■【The 1st Kids Conference】
The 1st Kids Conference on Global Issues was held from 3rd-to 5th May, 2012. 86 children in class six took part in it and worked together on the following themes; “My Awakening as a Global Citizen” and “My Quest for True Logical Thinking.”Please have a look at their complete works (letters, illusts) created at the conference.
Venue : Four Nichinoken schools (Tsudanuma, Takadanobaba, Yokohama and Fujisawa)
Participants : 86 children in class six
Theme :My Awakening as a Global Citizen” and “My Quest for True Logical Thinking”
Day 1
The children were visually introduced to current global issues, UN Conference on Sustainable Development to take place in Rio de Janeiro and the reason why it is called Rio +20. They were shocked to see a 12-year-old girl, Severn Suzuki, who was fully aware of the global crisis then, bring it to adults’ attention at the conference.
Now they are turning the same age as Severn when she gave the speech. They asked themselves and thought hard together;
“What issues can we bring to the world’s attention?”
“How can we be more convincing and persuasive?”
and above all
“What does it mean to me to be a global citizen?”
Day 2
“Why not see what is within us? Let’s put what’s upwelling within us into words!” They began the second day with putting the shock they had the day before into words.
The familiar perspective, so called “subject”, offered a powerful tool.
A math teacher made a pair with a social-science teacher to work on some data on water. They led the children to understand the data from both a math perspective and a social-science perspective. The children became more conscious of the way how they were using data.
A natural-science teacher made a pair with a Japanese literature-and-language teacher. They read an article on environmental issues with the children and encouraged them to change, diversify and utilize their viewpoints. Through this experience children learned to be more aware of their own perspectives.
It was such a precious moment to experience what it is all about to “Think globally and acto locally.” –The competence they were developing was deeply connected with what was happening on the earth.
Day 3
On the final day, the children put their inner voice into words and wrote an essay under the title of “The Future We Want.”
Each child has his/her own unique vision of “The Future We Want. They went on asking themselves “What role is Japan going to play in the Future We Want”?
“How am I going to take part in it ?” “To do so in the future, what should I do now?”
From the beginning of the program to the end, they wrote, wrote and wrote. They tried not to be self-righteous but to include as many perspectives as possible and to make sense to as many people as possible. Of course they made the best use of peer-review with the co-learners.
