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Dunkirk, NY - Stereotypes are as subtle as casual assumptions in a field of faces. The
Faces-In-The-Crowd workshop of pop-up programs and faces of strangers has helped Silver Creek seventh-graders understand diversity.
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The program, developed by local artist Valerie Walawender, could expand into a worldwide lesson in tolerance and sensitivity. A growing number of counselors
and administrators have cued into the program.
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"I actually developed it many, many years ago," Mrs. Walawender said, "It was kind of by accident that it developed into a diversity tool."
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The roots of the program stretch to her second and third-grade experiences. She lived in rural Elma but her mother taught at St. Columba school in
impoverished, inner-city Buffalo. She and her siblings attended school at their mother's workplace. The experience demonstrated the stark contrast between environments, she said. Rats inhabited the school, and the
city was grimy Pollution was still common and their car was once shot at.
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“We were the only white children in the school," Mrs. Walawender said. "I think it just made us very sensitive to the differences of culture at a
very young age, and of class differences. There were a lot of things I became aware of”
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The experience influenced her artistic nature, she said. She wanted to use art to make the world a better place. "This is a direction I've had from the
very beginnings”' of my life." she said.
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"Face" later developed from a college art project, Mrs. Walawender said. She wanted to create photographs of people and photographic masks. The idea
eventually evolved through several incarnations into the current diversity program, she said. Her husband Daniel, and sons William and Robert derived the workshop names and pop-up picture books.
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Participants in the program discover there is little emphasis on lecture, she said. "Faces" stresses empathy and interactive learning instead. For
example, the four-month Silver Creek program featured workshops such as immigrants, labels and gender. Students learned the nature of assumptions and stereotypes.
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"They're based on the concept of trying to develop empathy,” Mrs. Walawender said. "They're experiential."
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Initial workshops featured hand-held photos that students held over their faces. Participants were encouraged to create an identity and story based on the
face in the photograph. They then discussed the stereotypes and assumptions implicit in each. Stereotypes were surprisingly easy to develop, Mrs. Walawender said. A picture of a heavyset, elderly woman evoked ideas
of trailer parks and battered, old automobiles.
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The results may surprise the doubtful, she said. Her extended family initially didn't understand the concept. But one day her mother picked up a picture of a
long-haired man and commented on his ”attitude”. Her perspective changed when, she looked through the mask, Mrs. Walawender said. "She looked at the mirror through his face and saw it differently;" she
said. "I think people are genuinely surprised they are changed.”
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"They're the same inside but just by changing their face their comfort level will change dramatically," she continued. "Comfort in a group
helps (participants) understand why people tend to be with people like themselves like nothing else can.”
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A second lesson asked students to make choices and decisions about people based on their appearances and like qualities. The Students learned how and why
decisions were made, and the validity of their decision-making.
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Later games allowed students to take on roles, of victims, oppressors and protectors. Another lesson involved pop-up books of locally photographed people.
Students would use five or six words or phrases to describe the crowd, and performed word association exercises with their observations. Participants then discussed their list and the nature of labeling people.
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Final workshops emphasized the nature of being different, and featured role-playing as speech and hearing impaired people. Students discussed the nature of
what it felt like to be left out, laughed at or shunned. The seventh-graders learned throughout the experience, Mrs. Walawender said.
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Many made "normal" assumptions when looking at the masks. "I think they actually went through a pretty big change when going through this.”
she, said. "At first they immediately did what adults do. They made fun of the faces and they did hone into stereotypes. As they went on they developed sensitivity," she continued. "A great deal more
sensitivity.”
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Students expressed appreciation for the program through surveys.
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“People will think of others in different ways,” said a student named Vickie. “I loved it. I feel my spirit has opened up a little bit more than it had
been," she continued. "I feel everything you said was truthful.”
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The potential of the program lies in its hands-on approach, said Silver Creek High School Principal John Hertlein. “Faces” emphasizes interaction instead of
subjecting students to passive videotapes.” “She’s actually involving people,” he said. “All these kids actually take on other roles.” “We truly don’t believe kids are empty vessels," he continued. "We
place the opportunity out there and they have to take the ball and run with it.” And the program was covered through grants and aid, Mr. Hertlein said. No funding was needed from the district’s general fund budget.
Such programs should become popular in the wake of incidents such as the Columbine, Colorado shootings. You can't get much more appropriate," he said. "You have a variety of students in every school
district and we need to appreciate the uniqueness of all kids."
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Faces-In.A-Crowd continues to make waves. United States and international patents are pending on the program. A Washington manufacturer has also agreed
to develop a prototype and Mrs. Walawender is currently seeking investors.
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The program has been presented at numerous local organizations such as: Rich Products, the Chautauqua County Office of the Aging, and The Institute of
Labor Relations at Comell University. The Workshops could also be used for child abuse education and to counsel youthful offenders. "For the most part if people are willing to go through the experience, then
they do gain something," she said, "Understanding yourself is really going to help You understand other people."
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Mrs. Walawender has been invited to present the program for an institute for teachers at Simon Weisenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles this
summer.
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The workshop presents opportunities on a number of levels, she said. The program has the potential to help people worldwide. "Well, change the world,”
she said humorously when asked what direction she would like to see the program develop. "I think. I'm a little more humble, in some ways. Maybe changing myself, other people can change themselves. Beyond the
ways I make decisions about people," she continued: "To see that I can grow. I’m not done yet and I’m still learning. Just for people to he gentle with themselves and gentle with each other. We’re all here
together,” she said. "I kind of like that concept".
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