5. Summaries, 17 November  – 30 November 2014 Week 9-10 Each class summarizes the answers received from other Learning Circle partners and post them to the wiki site.

 

 

 

 

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Summary ub1, Sir Ernest MacMillan, Canada

 

 

 

 

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Summary ub2, Cosburn Middle School, Canada

Work in Progress...Thank you all for contributing to/ answering our questions. Your answers provided us with hope that the world is working towards a global society that believes in equity and equality for all of its citizens regardless of who you are or where you live. 

 

From the information provided by various schools, we have discovered that everyone has a voice in their community regardless of their differences. Everyone believes that all people should have an equal voice no matter their race, gender, culture, age, or sexual orientation.  Some of the similarities we found are that most schools have a student council to represent the voice of the students.  For example we learnt that in Romania, there are marginalized groups of people similar to the situation found in Canada.  We are also trying to ensure that everyone is included and their voices are heard and respected. 

 

In Canada, we have laws in place to promote and enforce equality within communities for all citizens regardless of their race, gender, culture, age, or sexual orientation. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms doesn't show bias towards any groups of people. Although we have these laws that are supposed to protect everyone, unfortunately they aren't always respected by every citizen and there are efforts to undermine the ideals portrayed in the charter. Despite these setbacks, we are looking towards a better and brighter future with more people embracing the ideal of the charter. We realize we are very lucky to live in a society that protects rights and freedoms but we also acknowledge with rights come responsibilities and we need to strive for progress and improvement...

 

Our actions must match our words.

 

Summary - Ub2 - Cosburn MS - Solomon's Class

Our question focused on mental health issues and although we didn’t get many responses on that specifically, we did see many similarities in our communities.

We found that most people have the right to be treated equitably and fairly, and are also allowed to express their opinions and ideas in a comfortable environment. However, at times, people fail to accept that everyone is different. This can cause people to hide their brilliant or relevant ideas and opinions, and also make people unaware of the rights they have. These problems can be avoided by helping people understand that everybody should be treated the way they need and deserve.

     In our opinion, Romania is a rather fair country, judging by the community we have been learning about. Almost everyone is treated equitably, and they are allowed to have their voices heard. Like every community, it has a few flaws, but they are quickly overlooked when you see how well this class deals with them. All in all, we believe that it is an accepting area where you are treated with the respect you deserve. People don’t always get the attention that they deserve/need, because, even though people have ideas and opinions, which they are allowed to express, some people feel that their age, race, sexuality, different culture, etc. affect how people see them and possibly their impact on a situation and its solution.

     In our community everyone has a voice and an opinion, but not everyone chooses to express their opinion. We learned that other classes also have these same equal opportunities as us.  Many people think that their appearance (age, race, sexuality, etc.) defines them, when in reality it should not be the way you look that defines you, what should define you is the way that you feel, think and act. The way you feel about yourself, the way you think and the way that you act should be what people see and is how you should be treated. It does not matter what you look like on the outside but what you look like on the inside. In our opinion there is no real difference and there would be very few conflicts between different groups of people in communities. Malala Yousafzai who was a winner of the Nobel Prize, wasn’t a “white person” and she still received a Nobel peace prize. It didn’t matter what she looked like but how she acted, thought and how she felt.

     In conclusion, we realize that even though we live in various parts of the world, our humanity is what brings us all together in the end. We love, hurt, cry, and care in the same ways.

 

 

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Summary ub3, Nelson Mandela Park Public School, Canada

Final Summary from Nelson Mandela Park PS

 

We inferred that since we were in a learning circle with teens from other countries that no matter how different or similar we are, we are going to be “United Beyond Diversity.” We knew that “United Beyond Diversity” meant being together with different types of people.

 

We asked our question “In your society, what laws are unfair to some people? (Be sure to define who "some" people are.) What can we, as students, do to help change the unfair laws in society?” because we wanted to know in what way our GTP peers’ country’s laws are different or similar from our laws. Also, we wanted to know if there were unfair or fair laws and in what way, because we know that some people are treated unfairly in some countries. For example, we wanted to know if age, gender, race, or religion matter in their country’s laws. We suspected that we would get answers about why, how and which laws are unfair and are an issue to their country also how it could be fixed.

