Cameron had Model United Nations at school this week. It is a very cool unit. The whole 5th grade does a mock UN session. They pick a topic (in this case it was the Pakistan flooding that happened a couple of months ago, although the effects are still reverberating today). Each classroom is a country – Cameron’s was Vietnam – and they learn a bunch about the country they are representing. Each country selects people to represent them, for example the Ambassador who speaks at the General Assembly. Then they have committee breakouts where they mix people from across the classes (countries) with each focusing on on of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the UN. Are you like me and you’ve never heard of those? Here they are…
Cameron’s MDG was Poverty and Hunger. In their committee room, they discussed what resolutions they would put forward to the main session relating to their MDG. Vietnam felt that as a developing country perhaps sending cash was not within their means, but they could consider “in-kind” donations of food and supplies. Their resolution was handily adopted by a majority vote.
I attended the kickoff session where the Hungarian Ambassador in Singapore opened MUN (a bit of a yawn), and then each of the Ambassador’s introduced their countries (in front of hundreds of 5th graders and parents!). Proud Parent Spoiler Alert: The big news for us was Cameron was chosen as the speech writer for Vietnam, and she did a wonderful job (her teacher Mr. Ferguson sent us a personal note of praise). Then I got to attend the beginning of the first committee breakout session.
I walked away with two major impressions. The first, I am a huge fan of immersive and experiential learning and this was about as cool as it gets in teaching kids about how the world works and the issues the planet is dealing with. The second, why didn’t I have any clue about the MDGs? Am I really that out of touch with the world since I finished school? 
Couple of photos…
Here is Cameron sitting with Vietnam in the general session:
Here is the Ambassador of Vietnam (Vikram) doing Cameron’s speech:
Here is Cameron in the committee breakout. You can see the countries of Samoa and Norway represented if you look closely.
The school posted some photos here as well.
Talk soon
-MJ
