Global Education Conference
On April 12, 1496, harried students looked up from their pre-exam studies
at the University of Ottawa to see the planet earth pass hy their windows.
While some may have attributed the sightings to too many cups of coffee
and too much cramming, those who bothered to look out the windows saw 300
participants of the Ottawarea Global Education Committee being lead from
sess ion to session hy group leaders hearing basketball-sized paper mache
replicas of the "earth on a stick" a fitting symbol for those
wishing to tackle global issues.
The day was led off by 13-year-old child labor activist Craig Kielburger
who urged the grade 6 -OAC (grade 13) students not to he daunted hy the
never-ending doom and gloom on the evening news. Craig recalled how his
work was inspired hy the death of child laborer and activist Iqbal Masih,
and challenged others to find out what issue(s) moved them the most.
Students were divided into three streams (based on grade level) and moved
through a menu of workshops designed to give each group a multi-faceted
view of the world today. The conference planning group's goal was to have
students go beyond the crisis at hand and Talk about how the situation
can he changed. At [he end, each student wrote a letter identifying the
issue on which to work. An information fair featuring local organizations
gave students an additional opportunity to pick up materials and practice
networking in between sessions.
The Global Education Conference was coordinated hy the Global Education
Network, an Ottawa area network of teachers and representatives of social
justice groups. They also run an annual Education Fair and maintain a listing
of local groups involved in Human Rights and Development Education.