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Today Jim visited Calderwood Lodge to hear from a very special and inspiring teacher Linda Hooper.
Linda Hooper’s told the moving story of how the students behind the Paper Clips Project responded to what had been to them a completely unfamiliar chapter in human history- the Holocaust. In 1998, the children of Tennessee’s Whitwell Middle School took on an extraordinary project inspired by their principal, Linda Hooper. The Paper Clips Project grew out of a sense that the students in the homogenous community weren’t learning about the lives and experiences of other groups.
Struggling to grasp the concept of six-million Holocaust victims, the students decided to collect six-million paper clips to better understand the extent of this crime against humanity. This amazing project would change the students, their teachers, their families and the entire town forever and eventually, open hearts and minds around the world as this remarkable story became an award-winning film entitled PAPER CLIPS.
Now the pupils of Calderwood Lodge are aiming to collect 15,000 buttons each in commeration of the loss of 15,000 children at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Jim said:
“I was honoured to spend time today listening to Linda and her inspirational story of the Paper Clips Project. We have a duty never to forget because our world was changed for ever as six million were lost. Beautiful children, loving parents, frail grandparents, all wiped out; entire families exterminated. We must always stand up against the catastrophe of the holocaust by remembering it and celebrating the lives of those who murdered just because they were Jews. Linda through the project has helped young people learn and visualize the magnitude of the Holocaust. Linda is a firm believer in the power of education as a vehicle to tolerance and that young people can to do their part to remember the millions of innocent Jewish people who were murdered by the Nazis. I would encourage everyone to send a button to Calderwood Lodge and help the children in their very special project. “
Linda Hooper said:
"The Paper Clips Project has been an affirmation of my beliefs that education is absolutely essential to change; that evil must be constantly battled by education; that everyone must study the past so that we do not forget nor repeat our mistakes; and that there is a higher power guiding our destiny."
For more information and to visit the Paperclips website
www.paperclipsmovie.com To send a button or contact Calderwood Lodge Primary school:
Calderwood Lodge Primary School
28 Calderwood Road
Newlands
Glasgow
G43 2RU
Tel: 0141-570-7060
Fax: 0141-570-7061
Email: schoolmail@calderwoodlodge.e-renfrew.sch.uk