Connecting Head, Hand, and Heart: The Frisch Africa Encounter

Multi-talented sophomore Oren M. created this logo for the program

The Frisch School has recently finished running a multi-disciplinary program for the sophomores called The Frisch Africa Encounter (click here for photographs sophomore Amanda Leifer took of the night). The program, now in its third year, springs from the school's English and History classes, and its aim is to deepen student knowledge about the African continent and the problems there as well as to learn about the ways life on the continent is improving. To accomplish the latter, students study the work of and raise money for Innovation: Africa (IA), an organization that uses sustainable Israeli technologies to improve life in Africa. Learning about IA is particularly relevant for the students of Frisch, as they discover not only their obligation as Jews to better the world, but also to see how Israel is working to advance the world in ways that are impressive and laudable.

Connecting Israel and Africa is not without precedent. Here is Golda Meir on the comparison between the country and the continent:

"Like them, we had shaken off foreign rule; like them, we had to learn for ourselves how to reclaim the land, how to increase the yields of our crops, how to irrigate, how to raise poultry, how to live together, and how to defend ourselves"

This year, the English and History teachers at Frisch worked during the first semester to tighten the program, with Eitan Kastner, a Frisch alumnus who now teaches American history, suggesting that the kids give the parents a tour of what they had learned over the month. Thus, a new format for The Frisch Africa Encounter was introduced!

Because Frisch is focused on utilizing project-based learning (PBL), the teachers also wanted to incorporate student voice and choice into the project design. Though the teachers had their learning goals of wanting students to know about imperialism, the slave trade, the novel Little Bee by Chris Cleave, and the various technologies that IA employs, including drip irrigation and solar-powered energy sources, the teachers aimed to find ways to engage all types of learners in all types of ways, by allowing students to select the group they wanted to be part of for the evening. The teachers came up with the following stations and jobs that would be part of the "tour" the students would offer parents at the culminating event:

Africa at Night

Art

Cell Phone Charging

Drip Irrigation
Film

Gerry Can 

Imperialism 

Slave Trade

Tour Guide

All the stations together would tell the story of past exploitation and modern-day cooperation, but Africa at Night and the Cell Phone Charging stations were closely linked, with one showing how hard it is to do things such as travel for medical care or study without electricity at night. The Gerry Can and Drip Irrigation stations were also tightly linked: the former would be an interactive station allowing parents to carry first an empty gerry can and then a full one, in order to experience what it feels like to have to walk for miles for water, as many rural Africans have to do. The Drip Irrigation station would be a demonstration of the Israeli technology now used in many African villages, where water is scarce and where IA has taught the villagers to make the best use of the water pumps the organization has installed. 

Here's the Google form the students filled out when the program was introduced:

Sign-up for The Frisch Africa Encounter

At the entry event, students watched this video from The Onion, which hilariously satirizes the exploitation of Africa by the West:



Soon after the entry event, Frisch welcomed Emma Goldman of Innovation: Africa, who spoke to the students about her work:

Emma Goldman addressing the Frisch students

Emma had a chance to have a follow-up discussion
with the juniors and seniors who had run
The Frisch Africa Encounter last year and the year before

As luck would have it, Emma had recently returned from a trip to Africa. She therefore not only presented informatively about IA; she was also able to sprinkle her session with photos and stories about her own experiences on the continent. Here's Emma in Katira Village in Uganda:

During her presentation, Emma talked about how excited the village children get when people from IA visit. The villagers feel so thankful for the many technologies the organization provides: children get educated better -- graduation rates in primary schools have tripled in villages after solar installation -- ; people get vaccines and medical care they need; and the villages can grow more nutritious food and increase their economic viability.

These two young Ugandan boys found Israeli flags with which to greet
Emma and her colleagues. Last year Innovation: Africa received a
Social Media Leadership Award for Nation Branding because it had
so improved Israel's image in the world. IA beat out the White House
for the prize, which was from the Wharton School of Business!

And these boys want to show off their new water pump!
They're very proud and excited about it!

Over the course of the month of February -- and over the obstacles the seemingly endless snow days created -- the students prepared for the culminating event, which actually had to be postponed to March 12 because of the many school days lost to the weather. Actually, as part of the program, each sophomore class had to raise $500 for Innovation: Africa. Frisch's goal is to light up a school in one of the villages IA works with, and so two enterprising sophomores -- Jonah and Sam -- shoveled snow to earn money, raising $200 in one day!

