This page was created to be an extension of a grant received during the 2010-11 school year. The grand funding is from Partners in the Arts of Richmond, VA.

The goal of the project is to extend a project that was funded by the Henrico Education Foundation, "Teaching Tolerance and Empowerment across the Curriculum". This program used Arthur Miller's The Crucible to teach the major themes.

The idea is to implement the Virginia Standards of Learning to the school community by utilizing a cross-curriculum instruction approach. The targeted classes will be US History, World History II, 20th Century US History, Theatre, Drama, various art classes, and English 10 and 11. Beyond these classes we will be encouraging other teachers to incorporate lessons that fit the theme.

Students and teachers will work with one another along with community artists, school clubs and community organizations. The students will be immersed in themes such as tolerance, justice and empowerment in multiple classes and activities. In History and English they will read Dairy of a Young Girl and Night, while studying the topics such as the Holocaust, World War II, or
Totalitarian Governments. English classes will discuss the themes in historical fiction while history will focus on the causes of holocausts and how to avoid them in the future. These ideas will be supplemented by readings that take into account current issues and issues that affect student's lives. The same themes will be used in a campus wide approach through clubs and organizations.

A culmination of the study will be a production of The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. By bringing in a professional director and designers as well as college level assistants, students will be introduced to a realistic and hands on approach to collegiate and professional levels of theatre. Having this kind of experience will encourage students to pursue the arts at the college level and perhaps pursue an interest in the arts once they graduate. One area that we will work hard to do will be to tap the school population to find interested actors and other behind the scenes participants that traditionally shy away from such events.