Most Teens Don’t Think the World is Becoming a Better Place

Posted on May 9, 2013 by zoeweil
sad teen siting on bed

Image courtesy merfam/Flickr.

At the EARCOS conference, one of the other keynote speakers was Michael Furdyk, co-founder of TakingITGlobal, a fantastic organization we’ve written about and highlighted at IHE.

During his keynote, Michael shared an interesting (if not disturbing) statistic from the BBDO GenWorld 2006 study. When teens were asked if they agreed with the statement, “I think the world is becoming a better place,” only 14 percent (on average) responded in the affirmative. The breakdown by country looked like this:

China 34%
Taiwan 25%
India 26%
Brazil 16%
Russia 15%
United States 14%
Australia 11%
Spain 10%
Poland 10%
United Kingdom 9%
Germany 9%
Mexico 6%
France 2%

What’s ironic about these statistics is that, historically, things have been improving for centuries. As I’ve written about before and most recently shared here, by so many measures the world is indeed becoming “a better place.” There is greater freedom and democracy; girls are able to go to school, and women are able to live self-determined lives in greater and greater numbers; gays and lesbians are gaining rights; nonhuman animals are gaining greater protections; tolerance is on the rise and prejudice on the decline; life expectancy has increased almost everywhere, and death by violence has never been lower than in the last half-century.

True, the expanding human population and increased standard of living for a growing percentage of people has meant faster resource depletion and more global warming; increased rates of species extinction, and higher numbers of animals being brutalized and killed for expanding global appetites for meat. And the rise of the middle class has certainly not reached everyone—far from it—and slavery, trafficking, and sweatshop labor persist.

But even as the problems we face become potentially more grave, the opportunities for young people (the target of this BBDO survey) to solve them expands dramatically as organizations such as TakingITGlobal and IHE help pave the way for greater learning, networking, solutionary thinking, and problem-solving.

I am not surprised that only a small percentage of youth believes the world is getting better. After all, because they are growing up in the information age, they now know more about the grave problems we face, something previous generations did not. Fortunately, the fact that they believe the world isn’t getting better does not seem to stop them from committing to improving it.

I wish these youth had a greater sense of the arc of history, but I’m relieved that they are, by and large, staving off apathy and despair and joining forces through a globally connected world (which, ironically, is a perfect example of how the world is getting better) to solve the challenges we face.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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Parking Your Luxury Car in Your Living Room—a Critical Thinking Opportunity

Posted on May 6, 2013 by zoeweil

When Singapore middle school principal Mike Johnston shared this video of a man living in a luxury apartment building in Singapore parking his high-end sports car in his living room, I thought it might be part of a sci-fi movie or a satiric piece of filmmaking.

It’s not.

But what a great humane education tool such a video is!

Imagine showing this film to a group of high school students and asking what they think of it. My guess is that a lot of them will think it’s very cool. Then imagine discussing it in the context of global issues, poverty, global warming, inequality. Imagine asking questions about rights and responsibilities. About freedom and inequity. Think of the lively discussion that would ensue.

If you do share this video in the context of education, remember to keep your own perspectives to yourself. The job of the educator is to share knowledge and instill the skills of creative and critical thinking, not to indoctrinate with personal ideologies. By using an activity like True Price, which examines the real costs of our consumer choices to people, animals and the earth, you enable your students to come to their own conclusions and devise their own actions to respond to the knowledge they gain.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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A Letter to High School Seniors: Don’t Accept College Rejections

Posted on May 2, 2013 by zoeweil
denied and approved stamps

Image courtesy of Joelk75/Flickr.

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent essay I wrote for Care2.com, an online community for people passionate about creating a better world. Here’s an excerpt from “A Letter to High School Seniors: Don’t Accept College Rejections”:

Dear High School Seniors,

Over the past few weeks, many of you have received letters from the colleges to which you applied in the fall and winter.

Some of you are delighted with the outcome, having gotten into your top choice(s). Congratulations. This post is not for you.

Some of you are content, having gotten into a couple of schools that were high on your list. Wonderful. This post is not for you.

Some of you – all too many – are despairing because you received multiple rejections; got on wait lists that are unlikely to turn into acceptances; didn’t receive the financial aid you required; and realized that you actually have no interest in going to the affordable safety school that accepted you. This post is for you.