Three other sophomores, Oren, Ayal, and Daniel, were put in charge of video production for the event. You can see two of them here, working on the video:

They created this trailer which the school sent out to the Frisch community:




Getting ready for the night was no small task, with teachers and even classes from other grades serving as project tuners. It was important to Frisch to get the students to produce high-quality work that demonstrated deep learning of subject matter. Ron Berger, an expert on project-based learning, shows in this video how he has students act as critical friends in the deep learning process.

The students got help from everyone in the school,
including Jose Carino, Head of Maintenance,
who visited a class to unrivet a hard drive the students
wanted to repurpose into artwork

Rabbi Daniel Rosen, a Frisch English teacher
and one of the school's pioneers in PBL, merged
his class with another English class for much
of the month, allowing students in the same groups
to work easily together

 Assembling the drip irrigation sets

The Frisch art teacher, Mrs. Ahuva Mantell, worked with the sophomores,
explaining to them about African textiles and then having them
tie dye scarves to sell at the student store the night
of The Frisch Africa Encounter

Working on the Gerry Can station!

All the sophomores read Little Bee, a book about a Nigerian refugee;
the book was a springboard for discussion in Hebrew class
about the integration of Ethiopian Jews into Israeli society
and about the current debate going on in Israel about how to
handle Sudanese refugees

This sophomore was a tour guide. Tour guides prepared
a route they would take parents on and therefore had to know
about the role of each station. 

Josh Gotlieb, a Frisch History and English teacher, was in charge
of the Imperialism group, who didn't need much help, actually.
They did a fantastic job with their research and could debate with
complexity and depth the pros and cons of their topic

Rabbi Rosen and Tikvah Wiener ran practice sessions with each group

And finally the big night arrived!

Three of the tour guides, wearing T-shirts Innovation: Africa gave us
for them as well as to sell in the fundraising store. Sophomores raised over
$400 that night, bringing the total the sophomores made
over the course of the month to over $2,300!

The Gerry Can station ready to go! Not many parents
ended up wanting to carry the cans, but the kids
who came gave them a shot!

Mrs. Betty Kaplan (left) ran the fundraising store with her class,
while Mrs. Ruth Wang-Birnbaum was one of the English
teachers who taught Little Bee

Meir tells parents all about cell phone charging stations
and the role they play in creating economic sustainability
in Africa

Makey Makey makes making music fun! At the last minute, Meir also put together this station which allowed everyone to play African bongos with fruit:

The group researching the slave trade in the nineteenth century
also talked about slavery today

A tour guide tries out the Gerry Can station

Zach really mastered the art of drip irrigation

Why Frisch does this program

English teacher Meryl Feldblum worked hard with
her class on the Little Bee presentation

At the entry event, the Frisch teachers talk about the fact that as Jews we must feel responsible for the other, the foreigner, the stranger. After all, the Torah repeats 36 times, more than any other phrase, the following:

וַאֲהַבְתֶּם, אֶת-הַגֵּר:  כִּי-גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם, בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם

"You shall love the stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt." 

One of the tour guides, at the end of the night, had this to say: "Doing this made me really feel like I have an obligation, as a person and as a Jew, to help Africa." 

These words really capture what project-based learning, with its focus on creating meaning in the real world, can bring to a Jewish educational setting. The goal of Jewish education is to create a Jew who loves his/her religion and who uses it to enhance the world. Combining that goal with the PBL methodology connects head -- the knowledge students acquire -- ; hand -- what students create to internalize and bring to life that knowledge -- ; and heart -- how students feel about themselves and the positive role they and their faith can play in the world. How fitting, then, that the head, hand, and heart are strung together each day by tefillin, which remind us all that what we learn, what we do, and how we feel shape our world on a constant basis. 

Student-Made Resources

For those parents who asked for resources from the night, Frisch is happy to provide some of them below. They can't fully capture the complexity of what the students learned and know, but they give a glimpse of what the students created:

Imperialism

Africa Project Imperialism - Script

Africa Imperialism Slideshow

Little Bee

Here are one student's thoughts on the power of words in Little Bee:

Talia on Little Bee

Student artwork on Little Bee: Repurposing computers was popular as the novel is about language and communication. Using modern-day devices of communication to bring the novel to life seemed appropriate!

Here's an explanation of Sahar, Andrew, and Racheli's artwork:

Artwork by Sahar, Andrew, And Racheli by Tikvah

Miriam made this keyboard, which "tells" the story of Little Bee

Future political cartoonist?: Kailee combines the story of Little Bee with some
astute artistic representations of the West's and African leaders'
exploitation of the African people, as well as of the hardship of living
at night without electricity

Slavery Today

A student-made fact sheet about slavery today

Student-made Haiku Deck Presentation on Slavery Today

Sample Tour Guide Script

Tour Guide Script

A special shout-out to Justin Safier ('15) for providing tech support for the evening. Thanks, Justin! 

