Give students a creative way to learn and you open new doors doors to the way they think. Bayside Academy’s new Southern Mystique class is an interdisciplinary discovery of the history, music, and culture of the South. I talked with a few of the students about what they learned about the South and being Southern.

“We learned to be proud of being southern and some of the quirks we have come from where we live. I went to class every day excited to learn something about myself. It gives you a pride of who we are as a culture.”

“It is food, family, music and working hard, but it’s also the things you don’t think of that makes us Southern.”

“I never thought about the South before this class, but it made me rethink everyday life. I want to get out of the South when I graduate and try something new and see how it is done differently in other places.”

“We learned about the slave songs that spread and became part of the culture. Blending of multiple cultures is what makes the South.”

“What were your projects and what did you learn from them?”

“I made a radio podcast about the roots and growth of country music. I also made a little movie about early Civil Rights and did a project on the psychology of white flight and how Prichard was once affluent but the whites moved out when the blacks moved in and things changed.”

“I created a lacrosse tournament to benefit a local organization that helps veterans with PTSD. We raised $3,OOO. I would never have thought of doing that before this class and the encouragement of my teachers. The South has the highest levels of military involvement and Mobile has one of the highest veteran populations but the closest center for PTSD is in Biloxi and there is a six-month waiting list. It is a big problem in Mobile.”

“My project was to do journals from slaves and plantation owners. I dyed the paper to make it look like the 1830’s and 40’s and tried to copy the penmanship. I went on the Freedmen’s Bureau’s website and tried to put myself in their shoes. The slaves were illiterate so I used charcoal for their drawings. I told stories of slaves, the wives, and the overseers whipping the slaves. It was hard to just to think about what the slaves felt, I had to keep stopping and give myself a break.”

“I have never been in a class where you dive so deep into the material that you feel physical emotions. It makes you learn better.”

“The teachers jokingly called the class a revolution, but it really was for us.”

“We learned to think critically. I learned economics, racial tension, and philosophy. I now want to learn more about economics.”

“After this class, I want to be a Civil lawyer. I now feel strongly about ending the drug war because I don’t feel like it is helping. I watched the movie 13 on Netflix, told my teacher about it and we watched it in Southern Mystique. I did a project on Black Lives Matter and the drug war. It changed my views on a lot of things and made me think about equal education for all Alabama kids and I realize I am lucky for the schools I have been too. Other kids aren’t as lucky as I am. My whole life I wanted to be an orthodontist and make a lot of money, but now I want to do things that impact the community instead of just making money. I have learned to look at other points of view. I wouldn’t have been like this without the class.”