Project to be an Interactive Education for School teachers, Educators, Students and parents:
The idea that Memphis city school teachers, educators, students and citizens can visit a countries where they can engage in a Safari that includes, wild life, pale ontological, archaeological and finding a place of world pre-history in East Africa and witness the findings of Louis and Mary Leaky in a place known as the cradle of mankind. They can see Lucy in Ethiopia or the slaves castles in Ghana will be a remarkable lesson in interactive education.
This project will also introduce Students and educators to Kenya Nobel Laureate Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai who started the “Green Belt Movement.” She has come to be affectionately called "Tree Woman" or "The Tree Mother of Africa." Since then, she has been increasingly active on both environmental and women's issues.
Teachers and students will also visit in Mombassa an actual Fort named Fort Jesus built by the Portuguese in 1553. The visiting of the Massai Mara plains in Kenya will give teachers and educator personal and broad sense of the world and they will be better serve to past this spirit to the many students in their classes. This trip will be endorsed by the United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as a ground breaking innovating historic educational venture.
Student Educational Objective:
The Safari or Style African Family Academic Reparation Initiative is a program based on Education, Education, Education. This program is a real life “interactive program” whereas students who participate will learn real life social and management skills where the key emphasis is based on learning communication and social skills via student interacting in the program that will result in giving them self confidence and a sense of family.
President Barack Obama made it clear that he was going to bring culture, art and science to the White House. He also made it clear that he would create a project that gives students an opportunity to do community service. Beyond the traditional activities of sports many students have very few opportunities to learn the arts, disciplines and skills whereas they are recognized by their community and be given the opportunity to make their parents proud and encouraging. It is a clear cut fact that social activities and art build character and confidence. Many students do not have a dance or piano recital, take a Karate class, or sing in the Church Choir that gives that opportunity helps them to enhance their social skills.
The Safari Initiative is a program that will bridge government, community, educational institutions, business and religious institutions into a massive social web that will touch upon our entire city.
The late Ecologist Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her years of work with women to reverse African deforestation. Maathai went to college in the United States, earning degrees from Mt. St. Scholastica College (1964) and the University of Pittsburgh (1966). She returned to Kenya and earned her PhD. from the University of Nairobi (1971), then worked as a professor in their department of veterinary medicine. Maathai began the Green Belt Movement, a tree-planting program to reverse deforestation and provide firewood for Kenyan women. The program led to the planting of millions of trees and Maathai became a major political figure in Kenya. In 1997 she ran unsuccessfully for president and for a seat in Parliament, but in December of 2002 she was elected to Parliament, and in 2003 she was appointed by President Mwai Kibabi to the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, with the Nobel committee citing "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." She was the first African woman to win a Nobel.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
1. This program will involve the office of our U.S. Congress and give a direct communication from our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The creation of The Baraka School was spearheaded by Baltimore's Abell Foundation with the notion that if one removes the most disruptive, inner city students to a residential learning situation, it would help those students. The site in Kenya was chosen because land was inexpensive and teachers, half of whom were Kenyan, were willing to work for salaries as low as $5,000 a year. The total cost per year ñ approximately $14,000-$15,000 per pupil ñ was nearly double what the City of Baltimore typically spends (approximately $7,000 per pupil). The school was developed for boys because studies show that boys pose disciplinary problems more often than girls.
The school's structure was designed to foster academic success. With a teacher to student ratio of 1 to 5, no student could "slip through the cracks." Individual attention was coupled with high expectations, strict discipline, and an absence of distractions (e.g., no TV, electricity only 6 hours per day, a single satellite phone controlled by staff).
Three out of four boys who attended The Baraka School in its first years of operation went on to graduate from high school.
FILM:
This lesson plan is designed to be used with the film "The Boys of Baraka," a 90-minute documentary by filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. The film tells the story of a group of middle school boys from inner city Baltimore who are selected to attend a boarding school in rural Kenya, East Africa. As part of an educational experiment sponsored by the Baltimore City Public School System and a local educational foundation, a group of 20 frequently disruptive middle school boys were given the opportunity to attend 7th and 8th grades at the Baraka School. The film documents their experiences in Baltimore and at Baraka. Viewers hear directly from the boys and their families about how the experience inspires their hopes and dreams.
The boys are shown during their first year at the Baraka School in Kenya, where they make significant academic progress while also grappling with behavioral and disciplinary issues. After a year in Africa the boys return to Baltimore for summer vacation. The story takes an unexpected twist when political unrest in Kenya and questions about funding leads to the closure of the program and force the boys back into the troubled Baltimore public schools.
OBJECTIVES:
This lesson will help students:
· Write about and discuss their personal experiences
· Develop critical thinking skills
"By signing up for the Baraka School, [the boys] signed up to completely change their lives, to give up everything, to leave their families, leave television, leave girls, etc., in order to save themselves."
-Heidi Ewing and
Rachel Grady
Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady and Baraka Boys Richard Keyser, Jr., Devon Brown and Montrey Moore at the NAACP Image Awards, 2006. "The Boys of Baraka" won the Outstanding Independent Film award.
Richard Leaky who is the son of Louis and Mary Leaky is a noted world famous archaeologist and a prominent Kenyan citizen who Memphis students have the opportunity to interact with via the internet and computer. Students in Memphis can learn archaeology, palaeontology and community service and character.
Students will learn about the hardships in Kenya and encouraged to donate things as a school or community like used shoes, clothes and other essential items. Those students who participate in such programs will be allowed to get extra credits that not only teach academics but such action is a lesson in character.
Ethiopia land of Culture & History:
Ethiopia is an African Country that prides itself on its culture and history. Ethiopia had the longest running dynasty of Kings and Queens in the history of Mankind and it is the country where the remains of the first human is found and the longest running unbroken Christian nation in the world. They are the only African country that has never been colonized and an African script or written language that is over 4000 years old.
Ghana Tour of West Africa:
In 1992 Memphis native Isaac Hayes visited Elmina and Cape Coast Castles in Ghana and this impacted the life of Isaac Hayes. Isaac Hayes with the help of other went on to found the Nene Katey Ocansey I Learning and Technology Center in Ada Ghana. Memphis is connected to Ghana via Isaac Hayes and everyone should visit the Slave castles to get an understanding of slavery. We hold an over ten year close relationship with Ghana.