SOUTH SENECA HIGH SCHOOL SIGNS ON FOR INTERNATIONAL YEAR FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE

South Seneca High School Ovid, NY

The 8^th grade class of Mrs. Gertrude Shaffer and the Basic Skills class of Mrs. Kim Lawrence of South Seneca HS participated in interactive video conferences on the topic of Words to Deedswith Global Education Motivators (GEM) from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. The purpose was to learn how to participate in GEM’s UNESCO flagship event for the International Year for a Culture of Peace. The program instructor was Mr. Wayne Jacoby a former teacher and President of GEM.

Each class separately learned about Manifesto 2000 and The Universal Declaration of Human Rightsas part of their awareness portion of moving from “words to deeds.”They learned that human rights have human responsibilities and that much has been done in the past fifty years to lay the groundwork to empower people of all ages to work to secure basic human rights for all people. The students saw a Culture of Peace as a concept yet to be realized. They learned that the violence of the 20^th Century could not be repeated in the 21^st and that they were empowered to do some thing via The Universal Declaration of Human Rightsand the related treaties and covenants.

The classes discussed possible action plan ideas with Mr. Jacoby as he shared with them his various experiences with other schools. As the video conferences progressed, each student had their own pocket-size copy of The Universal Declaration of Human Rightsto refer to when they wanted to know what basic rights were guaranteed to them and others. Ideas discussed were supported with classroom resources to help the teacher move to the next step with their class.

As of this writing South Seneca HS was committing themselves to work on an Adopt-a-Landmine project in the country of Mozambique as well as projects where they would think globally but act locally.