Educate for Life Schools Project
Educate for Life’s School Visits
Family & Life’s “Educate for Life” team have been visiting schools throughout the year. The following account is a typical report of one visit to a County Dublin secondary school. In their own words:
We set up our Power-Point equipment before the students arrived. The 40-minute presentation showed some 60 students detailed pictures about the development of the unborn child from conception to birth. The commentary explained the names and stages of the tiny human in the womb.
We also used a Set of Foetal Models to bring home the basic facts of unborn human life to these young students. After the presentation there was time for questions and comments, and a distribution of free materials about the threats to unborn children in today’s world.
We remember many incidents that revealed how valuable this work can be. For example, in a secondary school in Tallaght one of the students brought up the difficult case of a pregnancy resulting from rape. A young lad tried to justify abortion for rape but before either of us could respond, a girl from the classroom spoke up and gave him reasons, based on our presentation, why his claim was invalid. He probably felt a bit pushed in the corner and quickly threw this question to the girl: “Would you have the baby if you were raped yourself?” To his great surprise the girl replied: “I would not have an abortion.” It was great for us to witness a moment like that and to see that our presentation helped students to value life and to stand up for it.
Bringing the message that life in the womb is precious through the most modern technology has been possible thanks to the generosity of our donors. This is only the beginning of our ongoing mission of promoting the culture of life among our young people and to give them a vision that respects human Life from its earliest stages.
Over two years ago, we wrote to you about a new project for secondary schools, and asked for your support. You responded generously, and we developed a multi-media programme that we named “How We Began”. The programme shows in picture and commentary the basic facts about human life from the moment of conception to birth, and gently guides viewers to recognise the value of every unborn life.
Family & Life’s Schools Project has been running for two years, and in this short time has seen tremendous growth. This is evidence of the great need for a programme such as this.
Our team is on the road for two days a week, and we have been booked solidly up to Christmas since early October, and still new requests from schools arrive. In September, schools were contacting us, even before we had sent them our introductory letter. Some of the schools were new to us, showing the value of word of mouth contact. We have had no cases of a school where we experienced dissatisfaction from either the teachers or students.
We have travelled to schools in nearly every county of Ireland; in most schools we are making a second and even third return visit. This term, more boys’ schools than girls’ schools have invited us, and there has been an increase of school visits in the Dublin area.
After the main presentation, we usually send round a brief questionnaire to discover how our message was received. We have found that most students are definitely pro-life and reject abortion, even in the difficult cases. This is a sample of the feedback from the students, showing that our aspirations are in fact being realised through this programme.
When asked what was the message they received, they wrote:
“I found that the presentation gave me a very detailed description of how life begins. The visual aids such as the pictures helped me understand how we developed to the way we are today. The presentation overall was very helpful in my understanding of human life.” (male, 15)
“It taught me information that I would not have found elsewhere.” (female, 13)
“Interesting and informative. The message was basically that human life shouldn’t be sacrificed to save other human life when the life being sacrificed is defenceless.” (male, 16)
“I think the presentation was very good. It made me realise how special babies are from early on and that abortion is wrong.” (male, 15)
When asked if they agree that abortion is always wrong, they replied:
“Yes, life is precious—preserve it.” (male, 15)
“In every case, yes. Even in the serious cases, such as rape, still yes. The taking of someone’s life is no answer to the consequences of one’s actions.” (male, 15)
“Yes, it is always wrong. Whatever the case, you can’t kill your baby.” (female, 13)
“Yes. Why should we decide if someone should live or die?” (male, 16)
“Yes, I do. As only God has the right to end someone’s life. You had a chance. Why take someone else’s because of your mistake?” (female, 14)
“Yes, because I think everyone deserves the chance of life and not have their chance taken away by someone else.” (male, 16)
“Yes, no matter if the baby has a disease or disability.” (male, 15)
A Teaching Moment by the Grace of God
I’d like to share with you a recent experience we had at a secondary school in Dublin. We had a group of some 40 young students, and were offered a longer period of time than usual. So, we decided to show certain excerpts of Family & Life’s new documentary, Life: A New Revolution, to expand the presentation. Little did we know how God would use this to add to the experience of the young students—and to a few key students in particular.
The presentation was followed with the usual questions and expressions of astonishment. Then, in the extra clips from the documentary, we listened to experts who posed the question of how a society can say that every human person, even the disabled, is equal, but also say that it would be better if the disabled were not born. This is a blatant contradiction, and is basically giving the message: “You are human, sure, but you’d be better off dead.” When you encourage abortion on the basis of disability, it is nothing short of fatal discrimination.
As I listened to the video and scanned the classroom, my eyes fell on the young man with Down’s syndrome. I felt an overwhelming feeling as I looked at him, thinking, “Isn’t he precious!” I could never see him as not worthy of life. To think that someone should decide that he should not be alive because of his disability just did not seem right. This living, breathing person right in front of me—with his soft smile, his bright blue eyes and his gentle manner—to think that he should not be born just because he is not like everyone else, just because he stands apart, was unimaginable to me. I felt a great sense of compassion towards him.
Yet even more strikingly, when most of the class had trickled out of the room, a young man approached us. I had seen him before and had noticed he had a slight physical disability that affected the right side of his body, causing him to walk with a limp and not to have full function of his right hand and arm. He had this look of extreme gratitude on his face, and said to us with deep emotion, “I just had to say this to you—Thank you so much. Really, thank you.”
I have no doubt the presentation really touched this young man, re-affirming his humanity and acknowledging his life as sacred and beautiful and to be valued. In turn, I was deeply touched, and genuinely grateful that by some off-chance we had shown that particular clip, for that particular class—something we had never done before. Yet it turned out to be tremendously significant and powerful. Such was the very work of God!
One result from this is the inclusion—when time permits—of clips from Life: A New Revolution on embryo/adult stem research and crisis pregnancy. Next year, we hope to supply all the secondary schools of Ireland with this DVD.
This developing project could only exist with your prayers and financial support. So, a big thank-you is due to all who contributed to our appeals.
As written above, word of mouth is often more effective than a direct approach from us. If you have a contact with one of the secondary teachers, you might suggest a visit from Family & Life, or send us the contact name and address. We could not have this positive impact on the youth of our nation without your help.
Thanks to all of you who support and continue to support our work.
Stephanie Birk, Educational Presenter, Family & Life’s Schools Project