As a part of the 2025 Suzanne and Bernard Pucker Tamchui Program, all Rashi students jumped into Education Week! Tamchui, meaning “community collection pot” in Aramaic, is Rashi’s annual three week, all-school social justice learning initiative. During Education Week, Middle School students teach their Lower School peers about three topics relating to Social Justice and action. After working in small groups in partnership with Rashi teachers, Grades 6–8 gave lessons to Grades Pre-K–5 about their chosen topics
Grade 8 taught about Educational Access and Equity. They spoke about students who are differently-abled: for some kids, that means that it’s harder to get to and from school, to be in school, and how sometimes, that can mean more challenges to accessing a good education. Eighth graders also taught about great tools and impactful services that exist to ensure differently-abled students CAN and DO receive equitable access to education. Students named examples of differences in ability (like visual impairment, hearing loss, missing limbs, etc.) and participated in a variety of activities that modeled what it may be like living differently-abled. Lower School students experienced writing with their non-dominant hand, trying to decipher words with missing or swapped letters, and learning sign language.
Grade 7 taught about Mental Health as it relates to recognizing emotions, the feelings associated with having high performance expectations in academics or sports, and the importance of checking in with trusted adults. From their Middle School student teachers, Lower School students learned that mental health is a lot like physical health – how you feel in school really matters, so keeping your brain healthy is important! Kindergartener Skye V. shared that “We played a game where someone had to stand up and act out an emotion for everyone to guess what it was.” Other activities included working on coloring pages to soft music, learning strategies for breathing, and brainstorming activities that help us relax and unwind after the school day.
Grade 6 taught about Food Insecurity. They explained to their younger peers that some people don’t have steady access to nutritious food, or sometimes, any food at all. “I learned from the sixth graders that some people don’t have enough money to get enough food for their whole family. And that even if they have a job, they still can’t get food sometimes. This can make them really sad or sick,” said third grader Ellis B-T. Together with their Middle School teachers, students read books like Maddi’s Fridge by Lois Brandt and completed activities such as arranging incomplete food pyramids, going grocery shopping with a budget, and playing Kahoot quizzes with facts about the impact of food insecurity on our world today.
To further their learning, representatives from six nonprofits will come to Rashi next week with their own lessons. These experts will take a deeper dive into the root causes and symptoms of our Tamchui topics, share more about their work to help other people, and engage students in hands-on, interactive activities.