- I have been to Haiti. Just for a day, but what I saw solidified my belief in helping others.
- I have been in and have been rescued from a 7.2 earthquake. It created an empathy inside of me for those that must depend on others.
- I have worked and volunteered for the Red Cross for 10 years. There I have seen first hand what people, rich and poor, go through during a disaster. I wish it on no one.
I am also a teacher, one that has decided to lead rather than follow.
As a teacher you carefully pick and choose what and how to bring in topics to your classroom. Some teachers will always stick to their plan, teach the Pythagorean theorem or the Civil war because that is what they know how to do. Others will preach everyday, essentially using the classroom as their pulpit to spread the ideals they think are right. Both work, but both leave little room for the development of a person, as a human being, in the interconnected world we live in today. What happens in the classroom when Johnny's parents get divorced or Sally's house burns down? Or a new student arrives from New Orleans after a flood or the world watches as 3 million people are affected by 60 seconds of the ground shaking? In some classrooms, actually in most classrooms, nothing. And it is at that exact moment of nothing that one of the greatest learning opportunities is missed.
Like it or not we are a connected people. I sit here writing this in Ecuador, about 4,000 miles from where you will read it. I just watched a TED video from India. Tomorrow I will Skype with my friend in Italy. My world is big, and it is in the classroom that I have learned to make that big world into something small, something that I can handle and be a part of. It is in the classroom that I have learned what humanity is. Where listening and compassion have closed the gaps between the rich and the poor, where action has spurred opportunities. These things only happen when you teach, children and adults alike, to have conversations.
These conversations have to be steeped in the lessons of the Civil war and they need to have the rational of the Pythagorean theorem behind them to be successful, thus plans are good. But they also need passion based on personal opinions and solidified beliefs, thus the pulpit is good too. And both need a purpose. When our big world is rocked by an earthquake that has close to 3 million of our poorest people suffering bring it to the classroom. Discuss the implications, have a conversation about responsibility, about poverty, connect yourself to the world by connecting to each other. Don't be afraid of differing opinions, of hurting someones feelings or hitting a raw emotion, those are what bring life to the room. If you are in a math class, calculate the cost of recovery, if you are in government class discuss the responsibility of the varying governments, in English, read the poetry of the country, in science examine the geographical data of the quake and its aftershocks. Show each other how to respond, how to be human and be a part of a world that values each other equally, that believes in the progress of the human spirit. These conversations are like newly planted seeds. They breed ideas and solutions but most of all they bring life to an otherwise dull drum of an existence. The implications of not doing so surround us every day.
Not sure where to start? Check out these ideas from the NYT Learning Network or send me an email, I obviously like to have meaningful conversations.
