The Question of Monuments

Hillside AVID students in Mr. Finnegan’s 4th period American History class conducted a Socratic seminar on May 14. The topic was whether or not confederate monuments should remain or be taken down.

Students prepared for the seminar by reading two texts: “I Detest Confederate Monuments. But They Should Remain” by Lawrence Kuznar of The Washington Post, and “Take the Statues Down” by Yoni Applebaum of The Atlantic.

During this Socratic seminar students gathered forming a circle. Then Sophomore Shamara Williams got the discussion started by asking a question. Students were so into it that the conversation carried on with enthusiasm for the whole class.

Sophomore Nakayla Pettus opposed the idea presented in The Atlantic article that confederate General Robert E. Lee could be thought of as a “peacemaker”. Pettus stated, that Lee was in no way a peacemaker. Many students expressed agreement with her.

Students carefully considered and discussed the ideas in each text. There was much discussion about how the statues should be taken down but not forgotten. Sophomore Cheyenne Horn quoted the Washington Post article: “But these pieces of metal and stone only have the meaning we assign to them, and that meaning can take any form we like.” Some people agreed.

To respond to Horn’s contribution, Sophomore Amaree Small suggested that there should be museums for those who supported the confederate and those who fought for black people.

To end the conversation Kamoni King expressed the idea that we should not start with taking down monuments but rather we should build African Americans communities.