 

What we knew is that not everybody gets treated the same way. For example that back in the day women weren't allowed to vote. We expected to learn more about what “United Beyond Diversity” means. We were surprised that the same thing was said over and over.

 

What we expected depended on which countries were answering. It also depended on whether the country was communist or democratic. We expected that the classrooms from other countries would be super different and be very traditional but they were not as different as we thought and we had both similarities and differences.

 

We learned a lot about other places around the world. We expected to learn what equity was, what other people’s opinions were.

 

We learned that there are lots of laws that are unfair to people in society.

We learned that in Romania there is unfair treatment towards lower class people, like how they said that beggars are to be arrested for trying to make a living. In Romania there was a woman arrested for selling vegetable where on the other hand a man stole from the government and got away with it. (Which we think is totally ridiculous and unfair.)

 

What we learned from responses of the students were that some laws are really biased  towards people with different skin tone and people with a different gender ( ex: Female). In some countries females are not allowed to vote. There are also unfair immigration laws.   Another thing we learned is that African, South Asian and Mexican people are stereotyped. For example, they are stereotyped as drug dealers  and terrorists. We learned how stereotypes are major problem when it comes to crimes in all parts of the world. Rich people can pay out the judge or the jury in order to win the case and not get charged. If rich people are on a case with poor people, the richer person will hire a better lawyer while the poor person may or may not even hire a lawyer!

   Therefore, we learned that race, wealth, age and gender affect our chances of winning a court case or getting away with crimes. We also learned that there are unfair laws in society.

 

We also learned that some laws are made for a good reason, for example in Romania tobacco has a really high tax which is really good because tobacco is bad for your health (and it is worse than cigarettes we think.)

 

To sum up, we learned that:

~Different laws can affect different people.

~Stereotypes can affect people in getting a job.

~Different people are accused for crimes because of their background.

~Racism does affect people's daily lives.

~There is still racism in some countries.

 

So, what can we, as young people, do to change this?

 

• protest

• tell someone who has power

• when we grow up and have power, make sure we aren’t racist

• don’t stereotype

• don’t be racist, sexist, homophobic

• don’t be a hypocrite

• don’t be a bystander

• don’t take advantage of other classes of people

 

Thank you for your participation in answering our question!

 

 

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Summary ub4, Colegiul Economic Buzau, teacher Buie Roxana, Romania

  We  asked : Every community has groups of people who are different from the majority.How are these “different”  people treated in your community? Please explain the differences , too

 

They answered : 

What we have found out from our friends in Canada from UB1 is that Muslims are treated differently there because of how they present themselves and how there religion is different than the other countries. They are also called by stereotypes like “terrorist” because some Muslims were terrorists even if that doesn’t mean that they’re all like this. Also people think that women shouldn’t wear hijabs, which is a cultural veil for them. And because some Muslims are trying to start a war with America right now, they are treated even worse. In conclusion, we should try to not be a racist and understand that “some people” doesn’t mean “all the people”.

Hmm... From our colleagues from UB2, we learned a lot of new and interesting things, like the fact that they’re trying to make everyone happy and to treat everyone as nicely as possible.  They also have in their country the kids’ help phone which is a phone with an anonymous voice. The phone is on all the time and someone is there for the kids who just want to talk about their problems and stuff, about the fact they are being bullied and harassed.

From UB3 we found out that the issue of LGBTQ people is still debatable in many countries.The idea is to accept people as they are 

We learned from our colleagues from UB5 that in their community there are some groups of people who are different from the majority, but they are treated like the others. Hmm.. for example one of them has some friends who have a different religion  or  culture and they are well integrated into the society. 

             From UB6 we learned that the Roma people are usually marginalized and criticized because they are different. People are putting the label without knowing. The ethnicities should not be seen as a barrier between us and others.
They are seen in a different way because some people do not like working and prefer theft or begging. The government is trying to help, but these people are sometimes not thrilled to work for money in an honest way.

From our colleagues from UB7 we learnt that, when it’s about religion, people aren’t so affected. But when it’s about the sexual preferences or the Roma people there are some people who just can’t stand them    ... They   just can’t admit that they are different people.

