Students Reach Across Generations to Celebrate Heritages

Mendham Township, NEW JERSEY (March 12, 2021) – Some educational experiences are lived, some educational experiences are shared. When one generation stretches out to another generation, particularly those of immigrants, their shared heritage offers a depth and richness of life experiences that can be deeply compelling and impressive.

Undeterred by the COVID-pandemic, Ms. Megan Ryan, Grade 5 Social Studies Teacher at Mendham Township Middle School (MTMS), led an initiative to have Grade 5 students investigate their heritage and showcase their findings in the school’s annual Heritage Day.

For approximately one month, students in the fifth grade were busy gathering information on their individual family’s geographic and cultural origins and identifying resources to collect information on food, traditional dress, holidays, languages, sports, and history over the last hundred years. Students interviewed family members about their own experiences if they had lived in another country before now living in the United States. They also gathered details on what their family remembered from previous generations. The program was designed to complement the school’s curriculum for Social Studies lessons on immigration and the study of the assigned novel, “Number the Stars,” in Language Arts.

With the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, it was not possible to include an actual tasting of the different cuisines from around the world in this year’s Heritage Day celebration (a traditional highlight of the school’s Heritage Day). However, parents were invited to share their wealth of knowledge and experiences of having lived in a different country or culture with the students, via online technologies. Parents joined the students’ classes online to talk about their country of interest and provided an opportunity for the students to pose questions. The real-time participation of parents and family was further embellished by the ability for them to present keepsakes and mementos from other countries during their virtual presentations to the students.

Ms. Ryan was pleased with the interest and engagement displayed by students and parents alike. The Heritage Celebration Festival is designed to encourage students to learn about and celebrate their own backgrounds and the backgrounds of their peers. It is a great way to encourage students to pursue independent, self-paced learning while providing an opportunity for them to be proud of the accomplishments achieved by previous generations in their culture.