Emma Black, Calum Irvine, Sean Spillane, & Students: Teaching Connection with Differences

Today we bring you a follow-up story about revolutionary education in Northern Ireland, this time exploring the impact of teaching young children to not just tolerate difference and diversity, but to seek it out, embrace it, and celebrate it.

Our episode explores the history and legacy of Lough View Integrated Primary and Nursery School, a school founded 30 years ago to intentionally create a space where diverse points of view and religious and social practices could come together, and what’s remarkable is that this vision came to life fully five years before the Good Friday Accords birthed a fragile national peace.

Lough View was established in Belfast by a group of parents who didn’t want to send their children to a segregated school that would perpetuate the bias and prejudice that had fed the decades of violence between Protestants and Catholics, but instead, created a totally different paradigm for their children, and their children’s education.

Today we’ll hear from students and educators at Lough View, who tell us how this radical education has impacted classroom culture and individual lives, and how it might contribute to peace-building across the nation, and potentially, the world. 

    •    Read the transcript of this episode     •    Listen to our first episode on integrated education in Northern Ireland     •    Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts     •    Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube     •    Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org     •    Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation