For most of my career in education, I was lucky to work in schools that were part of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB). The first part of IB’s mission reads as follows:
“The International Baccalaureate® aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect,”
and goes one say that they
“encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.”
It’s no wonder that when I first found UUCS, I called it IB church! Our church aims to create community, find meaning, and work for justice. We say it every Sunday and we strive to live it every moment of the week.
This month in RE, I am simultaneously considering climate justice and holiday traditions. How might these things connect, and what do they have to do with international education?
Our joy for the holidays of fall and winter need not be diminished by the looming climate crisis. Instead, I would like to embrace our children this season as our reason for light and hope in the darkness. We can still celebrate Thanksgiving, but maybe we pay special attention to the environmental impacts of our meal. We can still give gifts for Christmas and Hanukkah, but maybe we give the gift of time or service instead of a thing that will eventually make its way to a landfill. To avoid the jumble of toys under our tree at home, I adopted this little jingle from a friend:
Something you want,
something you need,
something to wear, and
something to read.
Especially with this year’s supply chain and delivery issues, consider buying something from a local shop or second-hand store.
Over the next couple months in Children’s Chapel, we will celebrate this holiday-filled season, but we will do so with an understanding that our actions impact the planet — and all of the children with whom we share this planet. Halloween sort of kicks off the holiday season, so at our Halloween party on October 31, I introduced the children to Trick or Treat for UNICEF. This year, funds from their Trick or Treat campaign go to ACT-A, the global Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.
Sponsored by the United Nations, UNICEF provides humanitarian aid to children around the world. They claim that the climate crisis is a child rights crisis, and our UUCS kids can help fight this dual crisis by learning about UNICEF’s projects and saving their pennies. Throughout the next two months I am asking kids to bring in their loose change (or bills) for UNICEF. Would you like to help? You can donate to our page here. Each Sunday, we will also watch a quick interactive video that will help us learn about issues that kids around the world are facing. (And sometimes the videos are just a goofy movement break!) These videos unlock “points” that represent food that is donated to hungry children.
So while we have fun celebrating the holidays this season, let’s not forget the impact that we make on our earth and the children of our world. Let’s keep working for justice and never forget the powerful role that kids play in shaping our future — not just here in Spokane, but for our entire planet and all of its inhabitants.
I hope you were as encouraged as I was last Sunday when Dr. McCormick helped us remember what life was like for his grandmother — a world where most people lived under tyrannical governments, a world where women and African-Americans couldn’t vote, a world world where homosexual and transgendered people were outcast. I hope that someday our children will be able to remark on how much better and more peaceful our world is for them that it was for their grandparents.