Acting Locally; Government Advocacy at the Local Level Through the GCP
On Friday January 20th, students at Mt. View High school in Centreville, Va welcomed Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity to the library for dialogue. Students are participating in the Global Classroom Project, an initiative in FCPS that seeks to apply student skills to knowledge through inquiry and dialogue in order to promote awareness, action and advocacy for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
This publication serves to amplify student voice and demonstrate evidence of student engagement.
- We the students introduced ourselves to students in Vienna, Austria @ the International Christian School of Vienna
- We the students created an introduction slide that described our history and geography as students.
- Most of us began school in another country and we migrated to Fairfax County for social and economic opportunity.
- Students at Mt. Viewers and students at ICSV shared spoken introductions and met through live video calls.
- Students read an example of global challenges in education on the specific issue of a government response in China for students who were required to climb a cliff to get to school.
- As we read about China we learned of student deaths coming and going from school in Fairfax County. In November Lesly Diaz- Bonilla died crossing Columbia Pike in Fairfax County.
- Students recognize that most of the Global Goals for Human Rights are interconnected. As we examine Goal #4 we are also acting on goal # 2 Zero Hunger and Goal # 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities. VIDEO on GLOBAL SOLUTIONS
- We Published this ARTICLE in the MT. VIEW MIRROR
- We invited Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity to come speak with us about his role in government as we seek to advocate for the issues we have discussed in government class related to Quality Education.
Students Created 10 questions for discussion with Supervisor Herrity. Students were impressed by his accessability as an elected delegate of local Government. He expressed gratitude for the thoughtfulness and welcome provided by the Mt. View family. Supervisor Herrity addressed each question as best he could given the hour time limit. Everyone left the meeting feeling like it was a small victory for government advocacy and awareness of citizen perspectives.
Individual Student Reflections
An overview of student experience by A.W.
As a student who came to this government class from another school , I’ve learned a lot about being independent and rights and on how we can change the world with respect , responsibility and speaking up when it’s right . Here are some of my ideas I have written during this class . As I entered this class students were making connections to SDG #4 and topics such as safety in transportation. The teacher in Europe, suggested a current event reading about students in China who had to climb a dangerous cliff to get to school. We realized that governments anywhere in the world can respond to advocacy for improvement as we researched the Chinese government response to the dangerous situation in rural China. The Chinese government actually rebuilt the ladder from old rope into solid steel and metal rails that were much safer, even though students still were climbing up and down this cliff to get to their mountaintop village. At this same time in Fairfax County we learned about the tragic death of Lesly Bonilla on Colombia Pike. We decided to act for adviocacy at the county level of Government. Here is what I wrote:
Ive been in FCPS for 13 years, and before I started taking the bus , I was riding in the car. Now I take the bus . When we read about the village in China it seems like the transportation they have is unsafe. Geography makes a big difference. In the US we have safer transportation and we close during times where it could be raining a lot or any bad weather for safety. All schools, public and private follow county safety guidelines. When I compare governments around the world from Austria to China to the United States What they have in common is they all are trying to have a safe transportation.
SDG Goal # 4 is a the equal protection of the human right to a quality education around the world. When I study all 17 Global Goals it is clear to me that #4 Education falls through most of these because education is the key to success and building more responsibility and independence. The purpose of these goals are to keep learning more about the real world and how we can all come together and make a change in our community . Poverty also falls into education because students that are in poverty don’t have a lot of resources at home or they cannot complete their school work or any education related . What i would like to say to our school superintendent is for anyone that’s in poverty is there any programs that help them become more successful and how can we help do more for them to continue being successful in life Mt.view is a good school because they give you more option toys and , this school gives you a second chance for your education and in the future . My challenge is making sure I turn in work on time so I can keep a really good grade but I try really hard and study so I can continue having the grades I need . As a student participating , these are my notes so far . Our project action is about keeping this community safe and having safe transportation for students and other pedestrians . In your opinion, what’s the highest priority of government spending to support the schools ? As governmentAs government students we would be happy if you guys were to come in and educate us on challenges. TheThe letter we wrote together we read in class and we all agreed on what we worte . The video i watched is talking about the covid pandemic and how it affected everyone and the whole world . The earth is going through a change we never expected and it affected everybody . This was a huge change , and the climate and plante change of wildfires and rising temperature and losing animals . By 2050 the ocean will have more plastic in oceans than fish . the way we can keep our earth healthy , we need renewable energy , solar , hydro wind . tax carbon , not people .End fossil fuels , stop deportations and planting trees, trees and health and most importantly having clean, safe and healthy jobs . From coal to green jobs . I learned that their goal was to work together and Taylor saved up money for his truck by putting together rooftop solar power . Poverty falls into education and we should give people that are going through portvey help so they can have a better future . The kids were also looking at the computer and learned something new about electronics . Taxes are a form of investment and how to taxe and how to taxe . Also learning about justice for human rights and how others should be treated. For example, George Floyd , another black man killed . Everybody has a wrong and a part of their actions but it is not ok to take a life when you could’ve handled something different . He called for help and he was being ignored . We need to change how we view people , how we treat people . We need to come together and stop the violence . we also learned about gender equality on how no matter what gender you are we should all get treated with the same respect and kindness . and i learned that 12 million girls were married before 18 . we learned about malala , she made a rights for young girls to go to school , she wanted fair rights for women . in 2017 at the age of 17 she became the youngest person to win the nobel peace of prize in india . She also sadly got shot in the face but she survived and she continued to speak up . Here are some ideas for Friday to discuss , what can we do to help our world / community be a better place so we could all come together as one to help people that are in poverty and what could we do to help or try to have women get more rights .
