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November 25, 2005
Paper Clips
I had the opportunity to see the film, Paper Clips at my daughter's school the other day. It's about how a middle school in Whitwell, Tennessee started a project to teach the students about tolerance and diversity. When they taught the 8th grade about the Holocaust, one student asked, "how many is 6 million?" A good question -- 6 million is too huge a number to conceptualize. The teacher suggested collecting 6 million of something, and asked the students to come up with something manageable to collect. The students discovered that paper clips were worn on lapels in Norway, during WWII to signify their resistance to the Nazis. Whitwell had found their symbol!
Not only were they successful in their collection (they ended up collecting over 29 million paper clips!), but they also came together as a community for the purpose of educating their children -- what a goal! I don't want to give any more of the movie away, but Paper Clips is on HBO this month and next -- it's well worth the time, and truly, it's in the spirit of the season.
Posted by Michele at November 25, 2005 2:30 PM