Margaret Korte
Print/Podcast Editor
“I went through a year where students…seemed to believe that school was preparing them for something later in life, instead of realizing that the something is right now. They can be changemakers now,” English teacher Gwyndolyn Savens said.
Savens and social studies teacher Alison Bryar teach the newly-created Frick Center for Civic Engagement.
The Frick Center is comprised of three parts: civic engagement, civic experience and AP Seminar/Research. Students can choose to take the civic engagement and civic experience piece, AP Seminar and Research, or all three (also called the Frick Forum).
The class was proposed by WGHS alumni Bob and Barbara Frick, who have given to the district before.
The Fricks were “looking to give back to schools,” Bryar said. “They saw a need, just based on their experiences [and] observations of the news and current events, that we need to provide more of an emphasis…on teaching civil discourse and valuing free speech.”
The Fricks gave a grant to Washington University, which was administered to Webster.
“[WashU] acts as the in-between between the grant recipients and the Fricks,” Bryar said.
The Fricks reached out to the district, asking them to create a proposal on how they would use the grant.
Former superintendent John Simpson and former principal Matt Irvin worked with assistant superintendent for learning, Jason Adams, to come up with an idea.
Irvin went to social studies teacher and department chair Betty Roberts, who referred them to Bryar.
Bryar said the planning was a two-year process from conception to this school year. The development of the Frick Center even spanned to the social studies department chair of Kirkwood High School, Lucas Ravenscraft.
“[There were] a lot of cooks in the kitchen,” Bryar said, “so we got a lot of different perspectives and different thoughts and ideas.”
Savens said once she began to hear about the Frick, she started “campaigning behind the scenes.”
“[Teaching in the Frick] is totally my jam,” Savens said. “I am so excited about this.”
The goal is for the Frick to eventually be co-taught by Bryar and Savens, who would both teach each part of the Forum.
AP Seminar would then be a prerequisite for AP Research. Students who complete all classes can receive the AP Capstone.
“The goal is that everyone participates fully in everything,” Savens said.
For now, Savens teaches the AP Seminar class, while Bryar teaches the civic part.
The first semester in the Frick will be mostly field trips and guest speakers.
“In the spring, there will be internships; doing a deeper dive into choice and civic engagement,” Savens said.
“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Savens said. “Important–but also fun.”
Bryar said so far this year, she is “really enjoying getting to be in [Savens’s] class…it’s not co-teaching yet, it’s not us working together in the same classroom at the same time yet…but getting to work closely with a member of a different department, that has been so fun.”
Savens said she has enjoyed the flexibility that has come with the curriculum.
Savens said at the beginning of the year, she asked students to tell her why they had taken the class.
“So many of them said critical thinking, so I started with that,” Savens said. “So I teach a lot of what good thinkers do, and I just name it…nothing’s groundbreaking, but once you name it, they’re like…‘Oh, that makes sense.’”
“I get to be flexible with whatever the kids are super interested in. More of them said critical thinking than anything, so I’m leading with that…I know where we’re gonna end up, because I know what the AP Test is, but it’s how we get there based on the things that they’re interested in,” Savens said.
As of the second week of school, students of the Frick, or the “Frick Fellows,” already had one guest speaker and had taken an off-site trip.
Trips the class will take this year include visiting Marquette Park and the Federal Reserve Bank. Guest speakers will include Christy Griffin, founder of the Ethics Project, and Brandon Burns, a major in the U.S. Army.
Bryar and Savens agreed the class is “not just for humanities people,” according to Savens.
Savens said that though Seminar is an English elective credit, and she is an English teacher, it could have been taught by any subject.
“The idea that you have to research and understand the perspectives and complexity of a problem is cross-curricular. It’s not intended to just be English and social studies,” Savens said.
Bryar said there are “seven branches (units) that start the year…we start with arts and inspiration, then we have economics and data.” They will then end the year with science and medicine.
“With each brand, we want the kids to be thinking about, ‘How do the people in this field make change?’ ‘How do they interact with civics and the government?’ and ‘What careers exist within this field?’” Bryar said.
According to Bryar, Webster is also working to make the Frick accessible to students outside of the district.
“The long-term goal is to have students from other districts purchase seats in the class. So if you’re a Kirkwood student and you want to be a part of this class, Kirkwood would pay for you to attend the class,” Bryar said.
The goal is for this to start next school year.
Overall, Bryar said the Fricks have been “very supportive, but also hands-off.” They had the initial idea of civic engagement, but have not been instructing Bryar and Savens on what to teach.
They have been able to teach largely what interests the students, remaining flexible.
“Because that’s what civics is,” Savens said. “Community engagement, what interests you [and] your passions.”
This ECHO Podcast is introduced and outro’d and edited by print/podcast editor Margaret Korte.
Print/podcast editor Margaret Korte talks to English teacher Gwyndolyn Savens and social studies teacher Alison Bryar about the newly-created Frick Center for Civic Engagement.
Music is:
Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
“Beauty Flow” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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Margaret Korte–Print/Podcast EditorThis will be Margaret Korte’s third year on ECHO staff. She made several contributions while taking journalism class her freshman year. |
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