RealSchool Elective: A Miniseries about Student Life

Sammy and David share an update on what they've decided to do in the RealSchool elective this semester:

For our project, we decided to delve into the life of the Modern Orthodox yeshiva kid. In doing so, we created a mini-series. We began by outlining the first five episodes and now have also written the script of our first episode. Our main character struggles with balancing his religious life with his secular one and his academic life with his social life.  This leads to many humorous scenes. However, there is a deeper aspect to the series. A lesson will be drawn from the experiences of our character in every episode. Our goal is to express the challenges that students in Modern Orthodox yeshivas experience but also to draw on possible solutions. We hope to begin filming soon!

Now Sammy and David are busy project tuning with RealSchool class members. They're having a writers session in order to sharpen the plot and jokes:

Why Schools Should Teach Financial Literacy

Gabe and Evan, who run the Business sector of Frisch's SIM CITY class, prepared this presentation about the need for a financial literacy course in school:

FINANCIAL LITERACY PRESENTATION1

View more presentations or Upload your own.

Semester One in SIM CITY

We're still compiling the data, reports, and projects, but here's what we have so far from Semester One at The Frisch School's SIM CITY class:

STUDENT-MADE VIDEO ABOUT FRISCH HOT TOPICS SIM CITY

Thanks to Ben and Eytan for creating this video that tells all about the SIM CITY class:

CITY SECTORS

Now that you know about the class a bit more, here are links to the sectors the students in the class decided to create. Make sure you check out the ethical dilemmas each sector contemplated. They're really thought-provoking.

BUSINESS

Evan and Gabe are our city's business leaders:

SIM CITY Business

Ethical dilemma: CEO Salaries

FASHION

Abby, Avital, and Emily made sure our city's fashion is eco-friendly:

SIM CITY Fashion

Ethical dilemma: Sweatshops and Animal Testing

POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

Gabi, Eitan, Jason La., Re'em, and Yitzchak created SIM CITY's government: FTP, For the People:

For the People website

The whole venture of the Politics and Governance group was to explore different ethical dilemmas in society. Politics and Governance explored the pros and cons of abortion, drugs and alcohol, and gun control, which were topics the class as a whole voted on and decided they wanted this sector to explore.

SPORTS MANAGEMENT

A.J., Jono, and Rami made our city's sports center a community space:

Stay tuned for an explanation of the community center as well as for the ethical dilemma on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports.

TECHNOLOGY

Ben, Jacob, and Jason Le. are in charge of the tech sector:

SIM CITY Technology

Ethical dilemma: Iron Man suits and 3D printers

URBAN DESIGN

It was Alexa, Nate, and Zoe who spent the semester creating an analog -- and colorful -- form of our city:

Alexa, Nate, and Zoe based the shape of the city on a cell!

Here's a collection of facts the Urban Design team learned about their topic:

Knowledge:

When we originally began our project of urban design, as a group we only had a big picture of the city and did not consider the small details. We did not include important aspects that are crucial for a successful city. For example, the original layers of the city only contained the basics of where restaurants and homes would be. However, we later realized we needed shops, grocery stores and hospitals. The following list contains new facts that we learned over the semester that helped us improve the Urban Design of our city.

Transportation

1.     It is important to have various different roads and highways to make the city more accessible.

2.     Every dollar invested in public transportation generates about $4 in economic returns.

3.     Public transportation saves the U.S. about 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline annually.

4.     Bicycles can serve as social integration; lower and upper classes use them.

Eco Friendly:

5.     Solar panels are expensive and are complex to install.

6.     87% of people in cities use their local urban parks.

7.     There is a difference between “Urban design” and “Urban planning.” Urban design is immediate planning for what the area is currently, while urban planning takes into consideration change and the future.

8.     Low impact materials that we can use to build in our city are: bamboo, recycled metal, recycled stone.

9.     The aesthetics of a city are very important for creating an eco-friendly place, because people will be more motivated to walk/bike places.

10.    3D model: It was important to think through the steps of making the city city and make sure that it would be easy for a person to get from the center of the city outwards easily.

11.     There are three core concepts of urban design: Transportation, building structure, and parks.

12.     Function and fit: You need to shape places to support their varied intended uses

13.     When considering the urban design of city, it is important to remember civil society, to build places/areas where people feel equal.  Allow different people to have access to all parts of the city.

