Get Up Stand Up!

I recently heard this great story from a friend in Yokohama about how a group of 5th graders are standing by their values and protesting other students at their school. Older students! Yup, these guys felt so strongly that what the high school students at their school were doing was wrong, that they stood up and made themselves heard.

Story goes likes,

In December, right before the holidays, students in my grade 5 class followed their heart and inquired into plastic water bottle sales that were happening at school. The high school Business Studies class students were selling water bottles to make money. I think their goal was to create a business and make a profit.

The students in my class and I didn’t like it so we considered what to do about it. At that time, students decided to research plastic water bottles detrimental effects and create a presentation to show the Business Studies class. It went well.

They stopped selling water bottles until,

This week, things changed. The Business Studies students came back with a table of water bottles–some large, some small and two different prices. It was the same water from before: Kirkland water from Costco. They had rows and rows of water for sale for 50 yen and 100 yen (pretty cheap).

Students were angry.

You can read all the details here.  I wanted to share this story as I found it inspirational. What do you think? Any advice for these guys? Leave you thoughts in the comments. Show your support, if you agree with their tactics. It will be great for them to see that they are not alone and that other students are listening.

Feeling empowered enough to move yourself to action is a very important life skill; it is great to see these young learners pushing themselves and the students at their school to think and act. 

watching how it ignites

I want to thank my good friend Ari for sharing his ideas on discussions with me:

When in the discussion, you want to discover, to have discoveries, to be surprised. If the conversation doesn't lead you to something surprising, it's a sign that things need to click better. All thinking leads to discoveries, to discoveries we didn't know existed beforehand. And a rich classroom discussion is the highest form of thinking: it's a bunch of brains coming together and bouncing ideas off each other...generating new ideas, building and exploring, but also beginning (and thus departing) from the same starting point—the assigned reading/text.

In short, we want to see where our ideas "go," how they change. We aren't mailing a letter into a mailbox and watching it disappear. We are tossing a log into a fire...and watching how it ignites.

I have highlighted a few keywords for us to think about as we begin our journey of discussions and discovery. Please add this post to your growing understanding of at the table.

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by muffytyrone

What tips do you have for successful discussions? What do you feel will be easy for you, what will be challenging?