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By Dellu Cole
Gbawe, GHANA – October 28, 2022: For the past 15 years, the global worldview of Ghana’s future leaders is being shaped by students being encouraged and guided to work together as teams to research, simulate and showcase different cultures of the world during “Soul Week” celebrations.
As part of this annual week-long celebration, six-year old first graders, competing with 18-year old upper sixth formers of Faith Montessori School in Gbawe, near Accra, are made to put together an elaborate spectacle that includes costumes, parades, set design, cuisine and conversation to bring out the best of the world’s cultures.
This special Thursday of Soul Week at Faith Montessori is ‘World Culture Day’.
This year’s ‘World Culture Day’ showcased 13 different countries including Ghana, India, Ethiopia, South Africa and Mexico.
Categorized by class under the guidance of faculty and other staff members, the young Faith adults were challenged to bring alive their chosen cultures through teamwork, talent development, public speaking, organizing and presentation skills.
Papa Yaw Amoo-Gottfried, Faith’s Chief Operating Officer says ‘Soul Week 2022’ celebration is an activity that is taken very seriously on campus and no expense is spared.
“The rigorous and challenging Faith curricula and other activities are especially tailored to embrace the diverse and multicultural backgrounds of our students. ‘Soul Week’ is taken as a World Cup here in Faith Montessori”, he continued. “This year it took place from 24th to 27th of October. It started with ‘Career Monday’, when students and teachers dress to depict various careers or professions”.
There’s also ‘Biblical Tuesday’ when students and teachers dress as their favorite characters in the Bible. There’s ‘Twin Wednesday’ where students and/or teachers pair up as twins or any combination of multiple births (triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets etc.)
And then there is ‘World Cultural Day’ on Thursday.
This year’s ‘World Culture Day’ showcased 13 different countries – one for each class from Class One to Upper Six. The countries represented were Ghana, India, Ethiopia, South Africa and Mexico. Others were Sri Lanka, Brazil, Spain, Malaysia and Samoa. The rest were Indonesia, Cyprus and France.
Judges looked out for presentation, ambience, outfit, environment and food.
The day started up with Parades of all 13 countries on the complex forecourt showcasing their national flags and outfits. The next activity was a tour of set-designed presentations of the different countries which showcased essential unique aspects and information of the people.
And then on to the food court for a banquet of indigenous foods all 13 countries to give a taste of the nations.
Finally, there was a showcase in the complex’s Auditorium where students exhibited the best of their chosen nations’ culture.
At the end of the day, the Upper sixth-formers representing Malaysia won the overall competition.
“Soul week is a learning experience”, explained Papa Yaw Amoo-Gottfried. “The students learn about different counties and different cultures and their traditions. Our job is to teach the students the different cultures and the similarities amongst them. We teach them to appreciate other peoples’ cultures”.
Faith Montessori School was established in April 1988 by Oswald and Emma Amoo-Gottfried as a nursery in Kanda, Accra. Within four years of its inception, the school had blossomed as Ghana’s foremost institution using the Montessori learning system.
Asked how Faith Montessori differs from other schools, Mr. Amoo-Gottfried said:
“We are a Christ-centered institution. We focus on Godly character, academic excellence, and social capital”.
The school complex offers secondary program for the University of Cambridge I.G.C.S.E, and the Cambridge A-Level Certificate program. It has a controlled student population of 660 students, with a student–teacher ratio of 13:1.