St. Laurence College Loughlinstown Dublin 18

1. “ …between a rock and a hard place…
”
Conversations about Leaving,
Loss and Lampedusa
St. Laurence College Loughlinstown
Yellow Flag Programme – 3rd October 2016
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2. Conversations about Leaving,
Loss and Lampedusa
St. Laurence College Loughlinstown
Yellow Flag Programme – 3rd October 2016
“ …between a rock and a hard place…
”
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3. On October, the 3rd, 2013, 368 migrants died
in a dreadful accident off the Italian island of
Lampedusa. It was just one of the many
tragedies that have happened since mass
migrations from North Africa began a few years
ago. The UNHCR states that in the first five
months of 2016, 2510 lives were lost in the
Mediterranean Sea compared to 1855 in the
same period in 2015. The Italian Parliament has
established the 3rd of October as a
remembrance day to honour the people who
died and raise awareness of the migration
tragedy.
This“Europe begins at Lampedusa”initiative aims
to involve Italian and European students in
learning activities and events specifically
concerning the issues of global interdependence
and human rights, with a particular focus on
migrations and the rights of refugees and asylum
seekers.
A teacher and three students from St. Laurence
College in Loughlinstown are representing
Ireland and travelling to Lampedusa this October
to engage in workshops and debates on these
issues. In the lead up to the‘Remembrance Day’
each school will share a project that they have
engaged in during the month of September to
gain a deeper insight into the human rights of
migrants.
St. Laurence College is a co-educational D.E.I.S
school in south Co. Dublin. We are proud to be
part of the Yellow Flag Programme run through
the Irish Traveller Movement and we are the only
Marianist school in Ireland.
In preparation for such an important
undertaking our students and teachers have
created a photo-poster entitled‘Between a Rock
and a Hard Place-Conversations on Leaving, Loss
and Lampedusa.’
A picture is worth a thousand words and we
wanted our project to transcend language
barriers. We drew inspiration from the old adage
’between a rock and hard place’to capture a
sense of the desperation that pushes people to
leave their homes. This adage is loaded with
meaning. In our photographs and the
conversations that happened afterwards we
unpacked it.
We travelled to the Dublin Docklands to take
photographs of the Famine Memorial. This is a
public monument. Everyday it is passed by the
busy Dublin Port traffic and by walkers tracing
the path of the Liffey to and from the city centre.
With the sound of the D.A.R.T rolling into
Connolly Station in the background we stopped
to connect with our own Irish history of leaving
and loss so that we could have a deeper
conversation about the tragedy in Lampedusa.
This is what happened…..
“ Europe Begins at Lampedusa
”
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4. Our aim as teachers was to lead our students into
this conversation with an outdoor classroom
experience. The Famine Memorial is only paces
away from a World Poverty Stone set among the
cobble stones of the Dockland. This stone was set
down to mark the annual United Nations
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
that falls on the 17th of October each year.
Standing between the memorial and this
October stone proved to be fitting place to
explore the adage‘between a rock and a hard
place.’We talked about the Irish Famine and the
ships that people left Ireland on. Many of these
ships became known as coffin ships due the loss
of life on the journeys to America and Canada.
We talked about the new circumstances that Irish
people found themselves in abroad and the
discrimination and poverty that was part of the
new lives of some our ancestors.
We talked about the war in Syria, the upheavals
in many Northern African countries and the
migration crisis in Europe. It has been suggested
that the name Lampedusa derives from the word
λέπας (lépas) which means 'rock', due to the
rocky landscape of the island. We talked about
the Lampedusa tragedy. We also talked about
the images we had seen of the LÉ Eithne, LÉ
Róisín, LÉ Niamh, LÉ Samuel Beckett and LÉ
James Joyce assisting in humanitarian rescues in
the Mediterranean Sea.
It was a moving experience taking the photos as
the students stood face to face with these
stationary memorial statutes. In geography class
the students had completed a lesson about
migration in which they had to prepare a
backpack in order to leave Ireland in a hurry. We
placed the bags on the statutes to symbolise the
learning from this lesson and to remind us that
people are still leaving their homes everyday to
escape the struggles of war, famine and poverty.
