In 1969, Dr. Sidney Boose and Harold Kenney co-founded the New Canaan experiment at Norfolk State University. For the experiment, 10 students were selected for an internship that allowed them to conduct their student teaching in the affluent and predominantly white town of New Canaan, Connecticut. The goal of the experiment was to teach tolerance, build understanding between cultures, and to express the importance of diversity in the classroom. 

When students arrived in New Canaan, they were sent to live with a host family for the duration of their stay. These host families were tasked with providing a welcoming environment for the students as they adapted to living in Connecticut. Students were then assigned to various classrooms in the New Canaan public school system where they would be practicing their student teaching for the next nine weeks.

In each classroom, a cooperating teacher supervised and guided their respective student teacher. The students would start by teaching one subject and would add a new subject each week until they were teaching the entire curriculum. As they gradually took over the classroom, it was the cooperating teachers job to observe and critique their lessons. 

Constance James, a Norfolk State alumni and New Canaan experiment participant reflected on her time in New Canaan. In the Fall of 1971, Constance James was invited to be a part of the 2nd group of the New Canaan experiment, at the time she was just 21 years old. 

James says she was “selected by the elementary advisors at Norfolk State” to take part in the internship. When the idea was brought to her, she was not hesitant at all and looked forward to expanding her horizons. 

“I was in the second group and I heard things about it from the first group that were quite pleasant. I wasn’t hesitant. I was excited for an experience I’d never had.”

However, James was not aware that she was participating in such an impactful social experiment. 

“I just thought it was a student teaching opportunity because the term they used with me was ‘New Canaan Experience,’ it was years later that I found out it was ‘New Canaan Experiment’.” 

Upon arriving in New Canaan, Constance James remembers it as being, “very beautiful, very suburban.” She says,

 “I grew up urban. I grew up in inner city Norfolk, so it was very beautiful, very suburban, very different from any neighborhood I had ever lived in….They placed me with The Crane’s. The father was a doctor, his wife worked for him in his office and they had an elementary school aged daughter, actually at the school I student taught. They also had four grown up children.” 

Constance James describes her student teaching experience as a unique one and explains how her classroom circumstances differed greatly from her peers.

 “My experience was unique because I had only been there two weeks when my cooperating teacher had to go out for surgery, so I then became the long-term sub and the student teacher.” 

Adding, “I had a more unique experience than anybody else had in that I was on my own by the third week, which was unheard of. When Norfolk State found out that I was subbing and student teaching, they sent someone out to do an observation. She came up, she did an observation, and said that ‘I was doing just fine.’ I was on my own almost immediately.” 

One may think that this was a challenging task for such a young intern turned professional yet James was courageous and focused on being an adequate teacher for her students. 

“I don’t remember being afraid. My only concern was making sure I was capable of covering the subjects adequately for the students. I just took the teacher’s manual, made my lesson plans, and went from there. Sometimes when you’re young you don’t know to be afraid of things.” 

Even when students began to challenge her James stood her ground stating, 

“The discipline was a little interesting my first couple of weeks because they thought because I look very young, and they didn’t have any experience with African-Americans, they thought they were going to be able to run over me. But, they soon found out that was not the case and they gave up on that because that wasn’t going to happen.”

Overall, Constance James believes she benefited from the New Canaan experiment because it helped her understand what she could achieve in life. She recounts it as being a “comfortable culture shock” and a “broadening of experiences” adding that, 

 “I think the New Canaan experiment was very successful because the majority of everyone had a good experience. I think it opened eyes on both ends.”

The New Canaan experiment continued on for nearly a decade before ending in the Spring of 1977, but it will forever be remembered for showcasing different races in leadership positions and celebrating diversity in the classroom. Because of this experiment, the community of New Canaan was able to reach a better level of understanding and respect for African Americans. All in all, this experiment left a lasting imprint on the lives of everyone involved and showed Norfolk State’s students that they could achieve anything and make a difference everywhere. 

[Source: WTKRNEWS3] Old newspaper article from a New Canaan publication highlighting Norfolk State’s student teachers.