Oceanside Middle School students give back

Oceanside Middle School students did something a little different this year in their eighth grade American History classes: they read a book about Pakistan.

“Last year, [Ed] Thorp, a social studies teacher, came to me and asked to purchase 10 copies of this book that he wanted to use as an extra credit in his classroom,” said Beth Zirogiannis, the English supervisor at OMS. “So I read the book and I said, ‘This book is too good for 10 students. We really need to give it to 500 students.’”

The book, “Three Cups of Tea” is about author Greg Mortenson's time in rural Pakistan recovering from an injury he received while attempting to climb Mount Everest. While there, he learned an important lesson — that the War on Terror can be won with books, not bombs.

Teachers say that reading the book improved the students’ comprehension of current events, and made far away places like Pakistan and Afghanistan more accessible to the students.

The students also took another of the themes — that people can make a difference in the world — and applied it to their own lives. Some of them did community service projects as part of the unit involving “Three Cups of Tea.” But beyond that, the students decided to do what they could to donate to Mortenson’s charity, Pennies for Peace, which works to establish schools in rural Pakistani villages.

As part of a later unit on immigration, students made recipes of dishes from their cultural backgrounds. Then they compiled those recipes into a cookbook, which they sold during the holidays.

“And then we created a cook book, and the kids…said, based on reading (‘Three Cups of Tea’), ‘lets donate the money from the books to Pennies for Peace,’” said Grace Griffin, an ELA teacher.

The book sale was one part of the students’ fundraising efforts. All told, the eighth grade class raised $1,058 for the charity. The money will go towards the charity’s efforts to educate Pakistani children.

“Every $20 provides supplies for a year for a student,” said Griffin. “Every $600 pays a teacher’s salary for a year. If you raise $5,000, you actually sustain a whole school. And when I spoke to the woman from Pennies for Peace, she said they’ll take the money and apply it to where it’s most needed.”

“I thought it was an amazing way to start a year,” said Social Studies teacher Dan Keegan. “Our curriculum is obviously very American-centric. And this…allows us to get the kids out of the 50 states and into global studies. In an understandable and digestible way, they get to see that world.”

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