14.      We had to consider pedestrian zones: where people would able to walk/bike vs. where only cars/ buses would be.

15.     Crime prevention through environmental design is altering the physical design of a city to prevent crime.

16.     Zoning is a device of land-use planning used by local governments.

17.     An average of 4.8 million households are government-funded

18.     The average family in a government-funded housing project earns less than $20,000 a year.

A few facts from the books we are reading:

1.    Charles Montgomery: Happy City (Transforming lives through Urban Design)

-     Decentralization: The more thinly a city spreads out, the less access citizens have to one another. It changes the shape and quality of our social networks.

-     A person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40% more money to be satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office.

-     “The problem is that cars fail to deliver the experience of freedom and speed (which is capable on the open roads, not in cities) The blood of people who drive in cities is a high-test of stress hormones.

-     Bikes and good transit tend to be located in wealthier areas which create an even bigger divide between the rich and the poor.

-If people involved in Urban Design knew more about what makes people happier on a day-to-day basis, it could highly influence our behaviors.

Skills:

           

By creating a model of what our city looks like, we gained many skills. Each member of our group came up with ideas of what our city should look like, and we worked together to put all of our good ideas into our art project. By doing this, we all collaborated and put our best effort into the layout of the city. We really learned how to work together as a group and let all of our good ideas translate into a detailed art project.

Creativity:           

In our project we utilized the art room to the best of our ability. We used many tools in the art room to be creative and create things we didn’t plan on doing. Things appeared in front of us that allowed us to be creative and create our project. Clay also allowed us to be creative. Our buildings, houses, roads, and parks are all made out of clay, and we used the different colors to represent different aspects of our city. Our creativity with all kinds of tools around the art room really helped us create the model of our city without many problems.

Failure:

Originally, we were asked to create a website to describe urban design, including our ideas and ethical dilemmas. As we brainstormed about ideas to include on the website, we hit a plateau. We realized that the best manner in which to portray our urban design would be to construct our city into a physical and three-dimensional model. We used clay as the primary material for our city model, yet we were faced with some challenges. As our project launched, we decided to use organic clay because organic products benefit the environment. However, upon entering the art room the day after we began using the organic clay, we were stunned to discover that it had morphed into a misshaped, unidentifiable pile. Next, we had to use non-organic clay. But when we placed the clay on the board, it wouldn’t adhere to it, so we had to use a hot glue gun. Our group motto is “fail fast to learn fast.” Each time we tried a new method, it seemed to fail. We didn’t give up, however, or lose our determination.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Bryan, Elan, Eytan, and Shira thought of creative ways to recycle and repurpose as they took charge of our SIM CITY's waste management:

Waste Management

A wallet made from the inner parts of a computer keyboard

Additional Reflections on a Semester of PBL in American Literature

Here are additional reflections from students in an American Literature PBL class at The Frisch School:

Student sample 1:

Doubts by Ami

Granted, I had my doubts. Over the years, I had come to regard the various posters and programs decorating Frisch’s walls with suspicion; I often questioned whether they were a testament to their creators’ good-natured toil or simply an excuse to miss class. Naturally, my experience in English this year, which I believe to have transported me out of my narrow-minded perspective in some respects, came as quite the surprise. I now feel as though the comforts of the sheltered community I call home had eclipsed the glaring difficulties faced by those nearby. I also feel that project-based learning has given me the opportunity to scrutinize the status quo in a manner that is both engaging and significant. The evolution of my perspective began with the class discussion of Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

I was raised with the notion of a flawless America. America is the country that saved my father and grandmother from economic oppression and cultural persecution in the Soviet Union; it was here that they fulfilled the American Dream and thus sought to ensure that I afforded America the proper respect. As a consequence, I have always had trouble accepting the grim realities that tarnish America’s reputation. Yet when confronted with the disheartening description of inequality and poverty in the case of Henrietta Lacks and her children, I was forced to acknowledge that America may not be as flawless as I had once thought. I had obviously heard of the issues raised by Skloot before, but it was not until she poignantly recast them in a more personal, human light that I realized the gravity of societal injustice. When I researched how the Lackses were denied any compensation for their mother’s invaluable contribution to mankind and wrote an op-ed condemning the judiciary’s unfair arbitration of similar cases, I did so not in the name of justice alone, but for Deborah Lacks and John Moore. In class, we often discussed the writer’s use of pathos, which I feel Skloot uses extensively in order to portray a darker side of America.     

