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Every fall, Middle School teachers and students work hard to get ready for the annual World’s Fair and United Nations Day. Every student is assigned a country to research. Each student prepares posters and displays for their assigned country. The displays are set up for the World’s Fair. The next day the mock U.N. is held. Eighth grade students lead the rest of the Middle School, organizing and leading group discussions on current international topics. The students work together in groups to form peaceful, well-thought-out resolutions and then present them to the “General Assembly” for voting upon.

Student comments

U.N. Day was a great experience for me. I got to represent the country Jamaica, and not only did I learn a great deal about Jamaica, I also got to be a member of the model U.N.! I got to debate about the rebuilding of Iraq. Not only was it educational, but it was fun. I actually got to be someone important, not the kid who is in middle school, but Amy Cimprich, the representative of Jamaica. The main leaders listened to what I had to say, and in the end we came up with a conclusion. I think learning about theU.N. and actually modeling the U.N. is important, because we as children will have a better sense of what’s happening around the world and also a sense of government. It’s also a big part of maturing. Because of U.N. Day I have surprised myself by trying to find a more peaceful resolution for everything. It’s funny to think that one debate on making the world a peaceful place can be so life changing.

—Amy C., 7th Grade

U.N. Day has been a very enjoyable experience for me the past two years. I love learning about the world around me and ways that I can contribute to world peace. When U.N. Day starts we go into our Meetinghouse and take roll call of the countries that will be participating. Next we are dismissed to go discuss our topics in small groups. U.N. Day is an experience that really lets you appreciate your United States heritage.

—Sydney B., 7th Grade

I think U.N. Day is a very important experience because you learn about other cultures and lifestyles, and it shows you how much we take for granted and how little attention we pay to some things. It is important to model the U.N. because the members of the U.N. are role models, but not well known to many people (especially kids). If other kids model the U.N. in a way that younger kids understand they will want to become an actual member of the U.N. when they grow up and they will work for promoting world peace.

—Shannon M., 7th Grade

My experience with U.N. Day was a great one. It’s fun to sit down with your peers and hear their point of view. I now see my friends in different ways because of U.N. Day. I feel more connected to them after coming to an agreement with them. I think that every school should do this, or at least research what the U.N.’s purpose is and their history

.—Matthew C., 7th Grade

Something I learned about U.N. Day was that you have to be patient and listen to other people even if you don’t get to speak right away. Also that U.N. Day is very hard thing to do if you don’t prepare or listen closely to the directions. I thought it was important to have a model U.N. Day because you would learn a lot from it. It would also give everyone a chance to know what it would be like to actually be in the U.N. The discussion group that I was in was Genocide in Sudan. In this group other people and I discussed how to solve the genocide problem. My group and I thought that we had come up with a pretty good resolution, although not everyone agreed with it. Even though some people didn’t agree with it some people did and that is good.

—Chelsea P., 6th Grade

I think that it is important to have a model U.N. Day because you can learn how to solve problems peacefully. For example, we keep hearing things on the news about dying over in Iraq. Well right now people in the U.N. are trying to find a peaceful way to solve this war. By having to model U.N. Day, we got to see how real people are really trying hard to find a peaceful way to stop problems that are happening throughout the world.

—Kacie C., 6th Grade

I think it was important for us to model the U.N. because we kids have the same right as adults to know what is going on around the world and what we are doing, and can do, to stop the problems that we have.

—Paul N. 6th Grade

I learned that all countries are effected by poverty. We broke into discussion groups according to our countries from the World Fair. Each group met in a classroom. My group talked about poverty. It is important to study poverty because by learning about the causes of poverty, you can find ways to prevent it. It is also important because not just my discussion group was important, but the other discussion groups as well. We learned about how the people in the real United Nations solve the problems facing the world.

—Niko K., 6th Grade

My experience at U.N. Day was good because I got to talk about over population since I was in the China and India Overpopulation discussion group topic. What I learned about the U.N. was that it’s a group of people from different countries volunteering to work for peace.

—Simone D., 6th Grade