On Thursday, April 25, seven journalism students from Sevastopol, along with journalism students from Southern Door, Sturgeon Bay. and Gibraltar, attended the art installation “Are We Listening” by Rebecca Carlton. The instillation brings awareness to the seven thousand languages spoken worldwide through a series of bird formations. There was a tornado that stood for the unchecked ego. A “V” represented migration, and a circle represented community. The installation took the artist Carlton seven years to make, and it is made up of over 700 clay birds, each representing a different language.
Students worked with Deb Fitzgerald, the editor of the Peninsula Pulse, to highlight different issues that young adults think are important. The discussion centered around the idea that everyone has a voice and that it is our role to use it.
“Everyone has a voice, and you were born to use yours,” Fitzgerald said. “For some, it’s speaking; for some, it’s writing; for some, it’s swimming.”
Students brought up ideas like the fact that students are sometimes asked to come to the table but aren’t actually given a voice or the fact that people may ask young people what their opinion is, but often, adults don’t actually listen.
“We need people to just listen without thinking of an argument or a solution right away,” senior Sam Herrell said.
“Words are being listened to but not actually heard and analyzed on a deeper level,” junior Kayla Ranly said.
Fitzgerald shared with the students strategies on how to really listen, ask follow-up questions, and analyze what they heard. They practiced these skills by interviewing each other and finding out what is important to their partners, what their partners’ core beliefs are, what scares them about their school, their community, and/or the world, what success means to them, and what their wish for others is.
“It was interesting to hear other people’s viewpoints and perspectives on topics we care about,” freshman Olivia Valenzuela said.
Common themes that emerged from the discussions were that we need more understanding, to be less judgmental, to be more respectful of varying viewpoints, not to jump to arguments, and, essentially, to listen to each other more.
Students started working on essays centered around the topics they discussed. Each student will submit their essay to Fitzgerald; some will be published in the paper, while all will appear online in the Pulse.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for students to talk with others from the neighboring district,” journalism teacher Mindi Vanderhoof said. I loved walking around and hearing everyone’s perspectives.”