    In a New York Times series, entitled “Invisible Child: Dasani’s Homeless Life”, Andrea Elliot employs pathos in her vivid portrait of childhood poverty as seen through the eyes of one young girl, Dasani. Dasani lives with the other nine members of her family in an overcrowded apartment in New York City. Dasani and her siblings tolerate rodents, a decrepit home and hunger as her parents struggle with an addiction to narcotics. Reading one article in the series, I was stricken as Elliot describes the heartwrenching difficulties Dasani faces at school. Unable to afford a clean school uniform, Dasani must assume a “ghetto” persona, taunting her classmates and remaining alien in mind and body. Dasani, however, cannot only be included among the nine others forced into her ramshackle home; she also takes her place among the other 16.7 million American children living in poverty. Within the confines of my community, it is often difficult to appreciate the suffering of those less fortunate. Dasani cannot be found among the impressive, suburban homes or the privileged, middle-class families. Dasani is not only a symbol of the imperfections of American society but proof of the public’s ignorance. My work in English this year, however, has opened my eyes to a world previously unknown. I learned that women and minorities are routinely denied access to reasonable employment and that one in every ten children in the United States lives without access to basic health care. Yet it was not until I began to prepare for the Twenty-Six Acts of Kindness Day that I fully understood the intent of our class’ tireless efforts.

    In early December, I had the privilege to hear Laura Schroff, the best-selling author of An Invisible Thread, speak at Frisch. I was greatly moved by Ms. Schroff’s heartwarming tale of how she welcomed a young stranger, Maurice Mazcyk, into her life; the story bespoke the themes of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and brought them only further into my sphere. In memory of the twenty-six children who perished at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Ms. Schroff and Maurice agreed to run the Twenty-Six Acts of Kindness Day on December 26, along with our class. I felt as though my participation in the program could rectify the injustice I had encountered earlier in the year; I soon embarked on an ambitious quest to convince Google to recognize the day on its homepage and encouraged my peers to share their acts of kindness with the student body. Although my former self might have doubted these programs’ relevance to English, I have nothing but regret for my myopic concerns.     

    Pathos is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “a quality that causes people to feel sympathy and sadness”. I believe the definition to be an inadequate depiction of the pathos used by the artist. As I had read earlier this year in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, his self-professed desire is to cause me to “feel what I felt” (O’Brien 171). The task of the writer is not simply to observe the shortcomings of society and dutifully note them with indifference; it is to become one with the afflicted and to tell their story as the writer might tell his own. The definition of pathos should read “a quality that expresses the pity or sadness felt by another”. Social commentary is not the perfunctory pursuit of justice as some may assume, but an outlet for a writer’s inspired, righteous indignation. The relevance of literature is contingent upon the proper use of pathos in writing. Pathos is a time-honored tool that has lent itself to works as diverse as the biblical prophecies of the Jews’ impending doom in the Book of Jeremiah and Thomas Hardy’s personally inspired critique of marriage, Jude the Obscure. Thus, to my former self, I would argue that I have learnt more about literature than I could have imagined; I learned that the artist is inspired by his impassioned investigation of inequity rather than his spontaneous creation of a plot and characters. I can resolutely declare that it is my work in English this year that has thrust the world into a new light.

    Granted, I never thought the poster-plastered walls deserved more than a cursory glance. I once doubted pronounced inconsistencies in American society. I once doubted that America could be the greatest country in the world and retain flaws nonetheless. Now, however, I doubt that our society affords American women, minorities and children with the capacity to succeed. I doubt that Dasani and millions of other impoverished children are content leading lives far inferior to my own. I doubt that a truly principled society could deny a select group of citizens a modicum of humanity as it did in the saga of racial injustice described in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Countless others have protested societal misconduct for ages, and I am proud to now include myself among their ranks. I began the semester with some doubts and ended it with others.

Student Sample 2:

Romanticism by Michelle

Throughout the first semester of school I learnt about Romanticism. Romanticism is an artistic movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century. This movement is characterized by a great interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions. My English teacher (Mrs. Wiener) was determined to have our class fully experience and take to heart the essence of Romanticism. The process of taking Romanticism to heart consisted of three parts: experiencing Romanticism, showing one’s understanding of Romanticism, and personal growth. 

The best way to experience Romanticism is to turn to nature. One November day, Mrs. Wiener took us outside; she then proceeded to read a poem with us. This poem was “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer.  “Trees” is an important poem that exemplifies Romanticism. In his poem, Joyce Kilmer describes nature as perfect and loving. After reading this poem, my class was instructed to draw pictures of a tree and then write a reflection. 

