Our selected culture of study for the 2008-2009 school year is India. Students will explore the traditional arts and crafts of India, participate in cross-curricular activities and engage in charitable projects linking the school community and the culture of study. We are paying particular attention to the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to India in 1959, and the connections between the Civil Rights movement in the U.S.A and Mahatma Gandhi's policy of satyagraha (non-violent civil disobedience). A culminating event will be held at the Walters Art Museum in May.
We are fortunate to have many partners in our endeavors without which the program would not be possible;
Through the Children's Bookstore Education Foundation and the unending help of Chris Meyer, we are able to put a book about India into each of our students hands, to keep forever, for free!
Maryland State Arts Council's Arts in Education (AIE) grant is providing matching funds for Black Cherry Puppet Theatre to create a puppet show of an Indian folk tale with third grade students and mural artist Kristin Helberg to create a mural in the style of Mughal miniature painting with middle school students at Harlem Park.
Carrie Trybulec, Director of the Gandhi Memorial Center in Washington, D.C. has generously leant us the photographic exhibit; Mahatma Gandhi in the Service of Humanity and the films; 'India Land of Spirit and Mystique and 'Gandhi' Richard Attenborough's award winning biography of Mahatma Gandhi.
Now we have to get into the nitty gritty of actually teaching the kids all of this rich information about a country that is thousands of miles away but incredible close and influential on our daily lives.
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