Rain, rain, go away!
We woke to a light rain, so skipped morning “gymnastics” outdoors and had extra
time to sleep, shower, or socialize with each other at breakfast.
A few leaves remained
on our Tree of Knowledge from yesterday so we addressed those this morning. The
questions focussed on ecology and the environment as well as on differences
between Lithuanian and Polish cultures.
Next, we wrote on
green leaves the questions we have about today’s theme: “Our Values: Personal,
Social, Global. Our Society: The Future is in Our Hands! International
Organizations.”
In groups we discussed
core values such as life, health, freedom, and cooperation, and ranked what we
believe are the top five values. We then created colorful graphic
representations of these in the form of a locomotive pulling five train cars,
each representing a value. We added people, an environment, and other elements
to show the forward movement that comes from all of us pulling together in the
same direction to better our democracies.
After decorating our
classroom walls with the value trains, we moved into an activity about social
values. These are values that guide our interactions with one another, such as
respect, tolerance, and empathy. To understand how social values interplay in
our daily actions, we took on roles as landlord, tenant, and observer. The
prospective tenants were from diverse backgrounds: a Muslim refugee student, a
musician who needs to practice for an upcoming festival, and others. Who did
the landlords want to rent to? Who did they not want to rent to? What social
values are in play? Do laws exist in some countries to ensure fairness? Do you
see correlations at your school where there might be prejudices toward certain
people?
Since it was too rainy
for outdoor exercises this morning, we took advantage of the break in weather
to get outside to the tennis courts for a relay race involving matching values
vocabulary with definitions.
The US Embassy sent
personnel from the US Army and Civil Affairs to talk about their jobs and how
they operate in Europe, and specifically in the three Baltic States of Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania. We met several personnel from the US Army and from
the Enhanced Forward
Presence (eFP), a NATO-allied
forward-deployed defense and deterrence military force in Northern, Central and
Eastern Europe. Those soldiers, from the Czech Republic
and Netherlands, gave a presentation about NATO. We learned why NATO was
formed, which countries are members of NATO, and why “an attack on a NATO
country is an attack on all NATO countries.”
Unfortunately, during
the kahoot game that followed the presentation, a student delegate anonymously
posted hate speech in the form of emojis that the Army personnel could see on
their computer and many of the delegates and teachers could see on the thread.
This shocked and disappointed all of us. The military personnel changed their
program to address the hate speech and violation of the values we have been
learning as part of the camp. They made it clear that hate speech violates our
shared values and said that if they had posted the same content, they would
have immediately lost their jobs and been dishonorably discharged from the
military.
Before they left the
camp, they brought out some of the equipment they wear and let delegates try on
their gear. It was heavy!
After a dinner of
kabobs, we gathered in a circle, without the perpetrator of the hate speech,
and talked about the incident. Our teachers started a process of restorative justice. Restorative justice seeks to examine the harmful impact of a crime
and then determines what can be done to repair that harm while holding the
person who caused it accountable for his or her actions. Accountability for the offender means
accepting responsibility and acting to repair the harm done.
Delegates expressed
their shock and sadness at what had happened. Some comments included wondering
if racism is embedded in their history and culture, the certainty that one is
not born racist but is taught to be, and that Polish and Lithuanian cultures
have less racial diversity than the USA. They talked about their own roles as
bystanders or upstanders and why they took on those roles, by either not
responding to the offensive post or posting that it was not appropriate and
racist. We all learned a painful but important lesson that we plan to take
forward.
The fun returned with
groups forming to imagine being marooned on an island and needing to build a
new democratic society. We agreed on and illustrated our values, form of
government, town layout, flag, motto, conflict resolution, and even a tribe
“exclamation,” such as the ancient Lithuanian chant we imagine – “ooooh, oooh,
oooh!”
Our final activity of
the evening — before disco fun and games – was outlining our hands and
writing on each finger. For example, we wrote one little thing we want to
change in the world on our littlest finger.
Next – disco and fun.
It’s a tradition in Lithuania to stay awake all night on the last day of camp.
Will we?! Find out tomorrow.
