Macon’s first Freedom School mixes culture in with lessons to minority youth

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Public schools may be out but Freedom School is just getting back in session.

“We’ve got a six week program where they spend all morning in an integrated reading curriculum to help them learn to love to read they’re doing all kinds of group projects and creative projects.”

The lessons at this school are just as much about knowledge of self, as they are about knowledge of the material for the 50 kids in the program.

“We’ll read them a different book and as we’re reading them those books, we’re engaging with them
and helping them see people of their own color, of their own culture,” said group leader Quinten Oppong. “We’re helping them see how those people changed their communities their families and their world,” he added.

Coordinator Rachel Chabot says this type of teaching is exactly what kids in the community need.

“We’re trying to give everybody to understand that they have intrinsic value that they can advocate for themselves and the world’s not always telling that to these kids right now,” she said.

They’re keeping close to the Freedom School’s original purpose of uplifting minority children with use of Swahili principles like ‘Harambe’ meaning “coming together”.

“So we use it as a ‘let’s pull together’ in the morning. It’s to help get the scholars fired up and excited but also focused for the day,” Chabot said.

Oppong’s family is from Ghana, so he was happy to be tying African cultural principles into his lesson plans.

“Sometimes what people forget is that African history and African American History are so closely tied together,” he said.

The Freedom School program uses a familiar culture to help young scholars find a love for learning and at the same time understand their worth in the world.

The ‘Harambe’ sessions are open to the public. They have them every day at 9:00 AM at the St. Paul Episcopal Church on College Street. Chabot says they encourage anyone whose interested to join in on the session. More than 13,000 kids across 26 states are participating in Freedom Schools this summer.