Some of the students talked about the
experience bringing them closer to the past. It
was a personal moment. For others the
experience was deeply uncomfortable. They
spoke about how hard it was facing the issues
head on. Ignorance can be bliss and we talked
about how only education can help us
understand the plight of migrants.
We attracted a lot of attention in our outdoor
classroom. Later on we talked about the
reactions of passers-by. Some American tourists
praised our efforts to explore the issues through
photography, some local Dublin women asked us
about the significance of our yellow ribbons and
one passer-by assumed that we being
disrespectful and asked what we were doing
there. It was only through dialogue that we could
explain our motivations for arriving at the
memorial on that overcast morning. Later on in
the day we visited the EPIC Ireland museum on
Custom House Quay. We were greeted by the
helpful staff who asked us where we were from
and how we had heard about the visitor centre.
At every stage of our journey through the
exhibits the friendly staff guided us on what is an
immersive experience through the history of the
Irish Diaspora.
The next day in school we talked about all the
ways that people had made us feel on our trip.
We had been welcomed and for a brief time on
the dock we felt unwanted and we thought
about the experiences of migrants leaving their
homes.
We talked about one powerful sentence in the
exhibition. It reads; “…emigration is not just a
chronicle of sorrow and regret. It is also a powerful
story of contribution and adaptation”.
As a Marianist school we have charisms that
guide our teaching and learning.‘Family Spirit’
and education for‘adaptation and change’are
two of these charisms. We value these gifts. They
help build the sense of belonging we treasure in
our school community.
We looked at all the photographs we had taken
and the moments of reflection we had captured.
We decided to hang our art print from the visitor
shop in EPIC Ireland in the geography classroom.
It reads‘We are all Connected.’
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5. More information about the Famine
Memorial and the Dublin World Poverty
Stone can be found at www.ddda.ie and at
www.17october.ie
The photo-poster is designed to use as a lead
into the Migration Simulation lesson in this pack
and also as an introduction to the‘Europe Begins
at Lampedusa’Initiative. Further links and
classroom teaching resources can be found at
www.stlaurencecollege.com
The following questions use the 5W’s and H
format can be used to generate lesson intentions
for discussing the experience of migrants. The
photo-poster should be used again at the end of
the lesson to prompt the students to record what
they have of learned by completing the
simulation. Teachers can also use the story of our
visit to the Dockland day to introduce the lesson.
More information about EPIC Ireland can be
found at www.epicirelandchq.com
Using the Photographs…
Where are the photos taken?
Who is in the photos?
What are students doing?
Why do the statues have the students’ backpacks on?
What is in the backpacks?
When was the photo taken?
What are the students thinking about?
Why were the photographs taken?
What does the word ‘connection’ mean?
What does the word ‘reflection’ mean?
How do you think passers-by reacted to the students
having their photographs taken at the memorial?
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6. After exploring the photo-poster ask students to
brainstorm the term‘migrant’and record the
answers on a chart.
1. Now prepare for the simulation. Each
student is allocated a person to play from
list below.
– Parent with a young child
– A teenager /yourself
– An elderly person
– A doctor
– A taxi driver
– A celebrity
– More people can be added if you wish
2. Divide the students into groups of 6 or
more. Now the inform students that they
need to evacuate their homes because
there is a major disaster in Ireland. ( eg.
chemical explosion, nuclear disaster) . You
have 20 minutes to evacuate your home
and flee the country.
3. List 20 items you would pack in your school
bag/small suitcase to take with you.
4. Give students in real time just 10 minutes to
pack. They should write their list of 20 items
down. Remember that each piece of
clothing/food/nappy is 1 item and all the
items must fit into a school backpack.
5. Tell students they are now being collected
by large open top trucks and driven to the
nearest port.
6. In a dramatic tone describe the scene of the
evacuation. It is cold and wet, babies are
crying, children are excited and parents are
quiet etc.
