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Children enjoy a Middle Eastern dance as part of a human rights education program funded by a Teaching Tolerance grant.
(Bryan Bacon/Huntsville Times) |
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MADISON, Ala. -- An innovative program at Country Day School is broadening students' horizons. This international K-8th grade school is part of The Cross Border Primary Human Rights Education Initiative, which links schools through human rights activities and offers young people from different cultures a chance to develop friendships and exchange ideas.
"It is our hope," said Peggy Good, a 2nd grade teacher and coordinator of all diversity training and outreach campaigns at the school, "that when we expose young people from different cultures to each other and provide them with the means to communicate and make friends, the walls of intolerance will dissolve."
Teaching Tolerance helps
With the support of a Teaching Tolerance grant, Good was able to implement a yearlong interdisciplinary approach to human rights education. Grant funds were used to purchase select books, music, art supplies, props and costumes. "What the grant provided me with is the ability to bring the world closer to my students," said Good.
The school has an extended program of human rights activities. Students in grades 2-8 study the Holocaust and the American Civil Rights Movement and also participate in global unity, tolerance and peace education programs.
Good's classes participated in monthly activities, beginning with an in-depth study of the history of Ireland and its continued struggle with political unrest. They then constructed a 15-foot mural timeline comparing the situation in Ireland with the American Civil Rights Movement. To bring the study to life, Good's class traveled to Selma and Montgomery. They crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to reenact the Voting Rights March of 1965 and contemplated the Movement at the Civil Rights Memorial.
The school scheduled its annual international week to coincide with the Department of Education's International Education Week. Students at Country Day celebrated with foods from eight different countries, music and dance. With 17 nationalities represented at the school, they were able to draw many participants from the community. After the festivities and food, parents shared information about life in their native countries.
"The message for students," Good said, "is that peace comes from knowing each other, and people are much less likely to be violent when there's a face to the philosophy."
To extend student's experiences even further, Country Day partnered with one school in Northern Ireland and another in the Republic of Ireland. Students corresponded via the Internet and exchanged creative writing samples.
Teaching Tolerance grants have funded more than 800 innovative projects for educators nationwide.
SPLC Report
June 2003
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