Thursday, June 25
SHOT OF THE DAY
Lauryn Capers, today's guest blogger is front and center.
Prof Frakt's summary: Another exciting stimulating day at Duke TIP. Today's events featured two superstar guest speakers as we continued to challenge the students. In the morning we heard from Duke Law Professor Madeline Morris
Bio who gave the students a dose of true Law School style Socratic method, challenging their assumptions, and forcing them to defend their positions to their logical conclusions. In the afternoon, we heard a comprehensive overview of the global child soldier situation and the progress that has been made in the field from Jo Becker, a prominent children's rights advocate from Human Rights Watch in Washington DC who flew in for the day just for the occasion.
GUEST BLOG POST FROM JACK COLLIS AND LAURYN CAPERS
Jack Collis and John Lo debate weighty matters in the sand.
Day 5
Today, we woke up early as usual to catch a quick breakfast. We waited in the common room for today’s first guest speaker: Madeline Morris. We had a deep, thought provoking discussion about international law and the various reasons that we punish people. Afterwards, our second speaker, Jo Becker arrived for lunch and answered a few questions. Jo Becker is very involved in the issue of the conscription child soldiers, and is part of the organization, Human Rights Watch. With Jo, we talked about the various conflicts and laws that apply to child soldiers and the countries and groups that recruit them. After that, students went to the computer lab to finish our essays comparing and contrasting the two books, Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone and another book of each student’s choosing. After dinner, we returned to our dormitory common room to watch the film Invisible Children, about the conflict in Northern Uganda and the way it affects children. Halfway through the film, our co-teacher Jessica graced us with two huge bowls of "Vermonster" from Ben and Jerry's, and students dug in. After that, some students took a walk around campus, and we concluded the day on a good note.
Madeline Morris ponders an unsatisfactory answer from a student.
Jo Becker explains the meaning of the red hand, international symbol of the movement to prevent the use of child soldiers and support their demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration.
Parents, in case you were starting to wonder, the students really are doing some academic work. It's not all just fun and games. After classes, the students went to the computer lab to finish their first writing assignment. The first papers turned in were uniformly outstanding.
Parting Shot: