Plan Be

It is hard to know what adventures will catapult our lives in a new direction and I have come to realize that uncertainty as one of the joys of life.  A technology-based research project ended up being one of the most powerful catapults in my life.  I never saw it coming, but I'm incredibly grateful that it did.  

The final product still has the same impact on me that it did when I made it but the process was even more meaningful.  I encourage you to watch the film and check out the actual assignment and background below.  Please share it with some young people who need encouragement and leave me some comments to let me know what you think.  

This documentary was created as a model for students in grades 9-12 as they worked on their own social justice films.

The students were given this overview and prompt to begin their work –

In conjunction with Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country, you will all apply the book’s concepts in a semester long collaborative project.  

Since Paton’s novel highlights the social injustice that was prevalent in Africa during Apartheid, you are challenged to select a contemporary social injustice that you feel strongly about and that you see as important and meaningful. 

After committing to a cause, you will collect research, data, primary source interviews, and relevant digital artifacts in order to highlight your injustice locally, nationally, and globally and you are also required to suggest ways in which the injustice can be alleviated. 

In order to accomplish this, you must work collaboratively to create a script, storyboard, and ultimately, a 15-30 minute video documentary.   

As for the specific production details, you have creative liberty; however you are required to follow all school rules, meet all deadlines, attain formal release forms from each primary source, and adhere to copyright rules by seeking materials with Creative Commons licensing or by obtaining explicit permission.  

This project is an stellar opportunity because it allows you to apply your knowledge of social injustice, research, and technology to a topic of your choice so that you can exercise 21st century skills and create a meaningful product that is relevant to a broad audience.  Even more importantly, you will be applying your understanding in a way that will allow you to truly make a difference and allow your voices to be heard on important topics.  Together, we will work on making the world a little more awesome.

As challenging as it might be to research and identify a contemporary social injustice, it is even more difficult to offer possible solutions.  Clearly, injustice wouldn’t exist if it was easy to fix.

Therefore, the students and I were left with the opportunity to analyze our topics in a way that allowed us to see that the situation can and should be different.

After establishing consensus about the misperception of young people through my research, the statistics, and my interviews, I spent a lot of time looking for the way to shift the perception.  Then, after listening to what my interviews said and after listening to what the students were saying, I realized that the solution was already there and that it is relatively simple.

Plan Be is the solution that already exists in the millions of young people who are owning their strengths and talents to bring love and light to our world.  Each person emphasized a different aspect from “be intentional” to “be nice” and a dozen other ideas in between that all come down to the idea that if we let ourselves and each other just “be” that the injustice can’t exist.

I know that it is easier to suggest that type of acceptance and global understanding than it is to implement it, but, after hearing what these kids had to say, I know that Plan Be is absolutely possible.

So many young people are doing things both big and small to improve our world and their voices are the ones that need to be heard and celebrated by people of all ages.  Peace, love, equality, acceptance, compassion, and empathy are all antidotes to injustice and Plan Be is just our way of reminding people to seek those antidotes so we can all “Be the Change”.