Education through Engagement

Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World provides a very useful framework to tackle not only the obvious growing global interdependence phenomenon, but also the plaguing inertia of thought and action too often manifested in our country's youth.  Although necessary to overcome, the obstacles to change exposed by Howard Gardner do not preclude the many beneficial aspects of focusing on modeling the virtues associated with "good persons, good workers, and good citizens." Interacting directly with students gives us a fantastic opportunity and responsibility to inspire them through our behavior and attitude toward any issues - local or global.  On this topic, I believe what Dr. Albert Schweitzer said, "Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing." 

 

Regardless of what we teach, we all desire our students to connect - to connect to their potential, to each other, and to the outside world.  Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, a majority of students do not seem to step beyond the subject matter or course requirement.  I regularly ask mine what global issue(s) they are following, and it is, in most cases, as if I had asked them the question in French!  Sharing the current events I follow becomes merely a monologue, and suggesting that they read such and such article in the NY Times is perceived like "homework."  At times, I do bring articles for them to read, but it does not lead to deep reflection.  And, this reflection is a key activity that seems to have vanished from their lifestyle. 

 

In our instant-messaging, instant-communication, instant-processing way of life, student brains are not trained to pause and take time to dwell on important issues or to analyze their causes and effects.  For example, if we all agree that global competences and skills should be developed to meet the ever-increasing level of interactions between individuals, how many students would be able to evaluate the role of economic globalization?  Is this market-supremacy approach to the worldwide economy reducing global poverty or accelerating it?  In addition to the suggested competencies necessary to make students agents of change, prior to acting, students need to analyze and evaluate the various issues at stake based on overarching principles such as tolerance, respect, people's well-being, fairness, ethics and environmental health.  Also, for them to be successful, students should develop a global mindset in addition to skills, cultivating the ability to view situations and issues from every angle, especially from the point of view of the other. 

 

Gardner suggested that the actions be: "well-motivated, constructive, world- building actions."  There is no change without action. However, ultimately, I would also add that they should be tested by the following question:  To whom would these actions profit?  And depending on the answers, these actions could really make a difference in enhancing the life of millions and the life of the planet.

 

In the conclusion, the synthesis of student's competences as well as what each of us teachers/administrators can do is also very useful.  It is a solid blueprint designed to help us channel our energy in a more efficient way toward global awareness and strategies that eventually better serve humanity.  Seeing ourselves as "citizens of the world" could also set the stage to direct our learning and teaching toward a greater global cooperative contribution so that world poverty, health, integration, climatic and environmental issues could become our prime interests and priorities.  And maybe, each nation and each one of us could adopt the following motto: "Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno!"

 

Of course, the material read from the previous document is connected to our next assignment. Through his very comprehensive and descriptive chapter on Educating for Global Competency, Fernando Reimers provides a very powerful case for schools worldwide to embrace the opportunity and challenge of making education more relevant and more meaningful. 

 

For example, in my Optimal Performance class to give more meaning to their learning, I ask students to work on a variety of health dimensions and traits of characters, values and habits that they can choose to integrate in their lifestyle immediately, consequently creating a more meaningful life.  (In a small way, by doing this, "global" applies mostly to their "lifestyle world." Of course, their beliefs and actions as demonstrated through their lifestyle could really influence others anywhere in the world.)  Empowered by this opportunity to control, modify or change several aspects of their personality and lifestyle in the present, not waiting for graduating from college in order to receive an "authorization," they express their choices and rapidly feel the impact of their actions.  They can actually see that their actions count and that they don't need to live their present lives in a vacuum.  This, of course, is also demonstrated in the various language trips, community work or student sponsored social justice events taking place at school. 

 

However, to facilitate the development of a "common global language," providing a time to allow students to interact with specific events of the world at the moment that they occur would produce the same enthusiasm, interest and plans for action as the ones that I witness when they deal with their personal life.  In many classes and to various degrees, a global approach to learning is already happening. With the diversity of our curriculum and the flexibility of our pedagogical tools, we are well positioned to increase the demonstration of the 3 A's dimensions, (Affective, Action and Academic). Students' curiosity and thirst for knowledge are inherently powerful. However, by creating a slight change in our paradigm, by reshaping our curriculum, and by clarifying our priorities, we could channel their engagement toward global issues.  Enriched by their new perspectives and their positive contributions, they could find even greater meaning and credibility in their educational process. And although they already experience some of it on a small scale now, they would really see that their education is more important because they could ultimately all make a global difference!  Of course, many local issues could also provide plenty of educational opportunities to give more meaning to education. 

 

Regardless of the level of engagement, local, global, or both, the personal mindset, attitude, knowledge and the various skills described in dimension 1 should be part of the foundation.  Empathy is one of the most important values, yet since 2000 there has been a constant decline of empathy to the point where now, college students are 40% less empathic than 20 years ago.  In addition to the various logistical or political hurdles, the downward trend of this moral trait should be one of the focuses of our attention as it will undoubtedly affect students' motivation, let alone participation. 

 

Although very optimistic in his tone, after demonstrating how even a single individual can make an amazing difference, Fernando Reimers does not consider the tremendous economic differences between schools in the US in this chapter. And I feel that this disparity between schools would definitely influence their capacity to successfully integrate the type of global approach into their curriculum.  Contrary to European countries, for example, where the property taxes are used equally for all school systems regardless of their location, here the playing field is not leveled.  It is hard to imagine the success of universal global engagement because in so many schools, the teachers themselves have to provide pencils and paper!  Maybe this current situation could be an issue that students across the nation could tackle to influence policy makers in order to establish laws that would not punish students because they live in poor areas.

 

Becoming globally competent has the tremendous potential to help everyone live in a better world.  At the school level, clearly deciding what we want our students to know, develop, master, and do with their skills and values would strengthen the purpose of their educational journey.  I feel that at BB&N with the resources that we have, we could really make an even greater difference in the lives of our students by having them "engage the world" even more.  To lead our way, we could follow the advice from Anatole France: "To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe."

 

Henri