an art project

Disclaimer: Sorry if this blog keeps filling up with classroom stories.

We're sitting at lunch, discussing what we just read in the book Night. A kid named Joseph mentions, "We should create a memorial for the Holocaust. I heard this story about a school where they collected six million paper clips."

"We could try to pull off something like that. But is there another issue that you care more about which we could use for a memorial?"

"Immigration," a boy responds. "We should do something to remember all of those who have died crossing the border."

"What if we created a mock border?" the first kid explains. "My dad works construction, so he can help us with it."

"What do we want to do to symbolize each person who died?" I ask.

We throw around ideas until finally a kid explains, "We should use hand prints. It will remind us that they aren't aliens. They aren't invaders. They're humans."

So we throw around more ideas and I'm left totally confused as to how to do this project. Then, I mention it to another student, who says, "We shouldn't make it out of bricks or metal. We should make it out of paper."

"Why?"

"Because it's stupid papers that prevent people from having the same rights as everyone else."

So, I guess we'll be making a paper machet border. If anyone has any idea as to how we'll actually accomplish this, I'd love some input.