MONTREAL — It started about a year ago on a walk in the park. It became anything but that.
In an Ambassadors for Change program earlier this year, visiting Mohawk students from Kahnawake teach Jewish People’s and Peretz Schools Grade 6 students how to make dream catchers.
Debra Michael, Clement Grant and Gail Bernstein began to put together a program designed to break down cultural stereotypes and barriers of intolerance among Grade 6 students from three widely disparate cultures. But the idea quickly took on a life of its own, evolving into the Ambassadors of Change project that would take over their hearts, minds and lives for the coming year.
The result was an intercultural exchange program that exceeded their expectations: Jewish students participated in a Great Feather Dance in the First Nations Kahnawake community; both Trinidadian and native students wrote their impressions of the Holocaust-themed Hana’s Suitcase; intercultural chat room friendships were formed; and musicals bonds were created through the kids’ common, unifying musical language, hip-hop.
Nobody would have dared predict all this at the outset, said Michael, vice-principal at Jewish People’s and Peretz Schools (JPPS).
Her friend Bernstein was walking her dog in Loyola Park when she and Grant stuck up a conversation.
They started talking about racism issues, how to get students to appreciate those issues, and Bernstein said, ‘I have a friend, Debra, who could make a difference for the kids.’”
Bernstein introduced Michael to Grant, and they were off.
“We wanted to do this multiculturally, with communities that were different from us,” Michael said. “Clement had an aunt in Trinidad who teaches teachers, and we also decided to try the Mohawk community in Kahnawake.”
Michael recalled that the three of them spent the summer of 2007 planning Ambassadors of Change, with input from Grade 6 JPPS teachers who willingly gave up vacation time. In addition to JPPS, which has about 70 Grade 6 students, the other two schools involved were Kahnawake’s Karonhianonhnha School, with 24, and St. George’s College in Port of Spain, Trinidad, with 34.
The primary mandate of Ambassadors of Change was to “explore the misconceptions and perceptions of minority culture, identity and experience that lead to conflict.
“We wanted each community to have something that would reflect our struggles and traditions,” Michael said.
Over the next year, getting there would mean a wide array of activities involving the three communities.
Last fall, things began with the Geordi production of Hana’s Suitcase being presented at Kahnawake, with classroom activities involving JPPS students.
The Kahnawake kids paid a reciprocal visit to JPPS to present their own musical heritage and engage the JPPS students in the storytelling and dream catching traditions, as well tour the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum. The two groups exchanged their respective histories and traditions.
In other activities, students from all three communities kept journals; intercultural teams of students studied a series of topical questions; students made voice recordings of the United Nations Declaration of Children’s Rights; discussions were held about the roots of genocide and hate; and a musical CD was recorded with lyrics written by students, using local artists and DJs who volunteered.
“Music was a way to have the children give their message to the world,” Michael said.
Last February, Michael, Clement, Bernstein and a Grade 6 JPPS teacher went to Trinidad, bringing Hana’s Suitcase materials with them. The kids there kept journals, made their own suitcases and inscribed a special mural that the Montreal delegation brought back home with them.
Michael said because of the distance, it was more of a challenge to keep the Trinidad students involved at the same level as students in Kahnawake, but things worked out through the use of special chat rooms for intercultural groups of three or four set up at JPPS using First Class accounts, an in-house network. A PowerPoint show was created containing hundreds of photographs related to the Ambassadors of Change message of hope, peace and mutual understanding.
Michael said because this was a pilot project, it is uncertain whether the program would be repeated for 2008-2009.
“We will evaluate it at the end of the year,” she said.
“We wanted to make a real connection, and we think we did.”
