Students from a North Vancouver Montessori school got a chance to walk the halls of power at the United Nations headquarters in New York in May.
The Grade 6 and 7 students were participating in a special UN summit, attended by more than 1,600 other Montessori students, teachers and parents from around the world. The group of seven North Star Montessori students was one of two delegations from B.C. at the meeting.
For four days, students assumed the roles of UN delegates, meeting and drafting resolutions on real world issues. The students tackled topics as diverse and sophisticated as protecting child soldiers and nuclear disarmament, to regulating genetically modified organisms in our food supply. Once the students drafted, debated and passed their resolutions, they were presented to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for consideration. In the months leading up to the summit, the students were tasked with representing a randomly assigned country, researching that country's history, culture and political situation, and then preparing position papers and speeches on their topics. They spent seven months conducting research, learning about resolutions and practising their public speaking before travelling to New York to present their work in front of a mock UN General Assembly made up of peers, honourable guests and a member of the UN.
"The speech and paper got us ready, but the most important part about the MMUN (Montessori Model United Nations) was the debate, and talking with one another so that we could come up with resolutions," said Hannah K., one of the North Vancouver students. While some resolutions did not pass, students still saw the value in the program.
"It was amazing to meet all of the kids from other countries and to discuss the draft resolutions with them," said Willem Young. Two of North Star's students, Maya Matthews and Liam Coyle, were part of a group who, for the first time in the history of the MMUN, had their committee's resolution passed unanimously. The President of the Dais praised the students for "being the most collaborative and cooperative group" she has worked with. North Star Montessori plans to attend future MMUN events with the goal of attending annually by 2014.
