Summer Learning Journey Day 2, Week 2

DAY 2: Taking Action
Activity 1: A Long Walk to Freedom [4 points]

Nelson Mandela was an activist and civil rights leader who was born and raised in South Africa. For over 40 years (1948-1991), the country of South Africa had a political system called ‘apartheid’. This meant that there were different rules for people who had white skin than for those who didn’t. Nelson Mandela felt that this was very wrong and he fought for many years to change the law. Eventually, he became the President of South Africa and ended apartheid, but not before spending many years in prison.

In Robben Island prison (where Mandela spent 18 years), life was very tough. Mandela had a tiny,
damp, concrete cell, with only a straw mat to sleep on. During the day he was forced to work in a
quarry, breaking rocks into gravel. He was only allowed to see one visitor and receive one letter
every six months. At night, Nelson read and studied to be a lawyer.

For this activity, please imagine that you are Mr Mandela and that you are living at Robben
Island prison. You have been given a journal and each night you write in it. Write a journal
entry imagining that you are Mr Mandela. What do you think he did each day? How did he feel? Include as much detail as you can in the journal entry. Post your work on your blog.

Dear Journal.

It's been a few years in this... 'prison'. 3 years! to be exact. that's how long I haven't seen my family, ate fresh food or even breathed fresh air!. Even though I've been sent to prison for doing it, but when I get out, I'm gonna keep on trying even if it gets me killed! It's job period in a few minutes so I will have to make this entry quick. The other day, This dude started a fight with another guy and lots of other people joined in which made the officers come out. When all the fuss calmed, One guy was left unconscious on the ground. Turns out he was dead. That's all I have to say for today, Job period just started and I don't want to get a beating.   

Activity 2: School Strike for Climate [4 points]

You may have heard people talking about an issue called ‘Climate change’. Climate change refers to an increase in the temperature of our planet. Warmer temperatures can cause natural disasters (floods, storms, droughts, hurricanes, etc), rising sea levels, and the extinction (disappearance) of plants and animals.

Many people in New Zealand (and overseas) are worried about climate change including Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old girl from Sweden. She believes that climate change is not only real but that it is a “crisis”. She is upset that adults, particularly governments and powerful people, are not taking climate change seriously. In 2018 she began protesting outside the Swedish government buildings every Friday instead of going to school. She inspired the School Strike for Climate protests and, in 2019, spoke to the United Nations about her concerns. Not everyone, however, is convinced that climate change is really happening.

For this activity, we would like you to read the information below from the School Strike for Climate Australia website When you have finished reading the information, tell us about the group. What are they doing? What are their demands? Post the answer on your blog.

The information that I just read is about School Strike for Climate Australia. School Strike for Climate Australia is an international movement of school students who take time off from class to participate in demonstrations to demand action to prevent further global warming and climate change. The founder of the movement is Greta Thunberg and was founded on the 20th of august, 2018. Students around Australia are skipping school to help protest. They want to tell and show the government and the parliament that Climate change is real and wants them to help prevent it from getting worse.

We are school students from cities and towns across Australia. Most of us have never met in person before but are united by our concern about our planet. We are striking from school to tell our politicians to take our futures seriously and treat climate change for what it is - a crisis.
Politicians can show us that they care by taking urgent action to meet our demands: 1. No new coal, oil and gas projects, including the Adani mine; 2. 100% renewable energy generation & exports by 2030; 3. Fund a just transition & job creation for all fossil-fuel workers & communities. Climate change is one of the biggest problems facing the world and it isn’t being addressed quickly enough. In Australia, education is viewed as immensely important, and a key way to make a difference in the world. But simply going to school isn’t doing anything about climate change. And it doesn’t seem that our politicians are doing anything, or at least not enough, about climate change either. So, as our contribution to the changes we want to see, we are striking from school. We are temporarily sacrificing our education in order to save our futures from climate-wrecking projects.

Source: https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/about

Activity 3: “I Have a Dream” [6 points]

Martin Luther King Jr was a Christian minister in the United States of America (U.S.A) in the 1950s and 1960s. He spent much of his life fighting for equality (equal rights) for people of color. At the time, there were laws that kept black and white people separated - they went to different schools, used different toilets, and even sat in different parts of a bus and ate in
different areas of a restaurant. This was called ‘segregation.’

Dr. King did not agree with these laws and he led many protests against them. He was joined in his protests by many people, including an African American woman named Rosa Parks.

In 1955, Rosa boarded a bus in Alabama (U.S.A) and refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. You can read about this famous incident here:

In the face of...racism, Rosa decided to make a stand for what was right. Together with her husband Raymond, she joined the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), working towards putting an end to discrimination and segregation. But it was on the 1 December 1955 that Rosa truly sparked change. After a long day at work, Rosa boarded the bus
home and took a seat. At that time in Montgomery, seats at the front of buses were reserved for white passengers and the seats at the back for black passengers. The bus quickly filled up and when a white man boarded, the driver told the African American passengers to give up their seats for him. Whilst the other black passengers obeyed, Rosa, did not. The result? Rosa was arrested
by the police and fined for breaking segregation laws! But Rosa refused to pay and argued that it was the law that was wrong, not her behavior.

For this activity, please describe the problem that black men and women faced in America at this time. What did Rosa Parks do about the problem? How did other people react? Post your work on your blog.

Black men and women had a very huge problem back in the 50s. The problem was racism. Back in the 50s, white men and women would always make fun and would always make racial slurs to Black people. Black men and women fought racism and equal rights for a long time and some are still facing this problem to this day. Rosa Parks was an individual who decided to make a stand for what was right. She and her husband joined the NNACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People). Rosa was asked by a white man to give up her seat but she refused and got arrested. Rosa refused to pay and argued about the law, which gave courage to other colored people to make a stand for what was right.!