SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Parents are raising issues with a round of field trips for South Bend third-graders to area colleges that excludes students of all races except blacks.

District officials contend the program is designed to encourage black students – who are struggling academically in the district – to consider college as an option, but many parents are claiming racism, ABC 13 reports.

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“It creates a double standard,” South Bend parent Kelley Garing said.

“I feel like all kids should be going,” said Deidra Mullings, another South Bend mom.

David Moss, head of the district’s African American student and parent services, told the media he was hired on to help black kids in the district, and he was simply doing his job when he organized field trips to Ivy Tech community college, Bethel College and others.

“I was hired to look at the issues facing African American kids in the (South Bend Community School Corporation), and my job specifically says that I need to develop programs and develop strategies to help these kids and their families become more successful,” Moss told ABC 13.

“It’s really about supporting and helping these students become the best adults they can.”

Regardless, Garing is convinced the program “breeds intolerance and creates misunderstandings.”

“We should be able to do everything together and not separate,” parent Charles Yost told ABC 57.

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The field trips, which started on Thursday, include black students from seven elementary schools: Kennedy, McKinley, Nuner, Lincoln, Hamilton, Tarkington, and Coquillard, according to the news site.

In a letter sent to teachers at the schools, Moss laid out the goals of the program: “1) To create possible selves for your 3rd graders that include college attendance; 2) To help your 3rd graders understand that effort is more important than being smart; and 3) To enhance the educational relationship between these 3rd graders and their teachers.”

He also described two activities that black students will participate in.

I have developed two hands on activities, but depending on our timing, we may only be able to accomplish one of them.

You may use either or both of these activities in helping these third grade students to teach these concepts to their peers.

The first activity involves the use of small beach balls with both fixed (yellow) and growth (green) mindset messages printed on them. The students sit in a circle each holding a ball. A student with a fixed mindset ball reads the message on it out loud.

Then the counteracting message from a growth mindset ball is read out loud by another student.

The growth mindset message is discussed briefly and then all the students repeat that message out loud. After this, they toss the balls across the circle to each other. Gather the balls that are not caught and start over again.

The second activity will involve simple vignettes that the students will act out.

These vignettes will focus on 1) recognizing fixed and growth mindset messages; 2) the importance of exercising your brain like a muscle; and 3) the fact that everyone can grow his/her brain.

The college students will practice a vignette of their choosing with a small group of third graders.

The third graders will be encouraged to “ham it up” and then perform it for all the other students.

If time permits, a brief discussion will follow each vignette performance. I have attached copies of those vignettes for your information.

As you can see, these are very simple . . . so feel free to develop your own, or to have your students create their own.

When the students return to school it is expected that they and their teachers will work together to teach the entire class some of what the students learned about the growth mindset at Bethel College.

Moss said the blacks-only program “was not meant to be exclusionary,” it’s just that black kids don’t have the same mindset about college as their white classmates.

“I want these third graders to have the opportunity to think of themselves as college students,” he said, according to ABC 57. “We take them to a college campus, have them meet African-American students, modeling the idea that as a black person, college is a great place.”

One parent who spoke with the media, Erika Herron, thinks it’s a good idea.

“I don’t think it’s a race issue, I think they’re giving black children a chance,” Herron said.

But virtually everyone else who commented about the field trips online believes they’re hypocritical to the mission of equality.

“I understand his intention, but this is not the way to do it. This field trip should include all races to let everyone know that the ONLY thing stopping you from going to college and being a success is YOU,” Deonna Ramos posted.

“There are plenty of disadvantaged white kids also. But who cares, they are white. If this had been reversed and it was a ‘whites only’ field trip for poor white kids, the riots and protests would not end,” KC Alex wrote.

“Sure…teach the black kids that they’re different from everybody else and they’ll grow up thinking they’re different and disadvantaged and continue the tradition into the future. That makes a lot of sense,” LitigiousSage wrote.

“The only way to fix things is to stop telling these kids ‘it’s because you’re black’ when things get a little tough. Life is tough, try harder. If they’re raised to be the best they can be and not see themselves as different then future generations will follow suit.

“It’s that simple.”