young ethical explorers: 2018

Young and Mighty Activists

Young Ethical explores ventured out to Sunnyside, queens for the young and mighty March for children’s voices, October 23.

Miles took leadership in the chanting, leading “when I say young you say Mighty,

Oberon kept the beat on the symbol through the whole March. Eda was among the youngest marchers and have a thrilling time Up high on dad’s shoulders.

And Marifer Shared a speech with the crowd about her activism to petition for recess as play instead of as TV.

Marifer and Audrey taught the crowd a song in honor of Wangari Maathai

Peace begins in our hearts

That’s where it comes from, where it starts.

Planted Blake a seed,

Let it grow strong like a tree.

Peace begins in our hearts

That’s where it comes from, where it starts.

Let’s plant the world

As a forest

Of love

A great September welcomes ALL

Young Ethical Explorers (YEE)

meets every Sunday at 11, except for major holidays.

Open to all ages — with projects that connect us as brothers and sisters in “the human family” as well as peer dialogues about the ethics of our lives .

RSVP at YoungEthicalExplorers@gmail.com

Visit blog at YoungEthicalExplorers.blogspot.com

COMING OF AGE: Children in their second decade may be interested in a Coming of Age group beginning in 2019. If so, parent and youth info & envisioning-session will be scheduled. Please RSVP with interests and questions to YoungEthicalExplorers@gmail.com. You may visit www.EthicalComingOfAge.blogspot.com
for some information.

YEE Programming open to all ages

Color Harmony from Color Chaos

Color Chaos? No, Color Harmony!

Story by children: Gabriel, Katie, Lillian, Marifer, Siddharth, and adults Nildania and Audrey with prompts by Deepali of Writefully Ours

Creative Inspiration: Lynn Rowe Reed’s Color Chaos

Characters:

Green = Peace

Blue = Effort

Yellow = Hope

Purple = Joy

Red-Violent = Anger to Resolution

Turquoise = Calm

Red = Love

Principal Mr Greystone

Narrator

One day, I made an announcement: “I want to be an illustrator!” My mother bought me a big box of crayons. I put them in my backpack and dashed off to school. Just inside the school I met our new substitute principal, Mr Greystone. His No’s went on and on. NO Running, NO Shouting, NO hopping, No Singing! In my classroom Mrs Peters wrote the schedule on the board. I saw that I would have to wait a long time to use my new crayons…after math, reading, testing, lunch, recess, spelling bee and science.

At lunchtime I smuggled my crayons into the cafeteria. Next to the lunch line was Mr Greystone’s new board. We tried out Marvelous Magenta, Dandelion Yellow, and Periwinkle Blue and 61 other colors. When Mr. Greystone came in, he blew his stack! Art supplies in all colors were collected for disposal, recess was canceled. We got extra spelling words.

“There will be NO more crayons, NO more markers, NO more colors of any kind!”

Meanwhile, inside the trash can, the colors started talking and bickering.”HOW WILL WE EVER GET OUT OF HERE,” said Black. “Shh..be quiet. Let’s stay hopeful as we work together to plan our escape,” said Hopeful Yellow. “Yes, we should be working together, with love, to find a way out of here.” said Red, brimming with Love for the other crayons.

Hard-working Blue had a great idea. “We can make a climbing pile from the stuff in the trash can to climb up. We can pile up crumpled paper, pens and board. It takes a lot of effort to build the trash tower, but it will be easy to climb up and get out of here,” he said.

Peaceful Green was thinking about how all the colors could come together. He said: “Let’s solve this problem by making an invention. Our invention will be a color wheel.” Red-Violet, helpful as ever in finding solutions, encouraged Green: “Indeed. We could form a color wheel together, spin it and bounce out of the garbage can,” she said.

Some colors still needed a little nudge, and Joyful Purple came to the rescue. “Let’s sign a joyful song. All our noise of bickering is giving us headaches and grumpy feeling. If we could sing together, children might hear a beautiful sound. They will come forward and discover they are coming from the trash can. Maybe they will sing with us if we are signing a song they know. How about a song about coloring? How about the song: what a wonderful world?”

That got all the crayons moving! Singing ‘what a wonderful world’ together, all the colors found their order by getting in a circle. But there was no jiggle! The color wheel was not moving. Then a big wind came and blew the lid of the garbage can over. Some colors blew up and away along with it. The lid knocked the Principal’s and he began to change his mind.

A few others were still stuck in the bottom of the can. By then all the crayons that had escaped and the children were singing together! The trapped crayons heard them and got inspired with more ideas. “Let’s draw a hole and then escape through it,” said Calm Turquoise. “Ummm…I am not so sure that will work,” said one of the primary colors. “We can try,” said Yellow.

“Or…,” began Turquoise, “We can use the pointy pencils to drill a small sign that says: ‘You are all blank without us!’ All the colors agreed. 1, 2, 3…GO! They drilled the sign, made thetrash tower, climbed it and held up the sign.

The Principal, who was rubbing his head and thinking, turned around and read the sign. As the children and the crayons continued to sing ‘What a wonderful World,’ the Principal said to himself, “My Goodness.” “Ahh!” he yelled. Then he let the remaining colors out. “Yay,” said the colors, “Now we can recolor the school!”

They covered everything in a colorful jumble. Soon the Principal realized he was not happy without the colors.” Sorry,”he said.

“Colors Matter,” said everyone together!

THE END

Standing up for Education with the Malala Song

We began 2018 by standing up for education. We learned about child Nobel peace prize Recipient, Malala Yousafzai. We learned about her struggles, and joys and the ways in which she has stood up for equality in education.

To the tune of twinkle twinkle little star, we are singing this song together.

Enjoy singing it at home or with your school classes. We are planning ways to celebrate Malala Day at Ethical -- July 12 will be her 21st birthday.

Malala Yousafzai    "twinkle twinkle"
tells the world   "little star"
Every child   "how i wonder"
deserves to learn.   "what you are"

“One child, one teacher, "up above"
One book, one pen "the world so high"
Can change the world "like a diamond"
every day. "in the sky."

We the children "twinkle twinkle"
of Ethical NYC "little star"
Stand with you "how i wonder"
To say we agree. "what you are."

.....as if you are starting the tune again....

Yes to each child "twinkle twinkle"
Yes to each teacher "little star"
Yes to each book "how i wonder"
Yes to each pen. "what you are"

Yes to my learning "up above"
And yes to yours. "the world so high"
Yes to his learning "like a diamond"
And yes to Hers. "in the sky"

No matter the color "twinkle twinkle"
Of their skin, eyes, or hair. "little star"
No matter their "how i"
gender-identity "wonder"
Or what they wear. "what you are."

.....as if you are starting the tune again....

Every child         "twinkle twinkle"
needs support "little star"
to learn and grow   "how i wonder"
and do their best. "what you are"

If one girl "up above"
can change the world   "the world so high"
What can a 130-   "like a diamond"
million do?   "in the sky."

Let's help each child "twinkle twinkle"
do their personal best. "little star"
“Education please!” "how i wonder"
We must insist. "what you are"