7. You disembark at the docks and you begin
to walk towards a ship. An elderly person
slips and their bag falls into the sea so they
must cross out all 20 items.
8. Each person in their group must now
donate 2 items each to the elderly person.
Note the item must be of use to the elderly
person.
9. You have now been at sea for a week.
People are ill. (teacher- please elaborate
about conditions). Cross out all medications
from your list. You must now throw your
two heaviest items overboard because the
ship is overloaded. Cross these items off
your list.
10. The Parent with the young child is very
cold. Please give a warm item of clothing of
your clothing to this person and cross it off
your list.
11. You are at now at sea for 2 weeks. Cross out
all food and water/drink from list.
12. Small children are getting anxious and
upset. To keep them entertained give your
phone or game to them. Cross this off your
list.
13. You finally arrive at an unknown place. You
are tired. You need a shower. You are
hungry and scared.
14. When you disembark the ship you must
now walk to a large camp at the end of a
small town. The local people are staring at
you and pointing at you. Some are jeering
you and telling you to go home. You don’t
understand the language.
Migration Simulation
(adapted from Concerns Debating Development teaching resources)
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7. 15. You are now asked for ID. Those with a
passport on their list may sit down as a new
group at end of classroom. Everyone else
should stay standing. (This represents how
families are separated.)
16. Those with certificates to prove their
qualifications may also sit down as another
group at the end of the class. These people
will get refugee status. They can prove who
they are and that they are fearing for their
lives.
17. Take a note of the numbers left standing.
Remind these students that they have no ID
or proof of who they are or what
qualification/training they may have
achieved in Ireland.
18. This group of people in real life may need
to wait in this camp for months or years for
their asylum application to be processed.
17. All students can now sit down with the
remainder of their group (but not with the
people with ID or qualifications).
18. Get all students to now read out what is left
on their list. Record these on a chart or
whiteboard. Discuss the usefulness of these
items in this new country (eg – many will
have mobile phones with no
chargers/adaptors, the battery will have run
out, warm clothes may not be needed if the
country is hot, or the country may be too
cold and you do not have not enough
warm clothing…)
19. Ask the students if they were able to redo
their list what should they have packed?
Discuss the new lists.
20. Discuss what the students would miss
about home?
21. Describe the feelings and record them as
keywords.
22. Ask the students to look again at the
brainstorm of the word‘migrant’at the
beginning of class. What words or ideas
would you now cross out and what could
you add in.
23. Re-visit the photo-poster again as each
student records what they have learned
today.
24. In the next class use the Red Cross teaching
resources to explore migration in the past
and migration today or use the BBC online
simulation to explore the conflict in Syria
and the path of migrants as they leave the
Middle East. Trócaire has also a range of
teaching resources on the theme of
displacement and further resources and
links can be found on a Padlet at
www.stlaurencecollege.com
The whole class must now stand up
Brainstorm – How am I feeling as the character I chose?
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8. St. Laurence College Yellow Flag Programme
“ The Yellow Flag Programme is an intercultural education
model that was developed by the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM)
in 2008. It aims to work with students, staff, management,
parents and the wider community so that issues of diversity and
equality are not merely seen as ‘school subjects’ but can be
understood and taken outside the school setting into everyday
life. More information on the programme can be found at
www.yellowflag.ie
We are proud to have
our Yellow Flag and to
celebrate diversity within
our school community.
We have undertaken a
range of school projects since 2012 to explore equality and
human rights. From-Friendship Week and Stand Up Week to our
beautiful quilt project and of course our ‘Yellow Shoes Along the
Avenue’ installation – each and every project allows our students
to be challenged by the values of the Yellow Flag Programme
and encouraged to live them out in their everyday lives.
”
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10. Useful Teaching Resources:
http://www.unhcr.ie/education/
learn-a-fact-about-refugees
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/
Teaching-resources/Lesson-plans/
Refugees-secondary
http://www.bbc.com/news/
world-middle-east-32057601
https://www.trocaire.org/getinvolved/education/
resources/search?f[0]=field_education_theme%3A18
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