We understood from UB8 that in the world there are many different people. Some of they are the dirty rich, the rich, the middle class, the poor and the poverty stricken.
Some people are treated in different ways from the others, in our opinion this is discrimination. We know that the discrimination happens when employer treats one employer less favorably than others.

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary ub5, Colegiul Economic Buzau, Romania, teachers Andrei Elena, Caprita Paraschiva

 

Our questions: 1) Do you think that differences in colour, religion or beliefs really matter in relations between people? 2) Can we pass over these differences? Can we create a bond between people with different beliefs and colour? 3) Can you, as an individual, accept a gay person, a Jew or a black person (or white, if you are black) next to you in the bus or in the plane? Could you be friends with such a person? 4) If you were an employee, would you make any differences when it comes to hire people? Would it matter if the solicitor would be black (or white, if you are black), yellow or Jew?

 

ub2 say that the terms “Yellow” and “Jew” are considered racist in Canada. They say Asian and Jewish.In their opinion religion, beliefs and skin colour do not change the way they interact with people. In Canada, they have a Charter of Right and Freedoms, which was founded on July 1^st, 1982. However, these rules do not prevent racism from occurring, and they see racism in many forms. But their group would not discriminate against anyone. They accept everyone, including Jewish people, black people and gay people, anytime and anywhere. One of the people answering this question is Jewish, one is Muslim and a member of the group has gay cousins, and one member of the group is black. The principal of their school and two of their teachers are also black people. If the students in the group were employers, they would not make decisions based on race, ethnic origin, colour, religion, sexual orientation or age. They would make choices based on kindness, intelligence, and skill. In Canada, discrimination is not big problem and is illegal! : D However, there are still people who are racist, regardless of the rules. An example is a common issue called Police profiling. Police profiling is when the police assume that someone will commit a crime because of their race, ethnic origin, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or mental/physical state. They make these profiles by looking at the crime statistics and saying, for example, look, most people who robbed a house this month were black and were 21 years old. Police assume now that all black, 21 year old people are going to rob a house.

 

ub4 say that they don’t think that these differences should matter so much. They don’t care if someone is gay, fat, less clever, ugly, beautiful, black, white, a boy or a girl, and as long as they are nice to them, they will be nice to them. Of course we could pass over those differences, we just need to accept each other and understand each other, we can surely create a bond between those people with the “same differences”, meaning the same beliefs, the same colour, the same religion. People have friends with common interests, right? Sometimes those differences make us the same. We can also have friends like this, they mean if you like someone you like it and that’s it, we can be friends with everybody. As long as someone knows what to do at their job and they are doing it well, and they have the necessary abilities and qualifications, they will not make any differences.

 

ub6 say that in their opinion, the differences between people are the things which make each of us special. Even if there are differences in colour, religion or beliefs, they don’t really matter in relationships, but it’s everyone’s point of view in accepting or denying them. They consider they can pass over these differences. Each person chooses to be who he wants to be. We can always create a bond between people with different beliefs and colours. If they were employees, they wouldn’t consider the differences on hiring people. What a person does in particular it’s not their job. If he’s good in what he does, he’s perfect for his position, for his job and for this society, and it doesn’t matter at all if he’s black, yellow or Jewish. He just has to be good in his work.

 

ub7 think that differences in colour, religion, beliefs are not important, as we are all humans with the same rights, dreams, ambitions. We should be more aware about our differences and how important are these... if we would be all the same, the world would be very boring. Trying to understand each other is a big step to accept the others. Tolerance and understanding should be one of the most important qualities for every human. It is not important the colour of skin, religion or sexual orientation. It can be even more interesting to discuss with such a person and to discover new things. If you want your business to go well, you have to see the competences people have, not their personal life or beliefs.

