A seed of hope in a school outside of Atlanta

Just watched this amazing news magazine segment on the French channel TV5 about the International Community School outside of Atlanta. The ICS is a charter school near Atlanta that specifically made catering to the children of international refugees and immigrants one of their most important missions.

The stories of some of the students were amazing. Many came from very violent and impoverished situations. One teacher, a Palestinian woman, spoke of a student that I think was from a Sudanese refugee camp. When he first got there, was very troubled and cried all the time. But, a year later, he was completely at home in the school. "Like night and day," she said.

Also amazing was an interview of a wealthy couple, that, even though the ICS lacked sufficient funding, they made it a point to send their kids to the school because they believed accepting and welcoming immigrants was one of America's most important values.

It was great to see the classrooms and playground filled with children (and teachers) of all colors and religions. And this communal spirit didn't end with the students when the bell rang on Friday. The school was just as busy on Saturdays where the students' older siblings to attend English classes, as well as socialize with other members of this amazing community.

Here's a great video about the school.

Some facts from their web site:

• The ICS student body is composed of 400 students from over 40 countries.


• Roughly half of ICS students are immigrants/refugees, many of them child survivors of war. The other half are native-born Americans from the surrounding neighborhoods.


• Collectively, our students speak more than fifteen languages