Burton Danet (Author) wrote:

World Peace Day Celebration at HVP When we realized that our time teaching at Hindu Vidyapeeth – Nepal, Balkumari, Lalitpur coincided with World Peace Day (21st September) we decided to take on the challenge of creating a week-long World Peace Program to raise awareness amongst the student body about the importance of ‘Unity over Discrimination’. Keeping with this theme, our aims were to inspire them to practice love and compassion regardless of caste, race, religion and nationality. We decided that teaching about historical periods which highlight the fundamental evils of discrimination amongst humankind was the most effective way of enabling our students to consider how and why discrimination should be removed from society. After Class 6 had spent more than a week studying William Blake’s hard-hitting poem ‘The Little Black Boy’ in their Learning Smarter English class, it was an easy choice to continue teaching them about the horrors of slavery and racial discrimination and how one hundred years later Martin Luther King Jr. fought peacefully for African-American Civil Rights in the USA. We began by teaching them the meaning of discrimination, stereotypes and the importance of overcoming them. We then encouraged them to put themselves in the place of an African-American child first in the 17th Century and then in the 1970s. By giving them extracts from Martin Luther King’s inspirational speech entitled “I have a dream” we aimed to show them how one man’s dream of equality, unity and peace amongst a racially diverse population achieved civil rights two hundred years after they had first been campaigned for. This period in American history was particularly relevant for World Peace Week as it showed the triumph of peaceful protest over violence, and illuminated practices of discrimination, such as that between caste that still exist, to an extent, today in Nepal. Class 6 showed great enthusiasm and interest in the topic and they finished the week by writing and presenting some fantastic poems based on our theme of ‘Unity over Discrimination’, and really demonstrated their sensitivity to the topic, with many quoting in their poems that “discrimination divides the nation”! The topic we chose for Class 7 was natural disasters, and the efforts of aid agencies in helping those in need. We focused on the idea of people of different races and religions coming together and overcoming their differences in order to reach out to victims of natural disaster. We hoped to emphasise the ideals of tolerance and unity in the face of adversity. We also felt wanted to raise awareness amongst the students of such disasters and their effects on people to encourage gratitude for all we have, and appreciation for things often taken for granted. The class worked very well, and created peace poems as well as composing an ‘aid worker’s diary’, putting themselves in the shoes of those who go to areas of disaster. They showed real imagination and ingenuity in imagining what they would do in such a situation, and recognizing the short and long term needs of people affected by disaster. The Holocaust is a historical issue that is universally taught in British schools today because it raises numerous questions about the moral responsibility that belongs to mankind and the urgency to achieve world peace over conflict and racial discrimination. Classes 8 and 9 were deemed to be old enough to comprehend the severity of the Holocaust, and they showed great maturity and sensitivity to the issue. After giving a power-point presentation to class 8 and 9 which provided an overview of the time period and the complex stereotypes of the European Jewish community, our students studied two extracts from ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’. The extracts chosen dealt with a young girl’s confusion as to why her whole life changed because of an idea embedded in racial discrimination and injustice. Rather than focusing on the evils of the time period, of which there were so many, we aimed to draw attention to the efforts of contemporary Jews and non-Jews to help and support those discriminated against. Such people demonstrated that ‘Unity over Discrimination’ can be achieved, even when their own lives were put at risk when they did so. The classroom activities set were to think about how marginalized groups can be helped even in today’s world. When class 8 were asked whether they would have had the courage to put their own lives at risks to help the Jews in Europe, one student proudly answered “of course, I am Nepali!” The rest followed suit and collectively exclaimed “Yes we would because we are Nepali!” We were immensely impressed by the humanity and love demonstrated by our fearless students. The poems submitted for the poetry competition were based on these historical topics. Many of the poems focused on the sadness of racial discrimination and natural disasters, but also emphasized the unfailing spirit of mankind to help and support people in need, and showing unity during difficult times. It was very rewarding to receive so many wonderful, inspiring, and surprisingly wise poems from our enthusiastic students. The competition also allowed those students often quiet in class to demonstrate their creative flare and thoughtful approach to such difficult topics of discussion. Despite such a high number of mesmerizing poems, we had to choose a winning poem from each class and an overall winner from these. The winners were as follows: Class 6 – Ruman Maharjan and Lumanti Maharjan Class 7 – Elesh Aryal Class 8 – Saksham Giri Class 9 – Ruzee Shrestha

September 25, 2010 | 2:51 am