I love December 10th. On that day in 1948, many nations came together to sign The United Nations Declaration of Rights and Freedoms. It is an annual reminder of the acknowledgement that human rights exist, despite what we read in the newspaper, see in the media, and witness all too often in daily interactions. It is also another reminder to have the conversation with our schools about human rights.
The quality of the conversation ranges from surface to particularly moving depending on the year, the person negotiating it and the students. This year has been magic. One of the teachers was reading Hannah’s Suitcase by Karen Levine, about the Holocaust with her 6th Grade students. I was reading Playing War by Kathy Beckwith , to explore why war isn’t a fun game for students coming from war torn countries with 3rd grade students. With the help of a grant from Promoting a Culture of Peace for Children, the conversation morphed into a project to welcome Syrian refugees.
I went down to the storage locker to pull out my Christmas decorations and an old suitcase that Ms. Collins and her 6th graders could use to decorate with images and hold all our messages to welcome the Syrian refugees coming to Canada. The suitcase holding some of my most precious and breakable Christmas decorations caused me to pause. My paternal grandmother had gotten the suitcase on a trip to Russia. She used it to take flight several times with her four young children away from the front line of war in Germany during WWII. Her brother sponsored her and her two sisters and all of their children to come to Canada in 1947. Margriet’s suitcase took her on to the Voldendam to travel to Canada and start a new life.
I am an administrator in a school where many families have made sacrifices to come to Canada with the promise of starting a better life. At the Winter Potluck dinner, messages of support and advice were written to the Syrian refugees coming to Canada. Ms. Collin’s Grade 6 students have been at a booth to tell people about the Syrian refugees and encourage them to write messages to add to the others in the suitcase. Mable Elmore, our MLA for Vancouver-Kensington, has come to talk to students about her job and work with refugees. Yesterday Ms. Collins, on the busiest shopping day of the year, with her daughter in tow, arrived at a community forum to discuss how to support the Syrian refugees that may be arriving in our area. The conversation deepens, the project expands and the possibility for learning and caring expands exponentially.
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