Students in Michael Neagle’s civics class at Sudbury’s Ephraim Curtis Middle School are taking bold steps to counter Jewish hate. The students designed an award-winning curriculum to educate peers about antisemitism, which will be implemented next year. The effort is part of a grade-wide civic action project initiative.
“Students learn about the U.S. government, but we also engage in it. The idea is that students actually get some hands-on experience, like drivers’ education or a vocational technical experience, that connects with the real world,” Neagle explains.
At the beginning of the year, students learned how to participate in government through voting, town meetings and more. Then, they brainstormed ways to become active in their own community at a hyper-local level.
“We try to keep it a little bit closer to home: It’s easier to talk to decision-makers. It’s often easier to see the results of your work, and then they can use those skills on a national level later,” Neagle says.
Next, students brainstormed ideas for community involvement, narrowing a list of about 40 possibilities down to a dozen, voting on their top choices. One Jewish student, Charlie, was particularly passionate about combating antisemitism, Neagle recalls, after spotting swastikas and other graffiti in a school stairwell.
“It was upsetting to think it was done here. Many students in the school are Jewish. Charlie’s perspective was that the reason why this happens is because of a lack of education: People don’t fully understand the impact of that symbol,” Neagle says.
Charlie and three classmates—Theo, Michael and Benjamin—formed a group to tackle the issue as their civic action project, with the goal of creating an education workshop for teachers that can be implemented in years to come.
Importantly, Neagle says, the student group is diverse: Two students are Jewish, one attends Curtis by commuting from Boston through the METCO program and each is from a different friend group. They weren’t connected beforehand, but they partnered on the project based on a common desire to combat hatred and bias.
“That’s another reason why I’m so proud of this group. Sometimes, students just want to work on a project based on what their friends are doing. These four students probably wouldn’t work together in any other situation. But that’s the beauty of civics: They came together because they wanted to work to improve their community,” he says.
With Neagle’s help, the group connected with Salem State University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies to strategize an action plan. Neagle had participated in the school’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Certificate Program and knew that the center often worked with students to shape curricula. The students connected with professor Christopher Mauriello, the program’s director, via Zoom meeting. Their devotion impressed both educators.
“They were prepared. They had an agenda, they had questions, they had practiced what they were going to say ahead of time. They had really taken it seriously,” Neagle says.
Over the course of the spring, the students created a series of trimester-based workshops based on Mauriello’s recommendations as well as with resources from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. They led pilot lessons with Curtis teachers and 300 classmates focusing on Holocaust education, antisemitism and why hate has no place at school.
They also solicited feedback from peers about ways to eliminate bias and promote religious tolerance at school, including the possibility of devoting a schedule block to bias and tolerance education.
Mauriello was so impressed with their initiative that he recommended that Neagle nominate the group for the Salem State’s Sonia Schreiber Upstander Award, presented annually at its Holocaust remembrance ceremony, named after survivor Sonia Schreiber Weitz. The award recipients display a commitment to improving the world by demonstrating action against prejudice, hatred or indifference. A few weeks ago, the students attended the ceremony with Neagle and their families, where they met Holocaust survivors in person—and came home with the honor.
“I think a big reason why they were selected for the award is because they didn’t just come up with a project. They were actually doing it,” Neagle says. “Civics is not just reading out of a textbook about U.S. history. It was emotional for everybody.”
Their project concluded with a statewide civics showcase at the DCU Center in Worcester, featuring top civics projects from 19 Massachusetts school districts. The group awaits those scores. Regardless, their finalized workshops will continue next year, even as the students move on to high school.
“I’m sure the vast majority of teachers will offer their workshops next year,” Neagle says. “It all goes back to one idea the students had: These [antisemitic incidents] happen when there’s a lack of education. People don’t really understand the significance of what they’re doing. Maybe an impulsive sixth- or seventh-grader is trying to get a rise out of their friends or make a joke of it: The point is, it’s not funny, and if they understood the meaning, then they would be less likely to do it.”
“Through our work, we found that these incidents aren’t due to malice as much as a lack of education around what these symbols mean,” Charlie says.
And his work isn’t done: As sophomores, students will once again undertake a civics action project. Charlie hopes that his team can reconvene to tackle hate crimes more broadly, because he’s seen the impact that the antisemitism workshops have had so far at Curtis.
“This could open more doors to continue the topic, opening our work up to other kinds of hate, homophobia and genocide. This year, there have been no further incidents, and I’d like to believe it’s because of these workshops and the impact they’ve had,” Charlie says.
