Teens Shattering Stereotypes

When the intermediate-school students from Laguna Beach and those from Santa Ana held the first of their three meetings, some of the reactions were predictable.

The teenagers from Santa Ana, where about 90% of the residents are Latino, were surprised at how many of the Laguna Beach students were blond. But then, Laguna Beach is about 90% white.

For their part, the students from Thurston Middle School in Laguna Beach were taken aback by how accustomed to crime, even murder, the students from McFadden Intermediate in Santa Ana were.

The exchange program between the two schools was the handiwork of the two school districts, the Orange County Human Relations Commission and UC Irvine. Its worthwhile goal is to expose the children to wider vistas and help reduce prejudice through greater acquaintance and understanding.

At the first get-together, in Santa Ana, the students started off shy, looking each other over. But after they wrote down their thoughts on what it means to be a teen, the differences narrowed. There were shared observances on parties and school, dating and shopping.

Even the geographic horizons widened. A number of Laguna Beach teens had never been to Santa Ana. Some of their McFadden counterparts made their first journeys to Laguna Beach for the exchange program. The trips provided a valuable perspective on the differences in what is, after all, a relatively compact county. Laguna Beach has a suburban feel; Santa Ana is distinctly urban in many of its neighborhoods.

A valuable part of the program came from asking students to describe their own neighborhoods and interview residents.

The common theme after that exercise was a greater appreciation for streets and byways normally so familiar as not to merit a second glance. Showing the neighborhood to outsiders and explaining what makes it run engendered newfound enjoyment.

In exchanging photos of their communities, the students also agreed that the handful of meetings was not enough to really get to know each other. That’s realistic. But a McFadden teacher sounded the right note in saying it’s easy for youngsters in the two communities to stereotype each other. Person-to-person exchanges cut through those preconceived notions. If the contacts continue through high school, when students become more mobile, they will break down the barriers even more, to everyone’s benefit.