Second Graders Demonstrate Empathy and Community to Help Refugee Children

Empathy and Community!  Big concepts like these are taught at Yew Chung International School (YCIS), a bilingual Mandarin-English school in Mountain View.  In addition to science, technology, and the usual subjects, learning by doing is a key part of instilling values and building knowledge among students from pre-school through 8^th grade.

The school’s second-grade class put empathy and community into action in December after hearing about the plight of resettled refugee children and their families from a JFS-SV volunteer who was asked to speak to them.

The students sat attentively, asked loads of questions, and were so moved in the end, they wanted to help.  In classroom discussions after the presentation, they chose to conduct a two-day snack sale with a goal of generating $420 to help refugee children.  They built a slide presentation with photos, learned their lines for a video, and visited each classroom to explain the project and seek support.  Online outreach to the parents came next, and parents enthusiastically signed up to provide sweet and savory snacks.

The kids labeled and arranged items on tables, made change in their heads, and collected the proceeds.  

The drive netted $990, and a teacher contributed $10 more to hit $1,000!  About $800 went to purchase 65 new, brand-name winter coats for JFS refugee and other low-income clients, taking advantage of terrific online and discount-store sales.  The remaining $200 will be spent on other kid-related items, perhaps sweatshirts and such.

What a great learning project for the kids with such wonderful results.  Imagine building humanitarians in the second grade!