The Paris News

I didn’t really know what to expect when I attended Challenge Day at Paris High School earlier this week.

After all, it is a somewhat difficult concept to describe.

Case in point. Literature provided by Challenge Day organizers calls it a “day-long interactive workshop where teens, teachers and community members experience for themselves that compassion and connection are indeed possible in our schools.”

Hmmmm. OK.

The best I can do is tell you Challenge Day was spent doing a lot of different activities designed to get the students to better understand the negative impact bullying, teasing and drama has on the classmates they target.

Perhaps that is why Jeanne Kraft, public information officer with the Paris Independent School District, suggested I come to one of the Challenge Day programs to see first-hand how it works.

I took that to mean as an observer. After arriving for Wednesday’s session, which involved ninth and 10th graders, I quickly discovered it would instead be as a participant.

I believe my official title was “facilitator,” which is a very fancy, multi-syllable word for “adult who was going to work with the students” that day.

I have to admit, as the Challenge Day folks started describing what we would be doing during the day, and after having been given a heads up from some friends who had participated in one of the earlier sessions, I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into.

The activities involved a number of things outside what most who know me would consider my comfort zone.

Things like wildly yelling and screaming just as if I was watching Alabama block Tennessee’s last second field goal attempt (man that was awesome by the way). I don’t mind doing this in the privacy of my home, mind you, but with a gym full of strangers, not so much.

Things like dancing in front of a bunch of teenagers, who I’m sure enjoyed my 1980s and 90s moves.

Things like sharing embarrassing stories about myself with people I’ve never met before.

Things like being, you know, nice and comforting when students confidentially shared intimate information about their personal life.

And I’ve got to tell you, share they did, as students, like the adults, got out of their comfort zones as well.

I couldn’t believe what these students were willing to tell their classmates and adult strangers, either in the large group or in small ones. It was eye-opening to me to hear what some of these kids were dealing with before they even got to school, and how their day only got worse from there because of the psychological warfare they were engaged in once they got on campus.

More importantly, it was eye opening to many of their fellow students as well. Both the students who never gave a thought to the kind of impact their words and deeds were having, as well as the students who never realized you could go to school and actually feel good about it.

The day was an emotional rollercoaster for sure. A lot of tears flowed as students tried to come to terms with their feelings and emotions. By the time we were done I was exhausted, as I’m sure the students were as well.

But at the end of day you could see the light bulb had come on. You could see the students got it. You could see they now understood the impact of their actions and the kind of damage they could do.

The most important thing they seemed to realize, though, was that it wasn’t necessary. There really was no reason to treat fellow students poorly just to maybe make yourself feel better.

The evidence was in the many public apologies made from one student to another, in front of the entire group, during the last session of the day. It took a lot of courage to get up in front of the whole group like that, and it makes me think the apologies were heartfelt.

I learned a lot during Challenge Day and I think the students did as well. I’ve heard several of the students describe their experience from Challenge Day as “life changing.”

I guess we’ll see.

Because the real challenge from Challenge Day isn’t how the students behave that day. The real challenge is whether or not the students apply what they learned during Challenge Day once they go back to their regular schedule and their regular routine.

Then we’ll know.

I can tell you this. If they can, our schools will be better for it.

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