Model UN expands understanding of global hot topics for students
There’s memorizing a Contemporary World textbook and writing an exam and then there is experiencing the contemporary world by engaging in debates on big issues outside the classroom. This week, Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School and Lindsay Place High School held a two-day Model UN with 250 Grade 11 students representing 55 nations. The event was chaired by retired Lindsay Place teacher Norman Horner. It was Horner’s 13th Model UN. It was his job to explain the finer rules of presenting resolutions and to moderate debates. Guest speakers included radio legends and PCHS alumnae Terry DiMonte and Trudie Mason, former UN peacekeepers Juan Lamosa, Eric Abraham and two regional directors of the Lester B. Pearson School Board. “It’s a lot more work than the conventional school project, but then it’s a lot more fun,” PCHS student David Vauthier said. Vauthier was part of the four-member German delegation. “It’s been a hands-on way to learn about global issues,” he said. “You have to develop the types of strategies you would use in the real world. You’re working to get delegates from other countries to come around to your way of thinking.” Leading up to the big event, students selected countries and then completed research projects and presentations on the particular challenges and hot-topic issues for each country. They were also given two topics to research in advance — fresh water and gender equality, and were required to write position papers on each subject and begin the process of creating a resolution. “We chose Germany because we wanted to expand our horizons a little,” Vauthier said. “The freshwater topic is interesting when it’s taken from the German perspective because Germans only use 12 per cent of the fresh water available to them. They are very aware of water conservation. Our resolution will revolve around access to fresh water being a human right and our push to support the building of wells and (water-management) infrastructures.” The students will be marked on their efforts. Each delegation created a placard featuring the country’s flag to be used during the voting portion of the sessions and gathered all the research, position papers, presentations and resolutions in a binder. The forerunner to the Model UN reaches back to the 1920s with the formalization of the Model UN established in 1945. High schools and colleges in dozens of countries host Model UN events. The first West Island school in the Lester B. Pearson School Board to have a Model UN was St. Thomas High School. Lindsay Place watched and learned and then invited PCHS to collaborate on a Model UN last year. This year PCHS returned the invitation. “The Model UN incorporates all the components of deep learning — collaboration, communication, critical thinking and citizenship,” PCHS principal Colleen Galley said. “And the students create new friendships and discover new learning possibilities.” PCHS teachers Hugues Bertrand, Chris Bedic and Kate Langendy were responsible for organizing and guiding the PCHS participants. Bedic teaches the Contemporary World course, which acted as a springboard for student delegates as they prepared for their Model UN experience. “The Model UN is every Social Studies teacher’s dream,” Bedic said. “Students aren’t just regurgitating text. They are actually applying the concepts to real situations.” Students were expected to network at every opportunity. Part of the process was engaging with students you didn’t know to either convince them of your country’s position or come to some sort of compromise. Each resolution presented would need the support of three sponsor countries. “Each country has to know who its allies are,” Bertrand said. Galley said a pizza gathering for the delegates held the night before the first session got the networking off to a roaring start, with at least one promised alliance failing and a more powerful alliance forged in its place. Just like the real world. Forging those alliances early in the process was crucial because students would be presented with a third topic halfway through the event. Coming up with a resolution on the new subject would involve intense negotiations and debates — both open and private. A panel of judges was brought in to observe the entire process with prizes in a variety of categories — such as most persuasive delegate — to be awarded.