talk with the class.

“It was probably the best women’s rights activity I’ve seen,” Harper said. “It got the class talking about the topic. You couldn’t help but talk about it. They even gave me a cookie.”

“I didn’t know how hard women tried to get their rights,” Briana said. “My knowledge of women’s rights up until now was based on [a musical number in] ‘Mary Poppins.’”

The girls even visited Orange Coast College, which shares its campus with the high school, and interviewed college students and a few staff members.

“Just watching them out there presenting the stuff” made Harper, who has been with the school since 2002, a real sense of pride.

Most of the groups found a new appreciation for the struggles each group endured to achieve their goals, except maybe Sean Flanery. The 16-year-old junior, in Harper’s second-period class, was disappointed by his study of ‘60s counterculture.

“I thought they did a lot more than they actually did,” Sean said. “They spoke about what should happen but didn’t do much to make it happen, no follow through.”

Hippies were too busy caring about “their own inner journey,” he said, and had a lot of ideas but got nothing done. Well, they at least did spawn the organic food industry, Sean said.