Maud Abrams students ‘Mix It Up’

There’s always something happening for lunch at Maud Abrams School. Sometimes it’s music to dine by. On movie days, it’s lunch and a show. And last week, instead of sitting down with the same old tablemates, students were encouraged to “mix it up” over lunch with old and new friends.
“Mix It Up” is a national program sponsored by tolerance.org. As one of some 10,000 schools participating in the event, Maud Abrams fourth- and fifth- grade students bypassed their assigned seats to welcome visiting sixth graders from the nearby Sandman Consolidated School to join them for lunch.
The goal of the event was to encourage students to question and cross boundaries by sitting with someone new in the cafeteria for just one day.

Maud Abrams has a diverse student population.
“They come from different backgrounds, different countries, (and) different parts of the country,” Behavior Management Assistant, James Dietterich said, but kids, like most people, are creatures of habit. They tend to stick with what’s familiar. “Mix It Up” is designed to help them step out of their comfort zones and meet new people.
“They can sit with anyone they want,” Dietterich said.
For some, it made lunch a bit more uncomfortable than usual. Like life, the lunch menu on this day was a smörgåsbord of choices. Then as they emerged from the lunch line, many students paused to scan the noisy cafeteria for a welcoming seat.
Eventually everyone found their way to a table. Some sat with friends they knew from after school activities or from their neighborhoods. Others sat with siblings and their friends, and still others bravely pulled up a chair to eat with students they barely knew.
The school has participated in the program for three years, according to Dietterich, and the students really look forward to it. It makes for a noisier and less-organized mealtime, but Principal Barbara Darymple said it also strengthens the school community.
“Every classroom is a community, but you want students to interact with all of the different people who make up the school community,” she said.