Week 2: Wisconsin
Wisconsin has greeted us with crisper weather and windier days. Our new challenge is keeping students distracted from the cold. With each school we have spent the day at, we have listened to the unique responses students have to the Millennium Villages Project. There has been little consistency to what specifically stands out to them. For some students, it is simply taking in the differences of culture and place. For others, there is a realization of how essential efforts like the MVP can be to a community.
Students in Racine were really taken with a photo by Ed Kashi in Bonsaaso, Ghana that shows a Chinese mining business using valuable farming land to mine for gold. As we discussed the image, students pointed to the landscape that surrounds their school and pointed out the SC Johnson factory and garbage dump that was in walking distance of their school. They shared that a new factory has started construction, owned by FoxConn. When asked how they felt about this recent addition to their community there were mixed responses that highlighted a parallel dilemma that the image we were standing in front of shows. While the opening of this factory will offer Racine thousands of new jobs, Foxconn is a Taiwanese owned company known for its poor working conditions and negative environmental impacts. It is often easy to feel detached from images of communities that are on the other side of the world however, the connections built by the JI Case students to their own community gave this one photograph a powerful teaching opportunity.
J.I. Case High School: Racine, Wisconsin
Bradley Technology and Trade School: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Overall, it has been a fascinating exploration to learn about the places the bus travels to from the perspective of a young adult. The photographs are a powerful learning tool to create reflections and larger connections that evoke curiosity and compassion, it is a refreshing experience to spend more than a couple seconds looking at a photograph on a computer or phone.