The following is my reflection: “The poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer influenced my art by showing me that trees are more than just trees. This poem helped me see that an autumn tree displays on its leaves the entire life cycle. The green leaves represent children, or beings that are new to life, beings that are “green” in their understanding of the world around them. The next color is yellow. Yellow represents young adults, those who have more experience than children, but less than adults do. Red represents adults who have more knowledge than the young adults and children.  Finally, the color brown represents elders and death. Brown is the final stage, because the color brown is a mixture of green, yellow, and red. When at the brown stage of life, one can look back and see one’s self as what one really was in all the stages of his life. By reading this poem I learnt to recognize such meaningful symbolism in nature, and trees specifically.”  

I have always found a tree in autumn to be quite beautiful; the multitude of colors displayed on the trees leaves are so perfect. This magnificent sight would leave me feeling as though I had missed something. I could never figure out what I had missed, until I was told to draw a picture of a tree and analyze it. The drawing aspect of the project did not take long. Analyzing the drawing, on the other hand, took hours. I studied every aspect in my drawing and could not find any symbolism, until I remembered what Mrs. Wiener had said that day. On that November day Mrs. Wiener had handed out The Scarlet Letter, and said, “There is a lot of symbolism in this book, especially color symbolism”. Suddenly my drawing seemed to reveal to me something astonishing, I now could see the entire life cycle displayed on the tree’s leaves. Thanks to the seemingly trivial words, I was able to recognize the symbolism hidden in the color scheme of an autumn tree’s leaves. This project helped teach me that nature has a lot of hidden messages. By having a class outside, I was able to understand the appeal of Romanticism. 

After having experienced Romanticism outside, it was now time for us to show the extent of our knowledge about Romanticism. Mrs. Wiener gave us an assignment, which consisted of taking a painting by the Hudson River School of Art and comparing it to The Scarlet Letter. 

The following is an excerpt from my assignment: “This painting is most comparable to Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, a man with two sides to his personality. The first is the Reverend Dimmesdale in nature, who is free of the conforming restraints of society. Then, there is the Reverend Dimmesdale who is bound to the rules of society.  This painting is a painting of nature, which in itself is free of society’s hold. However, while in nature, it is still under society’s control. For it is a member of society who drew this picture, and it is the members of society who deemed this painting worthy of being admired; thereby trapping this picture in an eternal struggle of freedom from society and being controlled by it.”  This assignment helped me evaluate the extent of my knowledge with regards to Romanticism. 

Now with a good understanding of Romanticism, my class took on a project that would help us grow as human beings. On December 26 my school paid tribute to the twenty-six victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. In order to pay respect to those victims, my class decided to help spread twenty six acts of kindness. To make this day even better Mrs. Wiener contacted Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski, who wrote An Invisible Thread. 

An Invisible Thread is a memoir about how Laura Schroff helped saved the life of Maurice Mazyck by doing just one small act of kindness. Maurice was from a broken family and was suffering from malnutrition. His mother was a drug addict, and his father had left in the early part of Maurice’s life. Every day Maurice would stand on a street and ask for money, so that he would be able to buy some food. On a day that seemed like it would be normal, in that people would ignore Maurice’s pleas for money, Laura Schroff experienced a feeling that she would later claim was fate pulling her in the right direction. She acted on this feeling and offered Maurice a meal. Laura and Maurice would later turn sharing a meal into a tradition. Maurice had come from an area known for its violence; nevertheless, Laura never feared for her life in all the time she has known Maurice. Romanticism is characterized by a person acting on his/her emotions and going against society’s norms. Laura Schroff acted on her emotions when she decided to help Maurice, and she went against the societal norms when she decided to take Maurice under her wing. Had Laura Schroff been in a novel she would have been labeled a Romantic hero. An Invisible Thread ties in with our Romanticism project in that it helped us be able to recognize Romanticism and the Romantic heroes of everyday life.  

On December 26^th, Laura Schroff, Maurice, and Alex Tresniowski came to The Frisch School to participate in the 26 acts of kindness day. This day was spent promoting acts of kindness, and it also had an impact on my behavior. The following Monday the Russian Club had a pre-New Year’s party, and I had brought food. After the party I noticed that I had some leftover food and decided to treat my class to the food. The act of sharing food with your class, also, happened to be one of the twenty- six acts of kindness. Romanticism and this personal growth experience correlate, because Romanticism is characterized by acting on one’s emotions. A person is usually pulled by his/her emotions to help another person in need.  

