LREI at the UN

Dear Families,

As we take in events happening around the world and as adults debate and argue on how to best resolve them, we often fail to hear the true power and authority that imbues the voices of our younger citizens. That failure, a sort of generational silencing, can have profound consequences for both adults and children. That is why one of the driving forces behind our progressive practice is the belief in the transformative possibilities that come from helping each student to find her/his voice. Just such a moment occurred this week when several of our middle school students presented to a panel of adults at the UN. This presentation, which grew out of work being conducted by all of our eighth graders, is part of a larger social justice project that will culminate on April 28th, the day of the “Social Justice Teach-In.” On this day,  the eighth grade will run the middle school morning schedule.  In addition to putting together an assembly, each research group will run two hour-long workshops with the fifth-seventh graders in order to share their knowledge and inspire them to act. You can learn more about this project at http://blog.lrei.org/greencore/ and you can also read student posts about their work in the “field.”

For three of our students, this week’s fieldwork took them to the UN for a unique opportunity to give voice to their current work. As Middle School core teacher Sara-Momii Roberts recounts:

I had the pleasure of taking three eighth grade students to speak at the United Nations this week. As a part of our the eighth grade social justice project “Choosing to participate,” Phoebe, Samantha, and Niles began researching gun violence and gun violence prevention in New York City and started volunteering at IANSA (International Action Network against Small Arms).  IANSA subsequently asked the three to speak on a panel at the United Nations, addressing their research and their school project.  They worked for two months to prepare. The group presented statistics, interviews with a number of NYC gun violence victims and activists in our city, and shared about their personal interest in the topic. The other speakers on the panel included women from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Columbia, Guyana and Norway, in addition to a United Nations representative from the Department of Disarmament Affairs. The students were very well received and the response to having a “youth voice” from the “field” was overwhelming.! It was a very proud moment for their family members who were in attendance and our school at large.

And this from Sarah Master our contact at IANSA:

Thanks once more for everything, the kids really made a difference and I was delighted that their speeches were received so well, interspersed with applause — fantastic! Thank you for making our event today so successful. There were over 80 people in the room, including lots of people sitting on the floor that we couldn’t see. The audience included diplomats from missions including the Gambia, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Korea, Kenya, USA and Sweden. You were fantastic and the audience was engaged the entire time.

We are so proud of these students for their hard work! Click here for some video of their presentation at the event.