Can’t we all just ‘Meet in the Middle?’
Students weigh in on controversial topics
Photo: Elle Vaughn
Every red flex, students gather in H270, Ms. Freya Kridle’s room, to “meet in the middle” on certain topics with their classmates. Meet in the Middle is a club that was organized by Associate Head of School Mr. Will Bladt where students can meet to talk about some of the “hot topics” in the news and within St. George’s.
Many important topics have come up in these discussions, including feminism, racism, police brutality, religion and terrorism.
“We need to have a place where we have these regularly scheduled meetings so that, when these things happen, we can talk about them,” Mr. Bladt said.
Any student can come and express their opinion on whatever the topic of the day is. Although Mr. Bladt is involved in planning the meetings, his role is almost exclusively the mediator, so nearly all of the discussion is student-led. The discussion is quite lively, with passionate students weighing in on each topic.
Recently attending her third meeting, junior Faith Huff has enjoyed her time at meetings as much as ever. She claims that the passionate students, such as junior Regine Miller, are the primary reason she continues to attend club meetings. On the other hand, Miller loves how the club gives her an outlet for the feelings and opinions that she normally has to hold in.
When coming together, Meet in the Middle embraces three different values, which are connection, understanding and appreciation. The goals of the club are to let the students learn about each other, embrace their similarities and, as a result, be able to appreciate diversity and differences amongst each other.
“This is something our school needs,” senior Paige Madison said. Madison attended the Student Diversity Leadership Conference last year, and she was inspired after seeing all kinds of diversity clubs from other schools at the conference.
Working together with Director of College Guidance, Mr. Timothy Gibson, seniors Autumn Jones, Madison and Blake Nicolia and juniors Essence Davis and Annie Vento took this idea to the next level and made it a reality.
Mr. Bladt hopes to expand the club further in terms of members.
“Each time we’ve met, there have been more people in the room than the time before,” Mr. Bladt said. Although nothing new is planned in the foreseeable future, Mr. Bladt discussed ambitions about possibly holding a multi-school conference about inclusivity and diversity in the future.
Meet in the Middle encourages student participation, and they encourage anyone who wants to learn more about the program to come by and try it out for themselves.
