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No Name Calling Week at Putnam Valley Middle School
Putnam Valley Middle School students celebrated "No Name Calling Week" from January 22 through January 25. This annual event is an ongoing effort by the Middle School leadership to promote positive relationships among students.
No Name Calling Week is a national program inspired by James Howe's popular novel, The Misfits. The book tells the story of a group of best friends trying to survive the seventh grade in the face of all too frequent taunts based on their weight, height, intelligence, and sexual orientation/gender expression. Motivated by the inequities they see around them, the "Gang of Five" (as they are known) creates a new political party during student council elections and run on a platform aimed at wiping out name-calling of all kinds. Though they lose the election, they win the support of the school's principal for their cause and their idea for a "No Name-Calling Day" at school.
Motivated by this simple, yet powerful, idea, the No Name- Calling Week Coalition created by GLSEN and Simon & Schuster, with more than 40 national partner organizations, organized an actual No Name- Calling Week in schools across the nation in March of 2004. The project seeks to focus national attention on the problem of name-calling in schools, and to provide students and educators with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate name-calling in their communities.
The program kicked off on Tuesday, with assemblies for all four PVMS grades and a Mix It Up- at which students are encouraged to talk and socialize with people outside of their usual circle of friends- during lunch recess. Wednesday was Twins day; Thursday, Superhero day; and Friday, Peace Day, featuring dress from the 1960s.
For more information, visit www.nonamecallingweek.org
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