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October 24, 2008
Creating communities
Global Connections course was a dream.
MICHELLE DODEK
King David High School is forging a new path to educate and inspire students to become more involved in community locally, as well as internationally.
This year is the pilot course for the Global Connections elective, offered to students in grades 11 and 12. The 14 participants, who were selected after a rigorous application process, have already started in earnest to learn about globalization, media awareness and the importance of fundraising for community programming. They will face the tough issues of ethical business practices, the human impact on the environment, as well as the many questions surrounding sustainable food production. They will examine themselves as they engage in journal writing and filmmaking, debates and essays.
Captivating high school students in such discourse and thinking is a social activist's dream come true. And so it is for the teacher shaping this initiative. The course is the brainchild of fine arts teacher and self-dubbed "quiet activist" Andrea Superstein.
"Whatever is happening in the world is for us to explore," explained Superstein. "Choosing the course material is difficult because there is so much. Next year, the Grade 11 students in the class may choose to take it again and they will have a totally different course."
Having spent a summer in Ghana teaching in a remote village and, this past summer, working on sustainable, organic gardening on the Queen Charlotte Islands, Superstein is connected and qualified to tackle these issues with her students. She has also spent years in development work in Canada and abroad. "Development work has been such a rewarding experience for me everywhere I've gone that I want to help interested students get out there," Superstein commented.
One of the ways to get students involved is a monthly commitment to a group volunteer activity. When asked why the volunteerism is in a group setting, Superstein pointed out, "We are building a community here. A large component of the class revolves around community and we are fostering that lesson every class." Student participant Noy Ziv's comments reinforced her teacher's objective: "Having a small group, we get to know each other and we volunteer together. I'm interested in helping Jews and non-Jews."
The first group task the students undertook was to help the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver by making phone calls for the 2008 Combined Jewish Appeal campaign. Volunteer activities slated for the rest of the year have not been decided yet, so the opportunity for students to give input into the types of experiences they have is still open. They will include agencies in both the Jewish and general communities in Vancouver and the class will culminate with an experience in Costa Rica doing international development work. The project in Costa Rica will include Shabbat with the local Jewish community, as well as two weeks working in a cheese co-operative and in a school in a community called Santa Elena. The village is in the rain forest, and should be an eye-opening experience for every participant.
Grade 11 student Jessica Pullan could not have been more enthusiastic about Global Connections. "When I heard that it was being offered, it was the most exciting moment of my life," she said. "I'd been waiting for this since Grade 7, when I finished my Tikkun Olam class at Talmud Torah." Pullan said she looks forward to the course because she knows that she's learning about ways to help people and make a difference in people's lives. The Global Connections course requirement to volunteer hours as a group each month has inspired Pullan to volunteer as an individual as well. "I realized that I could do something every week and it is really easy to do and feels really good afterward," she said.
Superstein feels there is a positive buzz at the school from the course: "Students are very committed and rising to the challenges Global Connections poses. They are motivated and focused because the course requires so much more than just coming to school."
For more information about the work being done at King David High School, or specifically about Global Connections, contact Superstein at [email protected].
Michelle Dodek is a freelance writer living in Vancouver whose full-time job is caring for her two small children.
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