The process of internalizing Romanticism was an especially valuable experience. Though I learnt Romanticism through an unconventional way, I feel as though I now truly understand Romanticism exceptionally well. I spent time in nature as most protagonists from Romantic novels do, thereby learning to see nature through the author’s prospective. The project on Romanticism helped me see to what extent I understand Romanticism. Finally, the 26 Acts of Kindness Day helped me internalize the message of Romanticism. 

The Importance of Reflection

Reflection is one of the key components of PBL and for good reason. One of the things PBL affords students is the chance to understand why they're learning what they're learning. Students shouldn't be sitting in class wondering how their course work relates to them or their world. Reflection gives students a way to contemplate the relevance and importance of their learning, and it also lets teachers know that the students are grasping the material in a deep and significant way. The feedback loop in PBL keeps students and teachers aligned in their learning goals.

Following is an example of student work that displays the kind of deep learning that can take place with PBL. The assignment -- which offered students voice and choice, another key component of PBL -- asked a class of juniors to discuss how they saw the American dream, after seeing it from a myriad of perspectives over the first semester of an American literature course. Students had read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot over the summer; during the first semester, they also read The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible and had become familiar with Romanticism and the Romantic hero.

PBL also makes sure that student work has authentic purpose. In this class, students chose a type of injustice in America today and investigated it in groups, sharing their findings with the class; they also had to read one article from a New York Times series about American children living in poverty. Finally, the class planned and executed an Acts of Kindness Day on December 26, in honor of the 26 victims of Newtown and as a way to begin addressing unfair treatment in American society.

Here is Liat's wonderful assessment of the semester. We particularly like the personal details she includes in the essay, discussing her great-grandfather's experience with the American dream:

Reflections on the Semester

Had I been asked four months ago to define the “American Dream,” I would have answered with a laugh and resorted to cliche.  “To live the American Dream is to raise a family with 2.5 perfect children, and to own a large, spotless house--complete with a white picket fence and a dog (probably a Golden Retriever).” Had you asked me the same question one month ago, however, I would have hemmed and hawed and been forced to deliberate my answer--finally declaring that based on my discussions in English class, there is no concrete definition of the notion of the “American Dream.” But ask me today and you’ll find my answer is far more long-winded (five and a half pages, to be exact). To me, the American Dream was not, is not, and cannot ever be a static idea, but rather is one that is constantly changing and is reflective of our history.  But however one defines the American Dream at a particular point in our nation’s timeline, the concept of “opportunity” is a central theme throughout its course.

In the early 1600’s, the Pilgrims fled Europe for the New World.  In their version of the American Dream, America was not a place where individuals could practice religion as they saw fit; but rather, America was a haven from religious persecution, where the pilgrims could enjoy the liberty of starting their very own theocracy. The Dream underwent a transformation when the Bill of Rights was signed into law in 1791. It promised certain, inalienable protections to each and every resident of the U.S.A., including freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.  A citizen living the American Dream could voice open expression of his ideas and be whomever he chose to be.  Following the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, an essential part of the American Dream’s new identity became the new freedoms the United States offered to minorities and people of color.  With the advent of feminism in the seventies, the American Dream morphed into one of equality of the sexes.  A woman could now own the American Dream in the same way as a man, expecting the same freedoms and opportunities which he enjoyed.

Alongside all of these versions of the American Dream, there has existed a parallel text of the American Dream.  In the late 18th century, enterprising opportunists first sought to buy huge tracts of farmland. In the 19th century, young men journeyed west in the Gold Rush.  In the early 20th century, Jewish immigrants left their homes and communities to reach the “Goldene Medina.” This trend continues through today, as America has been known as the land for great personal financial growth. There is, however, a huge flaw in the American Dream that I’ve witnessed throughout this semester’s class, and that is that individual Americans often fail to live up to these evolving expectations.

In the literary works that we have read so far this year, the American Dream has proved elusive to many characters--both fictional and nonfictional. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester, a true romantic hero, journeys to America knowing full well that she will be living in a Puritan theocracy. Despite this prior knowledge, Hester still feels trapped by the confines of her community, and seeks refuge in the forest or by the sea. As my group came to understand, through a deep analysis of the symbols of town, forest and sea, Hester cannot truly escape the “town,” which represents societal and religious ideals, into the uncontained “forest” and “sea,” both of which represent the ability to make different choices and the capacity for human growth and change. At the conclusion of the story, Hester’s daughter decides not to follow her mother back to America.  I would suggest that both she and her mother have been disillusioned by the scope of the American Dream, and that the narrow freedoms it offers are still too restrictive.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible can be read on an allegorical level as the story of the failure of the American Dream.  In the fifties, McCarthy began to point fingers at his political enemies, igniting a frenzy that was akin to the Salem witchcraft hunt of the 17th century.   Miller himself was blacklisted and, I believe, this experience taught him that the freedoms of individual expression are tenuous and not guaranteed, despite the promises of the First Amendment.  

