During the Global Campaign for Education’s Action Week, New York teacher Emily Bishop will be taking part in “the World’s Biggest Lesson” by teaching her students about the barriers that young people face all over the world in accessing a quality education.The Global Campaign for Education hopes to set a Guinness Book of World Record for the most people teaching the same lesson simultaneously. Below, her post and a video about the action.

I’m very lucky to teach in an after-school program, Wild Blue, where kids are taking advantage of learning opportunities beyond their everyday classroom lessons. I am challenged and inspired by my young charges, who want to know about everything from Shakespeare to cryptozoology (the study of mythological animals). As I prepare to teach “the World’s Biggest Lesson,” about the global commitment to achieve Education for All by 2015, and the gaping inequalities that still remain, I am also struck by how lucky the children I teach really are (however much they might complain about their math homework). As we get settled into our weekly sessions I hear stories of field trips to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, of classroom parties held for the publication of student-edited picture books, of basketball tournaments and class pets. Two of the girls from my “Myths and Legends from Around the World” class traveled together to the Arctic last spring, on a Wild Blue expedition, and spent time in an Inuit school. I think it would be tremendous if more kids had opportunities for life-changing experiences like that – but really, what could possibly be more life-changing (and world-changing!) than quality education for the 72 million children still missing out on school? I’m so excited to share that idea with the kids I work with, give them the chance to help break a world record, and help them add their voices to the Global Campaign for Education’s call for quality education for all.

You can help break the world record by registering your participation in the World’s Biggest Lesson now - www.campaignforeducationusa.org.

-Emily Bishop, Teacher and Activities Coordinator, Wild Blue, New York

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 1:43 pm and is filed under New York, Global Campaign for Education, Students. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.