VIDEO: Diversity Stars at Gallup Hill School

High school students from Ledyard and New London met today at Gallup Hill School to read a story to the elementary students but the high schoolers weren’t there to show off their reading skills, they were there as ambassadors of diversity.

The students are members of a group called More Than Words, which meets several times a year to learn and talk about the things that make us all different and also the same.

At this meeting, they used a Dr. Seuss book “The Sneeches” to illustrate their purpose. The book is used widely to teach a lesson in diversity and tolerance as it describes two groups of Sneeches, one with stars on their bellies and one with plain bellies. The group with stars was at first an exclusive group that did not invite the others to their parties.

As the story develops, a man arrives with machine that can remove or add stars and as the story goes, the groups run in and out of the machine... "until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew whether this one was that one... or that one was this one or which one was what one... or what one was who." And that’s how the screeches learned that it didn’t really matter and that they are able to get along.

The presentation was followed by an art project where Gallup Hill students described themselves or expressed themselves on a star, which will be displayed on a bulletin board in the school soon.