Life in a Jar/The Irena Sendler Project
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the problem:
"I want to teach today's youth about tolerance education, a legacy I gained from unsung Holocaust heroine Irena Sendler," says Megan Stewart-Felt, founding cast member of the award-winning student play "Life in a Jar." I played a key role in developing this play, and I continue to perform the play to school, civic and religious groups throughout the country. Promoting tolerance education concepts of respect and understanding, “Life in a Jar” portrays Irena Sendler’s heroic rescue of over 2,500 Jewish children during the Holocaust. Although today's students are far removed from the horrors of the Holocaust, which were perpetrated through racism and prejudice, I see the need to teach tolerance of diverse populations in our multicultural world. Students need to learn respect and understanding of different groups of people not only as a core value, but also as a core interpersonal skill necessary in many work environments today. My mission is to use project-based learning in teaching K-12 students the importance of respecting and understanding diverse populations. To accomplish this mission, I work with students not only in my small, non-diverse community, but also throughout America, Canada, Germany, Ireland, and Poland, guiding them in developing projects of unsung heroes whose actions have promoted cultural awareness and respect. I would like to further this work through a service-learning project where students present their projects to school, civic and religious groups.
vital stats:
people impacted:
30,000people involved:
12why it's important:
By learning respect and understanding, the youth in my non-diverse Midwestern locale will gain multifaceted benefits not only from tolerance education, but also from project-based learning and service learning. According to the article “Designing Effective Projects” by the Intel Teach Program, research shows that project-based learning (PBL) encourages “active inquiry and higher-level thinking,” and teachers using project-based learning “encourage students to raise questions, plan and carry out investigation, make observations, and reflect on what they have discovered.” In addition to these benefits, research shows that PBL is effective to “engage students, cut absenteeism, boost cooperative learning skills, and improve academic performance.” Many of the skills students acquire through PBL are necessary in today’s work environment where employees are required to engage in projects that require in-depth research, collaboration, analysis, and presentation of a product. According to “Why Districts, Schools, and Classrooms Should Practice Service-Learning” by RMC Research Corporation (2003), service learning, like PBL, also promotes student engagement in learning, increased attendance and “motivation to learn.” Service learning also promotes knowledge and skills that are transferrable to
“real life settings,” such as higher order thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making. Ultimately, students who participate in service learning frequently become convinced that “they can make a difference in their schools, communities, and society.” This attitude is a key to youth making our world a better place through respecting and understanding diverse groups of people. Without these opportunities, our youth may not develop essential skills to help make them successful adults who can make a difference.
the plan of action:
The program will primarily impact approximately 100 school-age students grades 6-12. While some students may choose individual projects, most will form groups of 3 or 4 to work collaboratively. Students will meet before and after school from January through May to research, develop, complete, and present their projects, which could be documentaries, exhibits, performances, or essays. Students will choose an unsung hero whose life reflects the legacy of teaching respect and understanding for all people. The term “unsung” will be defined as an internet search result of 15,000 results or less. Students will meet with me at least four times for review of project development, and I will assist them in the developing their projects. Students will be given the opportunity to provide service learning through the presentation of their projects to local schools, parents, and civic and religious groups. After the presentations, the audience will be given the opportunity to engage in a “Question and Answer” session with the students. Through these presentations, students are making a difference by educating others in tolerance education and creating excitement in younger students for future projects.
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Comments
I've seen this performance! My life has been changed since I heard about Irena and met Megan. I've become so much more aware of what one person can do for another. No matter how small it may seem to me, I know it means so much more to someone else.
I just came across the site and registered. If these are the type of projects all over this site, I wish I had known about this earlier! What an amazing thing you're doing, Megan. I'm going to ask my aunt (who is a teacher) to e-mail you about starting a project. Good job!
Megan has basically devoted her entire life since I've known her to this project. I know it is something near and dear to her heart, and know about much of the work she's put into seeing it stay alive. I remember our first year in college hearing her say her dream was to work to extend the Irena project as her career. So congrats to her for making her dream a reality, and good luck to continuing her work with the project.
In my position as Senior Vice President at the Milken Family Foundation (www.mff.org), I have the opportunity to travel all over the country visiting hundreds of the top schools, meeting talented students, and working with influential people in education, business and the community at local, state and federal levels. I have known Megan Felt since 2004 when the Milken Foundation hosted Megan and the cast of Life in a Jar in Los Angeles. They performed the play here in 2004 and then again in 2007 for thousands of people in the Los Angeles area. I have been deeply impressed by the maturity of this young woman. She has faced tradegy in her own life, losing her mother at a young age yet has a kindness and commitment toward helping others that is singularly unique. She started this mission in high school and has devoted her life to teaching respect and understanding first through the remarkable story of Irena Sendler and now with projects that will be developed at the Lowell Milken Center in Fort Scott, Kansas to help schools and communities across the country and the world. Through the efforts of Megan, her teacher Norm Conard, and other cast members, Irena Sendler was a top contender for the Nobel Prize this year. Irena, herself, a Nobel nominee would state loudly that Megan is repairing the world. Megan has touched thousands of lives and only in her early twenties. She accpets accolades modestly such as an interview just this year on The Today Show. Personal rewards to Megan are merely another means that can provide a wider platform to teach respect and understanding and change the attitudes and actions of the world around us.
Beginning at age 14, Megan began a school history project about Irena Sendler, and changed the world. Because of her tenacity, her integrity and her faith in the ability of one person to change the world, she helped save Irena Sendler's story of WW II heroism, the rescue of 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto, from obscurity. Megan is so committed to the ideals of respect for all that she continues to tell Irena Sendler's story all over the world and now this once forgotten Polish Catholic, who rescued Jewish children is a hero in Poland. Because of Megan's efforts, the Polish people are facing their bitter WW II history - their shame and their heroism - and the remnants of anti-Semitism that persist today. Megan Stewart-Felt, a student of history, has become an agent of history - one person who has truly changed the world.