Djuna and Louisa at the Beckley mining museum in Beckley, WV.
By Flannery Denny
Math Specialist
In May, following a year of student-driven activism curriculum around the issue of mountaintop removal coal mining, the 7th & 8th graders and their teachers traveled to West Virginia for a powerful week of programming.
The week culminated with a teach-in with local activists. Students worked in groups to document their week and brainstorm how to communicate what they had learned back in our New York City community. Projects included: organizing a photo exhibit, creating a poster, making a scrapbook, writing and recording a song, writing an editorial, writing a letter to Obama, lobbying U.S. House Rep. Carolyn Maloney, producing a film about mountain top removal, and producing a film about the proposed coal powered electric plant in Linden, N.J.
To see these products and read student reflections on the trip, please visit: www.mcsactivism.blogspot.com
Students stand in mountain pose on the edge of the mine site with a banner reading. "Coal stops now, wind is forever."
This weekend, Vaughn Simmons, Kyle Bartos and Janet Ortiz are headed to Washington, D.C. to represent MCS at a national conference on the issue of mountaintop removal coal mining. These students will be learning more about MTR and how the issue of hydro fracking in Marcellus Shale is connected to MTR (an issue that will ultimately effect the MCS farm property). In addition, they are presenting a workshop called “Youth Organizing” about the activism process at MCS.
On Monday, we will march alongside Reverend Billy Talen and his Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, as well as many of the activists that we met in West Virginia, carrying our MCS Mountains banner. The rally is expected to draw thousands.
I would like to share a little from the essays these students wrote in order to be selected to go to D.C.
KJ quoted Eduardo Galeano, “I do not believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical, so it’s humiliating; it goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other and learns from the other. Last year we learned that moral support was sometimes more appreciated than financial gifts. This perplexed most of the 5th floor until we arrived in West Virgina. As we rolled through run down towns, we realized the severity of this cause; that it wasn’t just about the mountains, but the rights of people. It was from this moment on that I knew that I wanted to make change. I have contacted the president and reported on our trip, but I have been waiting for an opportunity to do more and this is my time.”
Vaughn wrote, “I was overwhelmed with joy last fall when the 5th floor decided to focus our activism project on an issue in the United States. I am not implying that issues in Mexico, Israel, Palestine, and the Dominican Republic are not important. There are just plenty of issues within our country that need our focus. This particular issue means a great deal to me. The people of Appalachia are being oppressed by mining companies, which mirrors the struggle that many ethnicities have had to go through to get their civil rights.”
Janet wrote, “Although I am no longer a student at MCS, I am still, and forever will be, the outcome of many years as an MCS student. I am the outcome of how MCS creates its students to be aware and to fight for social justice. I am the outcome of a student who was raised to think about economy, environment and equality all through one lens of life. MCS has shown me to listen, learn, and appreciate others, and that, through this, I will be able to create change… I would really love to go to Washington, so that by the time I return from the trip I have the confidence to start an activism committee at Packer. I want to deliver a message to the Packer community. I want to let them know that there are ways to help causes that they are passionate about by just having determination and the inspiration to create change.”
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