Tandem Juniors Partner with Montpelier to Study Race and History

James Madison's Montpelier recently hosted our 11th grade class for a day long educational experience. Montpelier created a customized experience for Tandem that complemented our curriculum, and offered new ways to explore race, culture, and history through the lens of the Constitution and America's founding. The program is part of Montpelier's drive to educate and engage students and they have just created a website page about their educational programs that features Tandem juniors - read more about it, hear about Tandem's experience there, and see photos of and quotes from our students on their website here. (Tandem Friends students appear about halfway through the site information.) Junior Miriam Skadron also wrote a piece on their Montpelier experience in the recent issue of the student newspaper, Tandem Times. Check it out here.
The day-long program used Montpelier's exhibition, The Mere Distinction of Colour, to explore history's impact and to encourage larger discussion about the struggle for freedom in our nation. Montpelier staff, in conjunction with our faculty, challenged students to think critically about past and present connections and encouraged them to deeply discuss the impact of history on modern racial and social issues. 

Students watched a film on Montpelier, visited the property's slave cemetery, toured The Mere Distinction of Colour exhibit about slaves at Montpelier and visited the rest of the property, met a member of the Montpelier African-American Descendant Community, visited the Old Library, and spent much time questioning and discussing these difficult issues to complete their day. Montpelier staff and Tandem students and faculty agreed it was a terrific partnership that created a fantastic learning experience.   
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Tandem Friends School is a co-ed Quaker day school for grades 5-12 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
 
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