First Class Meeting

Gitsy, Josh, Cait, and I went to Middletown High School today. We met with a class composed of juniors and seniors. The class is an elective entitled Social Problems and they have been discussing human rights issues, culture, and other topics. We all introduced ourselves and gave a short history of WESTAND and the associated student movement. We then asked the students to tell us their names and a sentence or two about Darfur, genocide, or any human rights issue. If they could not think of anything or did not know anything about these subjects they could say pass. The majority of the class said pass, but a few students did speak up. From this exercise it was clear that they do not know much about the current situation in Darfur and have trouble articulating their knowledge of other genocides such as Rwanda. Josh gave a great impromptu overview on the Armenian genocide, Cambodia, and Darfur. Gitsy and Cait kept us on track and fielded questions from the students. We also discussed our Genocide Education Campaign with them. The teacher was extremely supportive and told us we could teach all her classes!

Afterwards, we met with another interested MHS teacher who has connections at Woodrow Wilson Middle School. He was very excited about our project. When we expressed concerns about the logistical aspects of this campaign (bringing the MHS students to individual WW classes) he said that he definitely supports that idea and he will work on our behalf to make it possible!!

On another note, Gitsy will be posting a news update, but in the meantime you should check out Bush's BBC interview Bush Defends US Record on Darfur.

See you all on Monday @ 1Opm in USDAN meeting room 110. Don't forget about the Invisible Children call-in at noon on Monday and the screening about the conflict in northern Uganda at 6pm inPAC 001 (brought to you by the Invisible Children 2008 National Tour).