Seventh graders had already been studying the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in World Studies class, but recently had the opportunity to delve much deeper during an "Outside-the-Box" Day on Fri., Jan. 18. Students spent the full day immersed in activities intended to enhance their understanding of the conflict, its complexity, people impacted, various perspectives, and potential paths forward.
The day commenced with a screening of "Promises," Israeli-American filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg's documentary exploration of the conflict through the eyes of Israeli and Palestinian children in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The film examines the divisions—physical and otherwise—that exist between these youngsters, although they live only minutes from one another, and ponders whether it's possible to build bridges and do so in a lasting way.
Middle School history teacher Louisa Nill and her team have shown this movie each year for several years now. They felt it was such an effective conversation starter and learning tool that they wanted to build a whole day of programming around it this year. "Our goal," Ms. Nill says, "was to take a deep-dive into this content. We wanted to show examples of how people in the area feel and what can be done about it in order to expand students' exposure to various perspectives on the conflict. We wanted to look at conflict resolution and how that feels from an adolescent's perspective."
After viewing "Promises," students met in Advisory groups to unpack what they'd just seen and heard. Silently, each had a turn to ponder questions written on large sheets of paper—questions like "What surprised you about the movie and the story it tells?" and "What are some things that you can do to help people of differing viewpoints to connect to each other?" Once they added their own responses, advisors helped facilitate group discussions.
Later in the day, students embarked on three additional sessions that helped them better grasp some of the issues and challenges involved. These workshops focused on the difficulties of dividing something in a way that everyone involved thinks is fair; what art has to say about the conflict and how it might help build bridges; and creative responses to the current situation, perspective-taking, and finding common ground.
During the day, students observed some parallels between the conflict overseas and divisions here at home. One seventh grader wrote, "In the US I've seen a lot of stereotypical stuff and assumptions of how someone looks, acts, or what their background is like. I saw this in the movie, too, because both groups were opposed to each other and thought bad things about each other, even if it wasn't really true."
In terms of a path forward, students frequently came back to young people. One girl noted, "When the kids got together [in the film], it showed hope for peace between the two groups, even at a very young age. That could lead to peace in the future, too!"
Another said, "The future of society depends on the youth."
