Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday Mutterings
While we are still digesting the after effects of teacher convention and presentations by the likes of Alphie Kohn and Stephen Lewis, we've come across this little gem of a blog posting:
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Stephen Lewis At Father Lacombe
I was lucky enough to hear Stephen Lewis at Father Lacombe High School in Calgary today. Mr. Lewis was invited by the student population to come and speak on the United Nations' Millenium Development Goals, as part of the schools on-going desire to further the work of former Sudanese student Simon Atem. Two years ago, Atem participated in the online student video organization Quantum Shift's student activist project. Other students at Father Lacombe filmed Simon talking about his desire to raise money to build a school in his Sudanese village after graduation. Released on www.quantumshift.tv, the "Simon's Project" quickly made an impression, where it was the fourth most viewed video, and helped Simon raise a significant amount of money, as well as earning the attention of several key individuals and aid agencies that are now helping Simon build his school and improve local conditions.
On his own, Mr. Lewis is a passionate and engaging speaker as he talks about the many challenges facing Africa, but his talk was most impressive when set against a backdrop of high school students looking for ways to help their fellow students around the world. Simon and several other former students at Father Lacombe are a part of Sudan's Lost Boys generation. As both the students and Mr. Lewis pointed out, the problems faces by Africa regarding the rights of women, the spread of AIDS, rapidly escalating food prices, barriers to education, war and corruption, are very real and dramatic, and will only be exacerbated by the financial crises.
Though the problems seem insurmountable, and are indeed large, as Mr. Lewis responded to one student who asked if he ever thought of giving up, the answer is in believing that we can make a difference. Father Lacombe High School, a school that is perhaps in the midst of its own renaissance, can attest to that.
On his own, Mr. Lewis is a passionate and engaging speaker as he talks about the many challenges facing Africa, but his talk was most impressive when set against a backdrop of high school students looking for ways to help their fellow students around the world. Simon and several other former students at Father Lacombe are a part of Sudan's Lost Boys generation. As both the students and Mr. Lewis pointed out, the problems faces by Africa regarding the rights of women, the spread of AIDS, rapidly escalating food prices, barriers to education, war and corruption, are very real and dramatic, and will only be exacerbated by the financial crises.
Though the problems seem insurmountable, and are indeed large, as Mr. Lewis responded to one student who asked if he ever thought of giving up, the answer is in believing that we can make a difference. Father Lacombe High School, a school that is perhaps in the midst of its own renaissance, can attest to that.
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