Living in Harmony:

Ideas for Secondary Schools

Become “Partners in Harmony” with a high school with a different racial demographic or cultural heritage.

Hold a:

• Partners in Harmony Night – bowl, play basketball, always with mixed teams. 

• Partners in Harmony Walk – witness to the city.  End with a picnic at a park or at one of the schools.  Involve parents, school boards, PTA boards, etc.

• Partners in Harmony Cultural Field Trip and Lunch, e.g. African-American Museum.

• Partners in Harmony Day – class from one school spend the day or part of a day at the other school and vice-versa.

• Partners in Harmony Liturgy – campus ministry from one school brings choir and leads liturgy at the other school and vice versa.

• Partners in Harmony Movie and Popcorn Night – watch and discuss a movie that deals with racial differences/harmony. 

• Partners in Harmony social activities for all adult groups, e.g., school board, faculties. 

At your own school:

• Study the pastoral, “Made in the Image and Likeness of God” with faculty & staff. 

• Involve various departments in reading and discussing the pastoral with the students, e.g. social studies, religion, language arts.

• Include a prayer for racial harmony at assembly, Liturgies, school board, and PTA mtg.

• Hold a Racial Harmony prayer, essay and/or poetry contest.  Read writings at assemblies and send them to the Clarion Herald.

• Have a year-round bulletin board with a Racial Harmony theme.  Post quotes from the pastoral, pictures of activities, and students’ prayers, essay and poetry.  

• Study students’ own and other cultures and appreciate the differences as varied manifestations of God’s life in us all.

• Hold a Multi-Cultural Day,  inviting professional, musicians, chefs, artists, etc.  Ask the guests to wear their native dress if possible.

• Involve departments, e.g. social studies, religion, language, music in planning activities.

• Participate in Read Across America Week.  Have one of your classes read to the kindergarten students of a local elementary school with a different racial/cultural background.

• Stock your school library with multi-racial authors and books.

• Celebrate the major holidays and feast days of all cultures.

• Teach about the lives of the saints mentioned in the pastoral and display their pictures throughout your school.

• Check out the many websites that promote racial harmony.