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Conversation with John Bruce and Ken Bancroft

John Bruce and Ken Bancroft grew up on opposite sides of the Jones Falls Expressway bridge that divided the neighborhoods of Remington and Druid Hill. Back in the 50s and 60s, people grew up hearing to never cross the highway to the neighboring area, and racial tension was the reason. Although Mr. Bruce and Mr. Bancroft grew up quite close to each other, for these reasons they never met until much later in life. Fast forward to now, when both men are leaders of a group called Be The Bridge– an organization devoted to knocking down the boundaries of racial discrimination. The program encourages dialogue across racial lines so that different groups may understand each other better, and leave behind the fear.

The two men told stories from their youth, talked about how they formed the local chapter of Be The Bridge, and why this kind of work matters still to this day. 

11th grader Olivia said, “I really enjoyed today’s “Conversation with…” I thought it was very interesting and I learned a lot about discrimination through housing. One of the things that stood out to me was when Mr. Bruce shared his story about the police officers. Another thing that stood out to me and was very moving was when Mr. Ken and Mr. Bruce were choking up because Mr. Ken was explaining how he feels about Mr. Bruce and their friendship. I also think that it is important that people try to end racism and speak out against it.”

Space Lab with Elaine Lewis

We are excited to announce a new weekly science lab at the school.  Elaine Lewis, a long time staff member at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has initiated a Space Lab that this year will focus on the Sun and the Parker Space Probe. This series begin with a tour at Goddard just prior to the end of last school year. Elaine has traveled all over and was responsible for developing curriculum to explain the missions and the science process and discoveries developed through NASA. She regaled the students with stories from her Goddard sponsored trip to Utqiagvik (also known as Barrow Alaska) the northern most populated place in the United States and home of the Inuit people. From there, they documented and filmed the auroras of the Northern Lights. The students are very engaged and excited about this new feature of The Community School.