Ethical NYC has been hosting Deepali Srivastava's "Writefully Ours" program. This has ignited a new dimension of our children's ethical development. They write as deed! Our group is all ages, so they work at the level of their own ability and understanding.
Older children dive into writing prompts with enthusiastic autonomy, new-writers make enormous progress applying their own ideas to respond to worldly problems, sometimes getting an older writer to scribe for them, and young-pre-writers draw and "tell" their great ideas for transcription. The group has written letters through Amnesty International to stand up for international environmental activists who have been unjustly silenced through imprisonment; and through CARE to give voices of Hope to Syrian refugees.
In letters to 4 year old Tarek from Syria, who hopes to one day become a doctor, children wrote encouraging notes to cheer him on toward his goals encouraging positivity in the face of challenges. Here is a sample of the range of responses, just our youngest and our eldest.
From Oberon who is also 4 years old like Tarek, came an inspiring poetry "You are the heart and star of love." He added, "I want to be a fire fighter to bring peace. It's a good idea to be a doctor. You'll help people. I want your new home to be peaceful. I want your new room to be blue and gray."
Our wise elder-child Lillian told Tarek: "Your story summoned empathy right from the bottom of my heart. I love sad stories, but only when they are fictional. I feel like my duty to this unforgiving war is to help, encourage and support refugees like yourself. Earth would be a cruel cold place without our sun. The history of humanity, and all the humans are the lump of rock that is Earth. You, and others like you, are the sun. You are our sun. You are our sun, and don't you forget that, for even on the darkest of days, the warming rays of the sun may shine through, if it believes in itself. Good luck in your endeavors."
After she wrote this, she imagined him in his early twenties, remembering her letter as an inspiration for not giving up in his challenging childhood. And she imagined herself a few years older then him, thinking of him.
Older children dive into writing prompts with enthusiastic autonomy, new-writers make enormous progress applying their own ideas to respond to worldly problems, sometimes getting an older writer to scribe for them, and young-pre-writers draw and "tell" their great ideas for transcription. The group has written letters through Amnesty International to stand up for international environmental activists who have been unjustly silenced through imprisonment; and through CARE to give voices of Hope to Syrian refugees.
In letters to 4 year old Tarek from Syria, who hopes to one day become a doctor, children wrote encouraging notes to cheer him on toward his goals encouraging positivity in the face of challenges. Here is a sample of the range of responses, just our youngest and our eldest.
From Oberon who is also 4 years old like Tarek, came an inspiring poetry "You are the heart and star of love." He added, "I want to be a fire fighter to bring peace. It's a good idea to be a doctor. You'll help people. I want your new home to be peaceful. I want your new room to be blue and gray."
Our wise elder-child Lillian told Tarek: "Your story summoned empathy right from the bottom of my heart. I love sad stories, but only when they are fictional. I feel like my duty to this unforgiving war is to help, encourage and support refugees like yourself. Earth would be a cruel cold place without our sun. The history of humanity, and all the humans are the lump of rock that is Earth. You, and others like you, are the sun. You are our sun. You are our sun, and don't you forget that, for even on the darkest of days, the warming rays of the sun may shine through, if it believes in itself. Good luck in your endeavors."
After she wrote this, she imagined him in his early twenties, remembering her letter as an inspiration for not giving up in his challenging childhood. And she imagined herself a few years older then him, thinking of him.
