Activisim Seminar at De Witt Clinton High School
This Year's Theme: Healthy Food and Sustainable Living
Author and Environmentalist, Elizabeth Royte with WITT Seminar teacher and students
Photo taken by Chris Fleming
This fall, Behind the Book is hosting a series of author visits focused on healthy food and sustainabilty at De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx. Behind the Book works with an activism class of juniors and seniors, also known as the Witt Seminar.
In October, Elizabeth Royte, author of Garbage Land visited our students and discussed her journey through America's landfills. Her book explores the underbelly of waste in our country and where inevitably our plastics, metals, biosolids go after they have been discarded. During Royte's visit, Students asked poignant questions about Royte's research and were inspired to improve recycling methods at their school.
Upcoming visits in November and December will be led by author and journalist Novella Carpenter (Farm City) and NYU nutrition professor, Marion Nestle (Food Politics). Novella Carpenter attended Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, where she studied under Michael Pollan. Her memoir, Farm City, describes the complexities and rewards of local farming. It tells the story of a woman who transforms a vacant lot in downtown Oakland into a thriving farm. Marion Nestle's work focuses on the social, cultural, and economic factors that influence dietary guidelines in the country. Her compelling book, Food Politics looks critically at the food industry and how it influences dietary advice and practices.
Our teacher, Ray Pultinas describes this semester's seminar as, " the boldest initiative in the WITT Seminar's five year history". He further mentions that "our aim is to raise awareness about the food practices that are currently in place at our school, educate our students about the environmental and nutritional value of local food, and work strategically with interested community organizations to help change the way students and staff think about food."
The Witt Seminar will collaborate with local community organizations including Montefiore Health Center, Coalition for Healthy School Food and Brothers United in order to promote a more responsible and healthier school environment. They will also publish a collection of writings in reaction to each author's book and clasroom discussions for their yearly activism conference.
~~AUTHOR VISIT DATES~~
Elizabeth Royte, author of Garbage Land: On The Secret Trail of Trash
October 22, 2009
Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer
November 10, 2009
Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry influences Nutrition and Health
December 8, 2009
~~ABOUT THE WITT SEMINAR~~
Written by Ray Pultinas, high school teacher and creator of the WITT Seminar
The beginning of the WITT Seminar coincided with the advent of a new high security regimen during the Fall of 2005 at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, New York. Without notice to students, metal detectors had been installed and the policy of “captive lunch” was implemented that immediately barred almost 5,000 students from access during the day to the beautiful campus located on several acres and adjacent to Van Cortlandt Park. As the school was going on “lock down,” the Witt Seminar began discussing the effect of the changes on the tone and space of the school and what we could do as a class and an organization to respond. We found ourselves well positioned to speak out and encourage student activism. Since then, the Witt Seminar has published three editions of the Magpie Witt Activism (special editions of the school’s legendary literary magazine); hosted four annual school wide conferences; met, profiled and invited dozens of local activists to participate in our conferences, and raised awareness in our school on issues from autism to peek oil, from water scarcity in parts of the world to teen domestic violence in our own school.
Our Witt Seminar class was named after the Word Image Technology Team or Witt Agency that I co-founded in 1996 and that existed as a successful after school service club and organization until the spring of 2005. The idea was to try to bring the ideals and service minded ethos of the Witt Agency into a class that met for a period every day and five times per week.
