Former Student Returns as Guest Teacher at Intermediate School

A former student of all three Ocean City schools returned as a teacher on Thursday — providing a guest lesson on African-American history to seventh-graders at the .

Brittany Battle took time away from her studies at Temple University, where she is a candidate for a master's degree in African American studies. Battle, who turned 25 on Friday, is currently applying to Ph.D. programs in sociology and hopes to be a college professor.

She said Thursday's lesson for middle-schoolers was a welcome relief, and her enthusiasm for her subject and her pupils were both obvious. Battle is a 2005 graduate of Ocean City High School and a 2009 graduate of the University of Delaware.

Battle brought the classroom back to the era of Jim Crow laws — when freed slaves lived under as much oppression as they did under slavery. 

A sobering sampling of some of the Jim Crow laws she described can be found on this interactive map from PBS.org.

Battle's lessons were arranged for seventh-graders by one of her former teachers, Christine Franckle. Battle's appearance supplemented studies of the novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.