 

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Summary ub6, Colegiul Economic Buzau, teacher Enus Adina, Romania

 

Colegiul Economic Buzau, teacher Enus Adina, Romania, Question: How do differences of nationality, political or religious beliefs infruence the idea of friendship between people?	Answers
Answer from ub2	Friendship can be affected by Nationalities. Often, you want to stay in your comfort zone with people you know because you share the same traditions, and customs. You may not be as open to meeting new people, as they may be different from you and it would be a big change for you. You would have to adapt to make new friends. This can be scary for someone. For example, if you were to emigrate from your country with different customs and languages, it would be difficult to adjust and make new friends.
Answer from ub4	In Romania like other countries there are minorities like:Hungarians,Roma people,Polish,Tatars and many others.We think that the differences in nationality and religion aren’t important in a friendship.For example,Nicole  told me that she has a friend,a really good friend who is catholic  and he’s from America.They talk a lot and she told me that it doesn’t matter at all he’s religion,his nationality because friendship it’s more than that.In a friendship, if you know how to be there in a way or another for someone that you consider to be your friend.And I guess we should all think this way.
Answer from ub5	In our opinion, the differences in nationality, political or religious beliefs shouldn’t affect relationships between people. Even if they have different nationalities or different religious beliefs, people should be understood, should be friends with each other and should be equal.
Answer from ub7	These differences are not important in our opinion. It is important to like the same things, to have the same dreams, ambitions. To see the world with the same eyes and to have a deeper connection.
Answer from ub8	As a species we are social beings who live our lives in the company of other humans. We organize ourselves into various kind of social groupings, such as nomadic bands, villages, cities, countries, in which we work trade, play reproduce and interact in many other ways.

 

 

 

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Summary ub7,Colegiul Economic Buzau, teacher Ionescu Adriana, Romania

 

 

 

What do you think we have in common....young people from as many countries? name  at least 3 things that are the same for us and present them as nice as possible.

This was our question.

We got some interesting answers. Some of you put them in a Prezi presentation that you can follow on the link above:

https://prezi.com/vupampybvfwz/what-does-youth-across-the-world-have-in-common/

Some of you make a real research on the topic that was posted on googledoc.

Methodology:

    We got the answer to the question by using surveys. We sent surveys to different GTP schools but we didn’t get any results. We also sent surveys to people we knew and distributed them among our relatives. Then we organized the answers to the sub-questions and recorded the most common answers.

 

Summary:

    One thing we have in common is that we all wear clothes. Sometimes, we wear similar clothes, for example, in Canada someone may wear a t-shirt and jeans and someone in an African or Asian country also may wear t-shirts and jeans.

     

     Another thing we have in common is that we eat similar types of food, for example; rice is eaten in Canada, Africa, and Asia.

 

      One more thing we have in common is that we have similar hobbies, for example, someone in Canada may have a hobby of going outside and hanging out with their friends. Also someone in Africa or Asia may have the same hobby

    This is a chart of what people learn at school:

 

     Therefore, young people from many countries have their hobbies, what they wear and what they eat in common.

   

      Some of the differences we found during this research were that most of the houses people live in were different from each other. We think the reasons for this difference are that some young people live in a poor country. Since the country is poor some of the people who live in the country are also poor, and since they are poor they can't afford to buy a house. Also, some people live in rich countries and they are able to afford a house such as a condo, apartment, townhouse, mansion etc…

 

Conclusion:

     Therefore, not only do young people have things in common, they have differences as well. If everyone in the world was the same, then things would get boring very quickly. If everyone in the world was completely different, and had nothing in common, then people would not get along very well. Therefore, it is good that everyone in the world is similar and different.  

 

Further Questions:

1. What other things do young people have in common?
2. If young people can’t afford food what do they eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
3. Does the climate affect what the young people eat?

 

Some of you just give the answers and we founded like this a lot of common things:

J Outdoor activities- mainly soccer.

J A lot of us are Christians and celebrate Christmas and Easter.

JWe all have documents that state our rights and freedoms.  Some of the rights are:  freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, religion, beliefs and thought. 

J Family is very important to us.  It provides stability in our social structures and helps us when we need it.  Family is the number one priority.

J Our feelings , because  we all fell the same , we cry the same we laugh the same.

JThe friendship because people have friends everywhere  and it doesn’t matter if your friend is different   because you will love him\her  no matter  what.

J Partying , because we’re  young and we wanna have fun and stuff, we’re having fun  in the same ways .

J We are “residents in a digital world” unlike our parents’generation. This means that we are extremely good at working on computers, tablets, notebooks…whatever.

J Music that makes us free.

J Movies that relax us.

 

 

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Summary ub8, Morning Star School, Ghana

 

 

 

 

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