The Story : Ever since kindergarten, Abejide Mtima has attended the first day of each school year filled with hope. A quite impossible hope, that of ‘blending’ into the crowd in the playground and making new friends without being stared at or feeling obliged to talk about his background…Now on the threshold of 10th Grade in a new High School, he’d like to meet teachers and friends without being immediately pigeonholed.
The Idea: Make the first month of High school a virtual one. Each student would go ‘Back To School’ from their computer, via a contained, anonymous social network. It would have various forums and networking widgets and would be administered by the teaching body. Each student would choose a neutral pseudonym, but would not have a profile. This way students could start their year working together, building the foundations of academic encounters without having to worry about being : Black/white/gay/straight/boy/girl/skinny/obese/ hot/not/physically able/handicapped.
The Com’: Two hands typing on a computer keyboard. One hand is black, the other white.
Copyright 2010 Sophia Burnett
