The Children's Gallery of Black History

While her classmates scurry around the cafeteria at Brightwood Elementary School in Washington, D.C. during a two-day Children's Gallery of Black History, one 5th-grade student is having a closer look at the learning station named for Benjamin Banneker, an 18th-century mathematician and scientist. The other kids are shaking tambourines at the "Godfather of Go-Go Music" Chuck Brown exhibit, but the 5th grader is intent on taking apart a clock and then putting it back together — just as Banneker once did. Despite the joyous tumult around her, she succeeds, and awards herself a satisfied smile.

It's an important moment. While some classroom simulations of African-American history are critiqued for an emphasis on tragedy, the Children's Gallery, a brainchild of the D.C.-based nonprofit Mentors of Minorities in Education's Total Learning Cis-Tem (MOMIE's TLC), has young people simulating acts of innovation, triumph and creativity.

Five years ago, Ayize Sabater, MOMIE's co-founder and a father of five, grew frustrated by museums with roped-off exhibits, where children were instructed to look, but not touch. Influenced by the work of Maria Montessori and John Dewey, Sabater created the Gallery to engage young people in hands-on activities highlighting accomplishments by African Americans.

Children can write their own book to learn about Alice Walker, join a baseball game like Jackie Robinson, or plant a seed as Wangari Maathai. Hundreds of children tour the Gallery every year, with their families or with school and church groups.

"Not only does this heighten their level of learning retention," says Sabater, "(but) they also have the experience that they, too, can do great things." Sabater says informal testing shows that information at the Gallery often can double a child's knowledge of African-American history.

A Kellogg Foundation grant has allowed MOMIE's TLC to make the Gallery mobile. Now, Sabater and his team travel to schools and cultural events across the region.

A presentation last May at the National Smart Start Conference in Greensboro, N.C. drew raves. "Everyone wanted us to bring the Gallery to them or tell them how to replicate the Gallery in their area," says Gallery Coordinator Kendolyn Cooper. "They took pictures of our set-up and wrote down everything we discussed. They were cheering at the end."

At the conclusion of one group tour, a student cried out, "I am not ready to leave. I didn't get to do everything yet!"