In Tim O'Brien's book, The Things They Carried, the author relates fictional stories of soldiers during the Vietnam War. During the war, young men were forcibly drafted into the army and into a war that they did not support, believe in or even understand.  I think that O’Brien is presenting a highly critical picture of the callousness of our leaders in sending these young men off to die, and is calling the government out on its failure to protect the rights of the individual.

In Rebecca Skloot’s, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Henrietta and her family are wronged by the American scientific community on multiple levels.  Henrietta’s personal freedoms were violated when the doctors failed to get informed consent on the use of her cells.  Though there was no active cover-up in the successive two decades, during which the civil rights movement was taking hold, I believe that her descendants were failed by silence--by the passive acceptance of those involved that there was no need to acknowledge Henrietta’s pivotal role.

At the beginning of the semester, when we were asked to write a Declaration of Independence, I declared myself independent from “The Patriarchy that is 21st Century American Society.”  I recognized a series of blatant strikes against the Dream as I wrote about male-centered language, male privilege, slut shaming, indecent media portrayal of women in the media, unequal job opportunity, and unfair wage gaps. I can only hope that I will not be disappointed in adulthood when it is my turn to transform my Dream into a reality, and that I will find the true equality of men and women that it promises.

As I sit here reflecting on this semester (or rather half reflecting and half lamenting the end of shiriyah!), I envision the possibility of success and am not convinced that all American Dream stories need to end in failure or disillusionment, though it makes for good reading and discussion.  Over Thanksgiving weekend, my grandmother shared some fascinating family history with me.   As it turns out, my great-grandfather, Grandpa Sam z”l, was a hobo during the Great Depression. As an 18 year-old, he was without employment for over a year.  He rode the rails from coast to coast looking for day work, earning a pittance in order to keep from starving.  He received occasional handouts from the Salvation Army and benefited from meals in their soup kitchens.  But, years later, he managed to become an insurance salesman, marry my great-grandmother, buy a house, raise a family and send his two daughters off to college. This is the quintessential story of the American Dream!  Given the opportunity, a man pulls himself up by his bootstraps, forges ahead with will and passion, and achieves success–familial, professional and financial.

Last year, The New York Times published a series of articles called The Invisible Child, detailing the life of Dasani, a homeless girl living in New York City.  At the conclusion of the series, Dasani and her family are transferred out of the decaying, moldy, unsafe shelter they had been living in, into their own three-bedroom apartment with a kitchen. They settle in and they are ecstatic to finally have their own place; in their minds, they are living the American Dream. Their transition to a new home is due entirely to the work of the department of social services.  I wonder if this one small act will change the course of Dasani’s life for the better (and I look forward to reading any follow-up articles!)

Concluding the semester with “Twenty-Six Acts of Kindness Day” was incredibly meaningful for me. On that first Wednesday in December, as I sat down to listen to Ms. Schroff [Laura Schroff, author of An Invisible Thread, came to speak to the students and returned to share our Acts of Kindness day with Frisch], I knew that this would be a very different kind of program than I had experienced in the past. The manner in which Ms. Schroff spoke was so genuine that I became convinced that the notion that “one small act of kindness can change a life” had some legitimacy to it.  In the week after, as we prepared for “Twenty-Six Acts of Kindness Day,” I became more and more enamored by the idea and enjoyed thinking up acts that seemed like doable and realistic goals for students.  I felt a surge of pride as I stood at the sign-up table and saw the numbers for myself: 193 people in the Frisch community participated, and we accomplished a total of 233 acts of kindness! Sure, we had sponsored chessed [acts of kindness[ days before, but juxtaposed to Ms. Schroff’s and Maurice’s talks, and with the backdrop of honoring the 26 victims of the Newton Massacre, it felt more meaningful.

Grandpa Sam, Maurice, and Dasani serve as proof that the American Dream can be realized, though so many great writers choose to acknowledge its failure.  But perhaps we would not recognize the American Dream successes without being able to contrast them to the failures.  As I wrote in my Thanksgiving piece earlier this semester, one can only understand light when it is held up against the dark.  With drive and perhaps a little bit of goodwill from others, we can all take advantage of the opportunities living in America affords.  Light can emerge from the darkness.