“Let us pick up our books and pens. One child, one teacher,
one pen and one book can change the world.”
They are words made famous by Pakistani teenager Malala
Yousafzai, who spoke at the United Nations on her sixteenth birthday – just
nine months after she was shot by the Taliban near her home in Pakistan’s Swat
Valley for speaking up for the right of girls to attend school. She has called
on young people the world over to stand up for the right of every child in every
country to go to school – and to stand up with their words and pens and
pencils. After 200 young girls were
kidnapped from a school in Nigeria, Malala spoke out again to show the world
“we are #StrongerThan those who deny school girls an education.” (Video)
What are your students “StrongerThan?” Here is a perfect opportunity to encourage
young people in and out of the classroom to learn Malala’s story, feel her
courage and resolve and then think about what they are #StrongerThan. What do they have the courage to write
about and conquer or achieve? Children
of any age can be asked to write a sentence, a paragraph, an essay or a 140-character Tweet about what they
are stronger than -
#StrongerThan bullying?
#StrongerThan my math or reading homework?
#StrongerThan my ADD
or cerebral palsy or other disability?
#StrongerThan unfairness?
Students may choose to focus on personal challenges or
issues that trouble them in their community or the world – including the
education concerns that so motivate Malala. This initial writing project can
grow as much as a child or class wishes by writing group or individual letters
to a principal, school superintendent, local newspaper or elected official. My
picture book biography of Malala – Malala
Yousafzai: Warrior with Words includes several organizations children can
join or replicate: School Girls Unite (started by middle school girls right in Kensington, Maryland), Girl Up, GirlRising and Global Campaign for Education, and of course, the Malala Fund itself.
http://www.handsaroundthelibrary.com/
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