Fort Plain students commended by ‘Minds On’ director

“Fort Plain students carried the day. They should be very proud because it was a great year for them.”

So said Minds On director Linda Borock after nine students from Fort Plain Jr./Sr. High School participated in a Historic Model UN conference at Conkling Hall in Rensselaerville on Nov. 30 along with three other schools. The focus of the conference was to give students a more profound understanding of historical circumstances and on creative problem solving.

“Minds On,” an educational initiative of The Rensselaerville Institute, presented three days of workshops in November. The trips were arranged and sponsored by the Okay to Excel (OK2XL) club at the Jr./Sr. High School as a way to add enrichment to the curriculum. An Arts in Education grant through BOCES paid for the trips.

During the conference, students from the four schools took a period from global history and set-up a human rights council. The organizers chose human rights issues (think slavery, free trade, and representative governments) from 1791 and charged the students with coming up with resolutions. Each student acted as a representative from 40 countries from the time including Spain, Nepal, Russia, Persia, Saxony, and the Iroquois League.

Fort Plain Jr./Sr. High School social students teacher Will Ryan brought five sophomores and four juniors with him, and junior Danyel King acted as the president of the council.

“The conference helped the kids understand the process of parliamentary procedure,” Mr. Ryan.

We had two resolutions approved from our school and we received a lot of praise. The program is great and the kids learn a lot about problems facing other countries, how to bargain and how to compromise. When the kids go once, they ask the next year if they can go again.”