On Tuesday, January 17, Edgeworth welcomed Deepak Ramola, who is the founder of Project FUEL. Project FUEL (Forward the Understanding of Every Life Lesson) is an organization founded in 2009 to gather and publish the wisdom of individuals through artwork, performance pieces, and published works. This organization helped sponsor the Edgeworth Wisdom Corridor through a grant from Remake Learning. Ramola worked with Edgeworth librarian, Ms. Julia Dennen as well as the fifth-grade teachers to present to all fifth-grade social studies classes.
“The whole world is like this library, and every person is like a book. When you take time to open each book and ask questions, you find that every person has a story and a life lesson to share,” Ramola told students.
Ramola guided students through a series of activities to show them that they do not know what it is like to be anyone else unless they take the time to hear the stories of others and learn from their lives. After conducting interviews of their classmates and participating adults, students introduced their partners and shared important life lessons.
“If no hero comes, be one” said one student, Zephan.
Another fifth grader, Rocco, shared a life lesson Mrs. Robertson, fifth grade ELA teacher, told him: “There are two sides to every pancake.”
During the fifth-grade lunch hour, Ramola met with the founding members of the Wisdom Squad and discussed their process, final product, and reflections.
“I liked getting to be a part of something bigger and getting to know my teachers’ back stories,” said one Wisdom Squad member, Ivy. Another member, Carole, echoed that sentiment, “I wanted to know more about the teachers.”
After discussing their Wisdom Corridor project and sharing a video designed by Wisdom Squad member Alex, the students took Ramola on a tour and shared their work.
“This is phenomenal because you earned the trust of these individuals to be able to tell their stories,” said Ramola.
Members of the Wisdom Squad also attended a session at Avonworth Primary on Wednesday, January 18, where they collaborated with students from twelve local districts who have formed “Wisdom Squads” like theirs. The event was coordinated by Dr. Scott Miller and Mrs. Maureen Frew from Avonworth Primary. Some of the groups have, like Edgeworth’s, created a Wisdom Corridor, and some were just in the beginning stages of creating their corridor. The participants played games to facilitate teamwork and unity.
Deepak Ramola joined the event and spoke to the group about why and how the Wisdom Corridor project began. He spoke about how we usually think of adults as being wise, but that children hold wisdom, too. Each child wrote a piece of wisdom that they have acquired, shared their piece of wisdom with other participants, and hung their piece of wisdom on a display.
The event coordinators also explained that they hope to expand this project to other schools and next year, hold an even larger Pittsburgh-area celebration of wisdom.