The Bear Project
This year the children of Academos Primary School embarked on a project related to the story of Wojtek the Soldier Bear, a Syrian brown bear in the rank of a corporal in the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps. Formed in the Soviet Union in 1941 under the command of General Anders, the army walked all the way from northern Siberia and the Arctic Circle to Tehran in the then Persia, where they met a boy who carried a bear cub in a sack. He traded the bear for canned meat and this is how Wojtek’s story began. The bear fought in the battle of Monte Cassino, 1944, carrying crates with ammunition and later made it with the Polish soldiers all the way to Scotland.
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Moved by the story that took place more than 70 years ago, the children and teachers from our school decided to celebrate Wojtek by doing an interdisciplinary project spanning Biology, Geography, Science, Math, History, Polish, and Foreign Languages. As a part of the project the children brought their own teddy bears to school in the hope that the toys would travel around the world, just like their new bear hero did, and find a new home in faraway lands, thus spreading Wojtek’s story, which is a tale of hope, endurance, resilience and the special friendship that can ensue from the unique relationship between a bear and a human being, making the children (and adults) aware of the bond between animals and humans and the enormous responsibility it entails.
Inspired by the children’s enthusiasm, we decided to take this project even further than we originally intended, because we found it incredibly rare that, in today’s world in which people complain about growing materialism and an alarming lack of higher values, the children showed extraordinary interest in and passion for a story that they could seemingly hardly relate to. Surprisingly enough, it struck a chord with what appears to be truly significant in their lives; after all, they are parting with their beloved teddy bears for the greater good of spreading Wojtek’s story and the message that it conveys.
The children, aged between 5 and 11, prepared a comic strip about Wojtek and took a photo with their teddy bears. We then asked people all over the world if they agreed to receive a letter from us containing the comic strip and the toy. The idea is for these people to take a selfie with the teddy bear and email it to us, no strings attached. The only thing they have to spend is five minutes of their time. The photographs will be posted on our website and exhibited in the school hall.
Convinced that our students’ passion and creativity deserve highest praise and appreciation, we hope that the project will reinforce the children’s respect for ethical values that they will continue to cultivate in the future.
