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The reports on
this project scored highly in the Junior Certificate CSPE Exam of
2001, but it didn't start out as a CSPE Action Project.
In 1998, the Religion
teachers in St. Michael's Loreto, Navan decided to honour the 50th
Anniversary of the United Nation Charter of Human Rights by creating
a school quilt. There were 29 classes that year: an article was assigned
to each class and the teachers took responsibility for the 30th Article.
Each class decided on a way to express the core message of the article
artistically on fabric. A group of 6th years sewed the pieces together.
The quilt was first used as a symbol at the Opening Year Mass and
was later featured on RTE as part of an Amnesty International promotion.
Following this the school received an invitation from the Irish Missionary
Union (IMU) to bring the quilt to their annual conference.
The class named ALMA was studying the Human Rights Charter in CSPE,
and they decided to accept the invitation as the basis for a CSPE
Action Project. During CSPE class the students made a list of tasks
and assigned sections to groups of students. They booked a bus and
informed their teachers that they would be absent from class on the
day.
On arrival at the Conference building two students identified themselves
to the organisers. Another group of students arranged the draping
of the quilt at a focal point. The students began their presentation
with an ice-breaker exercise. In advance they had created introduction
cards, which had brief descriptions of individual students. They distributed
the cards to the participants, who in turn had to identify and meet
up with their group leader. Each student then facilitated a brief
introduction session with adults and students exchanging bits of information
about themselves.
After the introduction a group of students explained the origin of
the quilt and the relevance of the U.N. Charter to young people. Each
student had an opportunity for some public speaking. The students
attended the remainder of the conference and interacted with the missionaries
during the day. Afterwards, evaluating the day, the students recognised
a value in young people and justice workers supporting each other..
Some students photographed the quilt. They then photocopied the photograph
onto an A4 page, added a printed message, and folded over as a card.
The students made a list of people who worked to promote justice both
at home and abroad. Each student took one name from the list, got
an address, wrote a message of thanks and encouragement on the card
and posted it to the "Justice Advocate". The project provided opportunities
for all the students to engage in group work and public speaking.
They practised a variety of communication skills when they met with
the missionaries; learned how to access addresses and craft positive
messages of support and appreciated the value of interacting with
people from different cultures and age groups.
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