Many of you, who worked so hard and expected to get into an elite college with the kind of endowment that would ensure you could affordably attend with good financial aid, wonder why you even bothered to take all those AP courses; to study so diligently in classes that sometimes bored you to tears; to prep for the SATs; and to follow all the rules laid out for you during four years of high school.

Here’s my message to you: Don’t surrender your potential. Don’t accept the rejections. It’s time to forge your own path.

Read the complete essay.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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We Don’t Have to Die to Protect the Earth

Posted on April 25, 2013 by zoeweil

In this powerful 5-minute video, “She’s Alive… Beautiful… Finite… Hurting… Worth Dying For,” we are confronted with the reality that brave heroes – some known, many unknown – have died to protect this planet.

As this short video ended, I found myself simultaneously feeling such gratitude for the courageous women and men who risked everything to do what was right and good, and also hoping that children wouldn’t watch this film. I wouldn’t want them to think that striving to do good is such risky business.

It shouldn’t be.

And if we raise a generation of solutionaries it won’t be. Protecting the Earth must become the norm, and if children grow up understanding this, no poacher or corrupt and greedy industrialist will have a chance against such a generation.

That’s the goal. Let’s make it happen.

Become a humane educator.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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Children Change the World in 5 Minutes a Day

Posted on April 22, 2013 by zoeweil

Another video Mike Johnston (see previous blog post here) shared with me was this four and a half minute film of children working together in school to create positive changes in just 5 minutes per day.

A cynic might watch this video and point out that these little acts don’t actually “change the world,” but what those cynics would miss is that these acts prepare these children to be solutionaries. By teaching, empowering, and engaging children in small actions that make a collective difference, these children learn that what they do matters. This is one of the most important lessons we can impart.

Imagine what these children will do when they enter the various professions to which they are drawn? I’m guessing that they’ll perceive themselves as agents of change and problem-solvers who address unsustainable and unjust systems within those professions. After all, that’s what they will have learned in school.

Once again, ask yourself this question: Who are these children’s teachers? What must they do differently in order to create a culture like this? How can we make this culture the norm?

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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Who Was This Child’s Teacher?

Posted on April 18, 2013 by zoeweil

One of the videos Mike Johnston (see previous blog post here) shared with me at the EARCOS conference was this introduction to the children’s group Plant for the Planet.

As you watch this 4-minute video, I invite you to focus on these two underlying realities: 1) This boy represents a powerful movement of countless children; and 2) All these children have teachers.

Who are those teachers who’ve empowered and supported these countless children and their incredible work? What must these teachers do to support these children and how must they incorporate the skills and tools for activism and real-world service into their curricula? These children clearly aren’t spending every day focused on preparation for standardized tests, and my guess is that they’re learning more, gaining real world skills, and finding voice, passion, and goodness in the process of learning

This is what education should be.

Children like these will be the outcome.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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The Boston Marathon Bombing Cannot Change the Reality that Goodness Trumps Evil

Posted on April 16, 2013 by zoeweil
Young women consoling each other

Image courtesy Brit/Flickr.

It’s easy to feel despair in the wake of evil.

I read a post on Facebook after the Boston Marathon bombing from a person who wondered if she wanted to keep living after such a senseless, cruel, horrible act of violence. I sympathized. How do we cope with such insanity? How do we hold on to our belief in goodness?

Over the many hours that followed the bombings, practically all I read – on Facebook, through Twitter, and in the news – were outpourings of support and love and care for the victims and their families, and for the city of Boston itself. I read nothing that was cruel or heartless; nothing that supported the bombings; nothing that reveled in suffering.

No, millions of people are expressing love and compassion.

There is darkness in the world. There is cruelty and meanness and wanton violence and political violence. But they are ultimately small acts in the face of massive goodness – awful as they are when they happen. History shows a consistent and relentless shift toward greater democracy, greater understanding and tolerance, greater acceptance. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” and he was right.

Don’t we see this everywhere: Women voting and going to school; civil rights spreading across the globe; gays and lesbians receiving equal rights in many countries and states; animals receiving protections (albeit still far too limited) unheard of in previous centuries; global outcry against injustice, against exploitation, against environmental destruction?

Are our violent tendencies gone? Of course not. But we are not cheering at the Coliseum as slaves entertain thousands in fights to the death. Instead, we are crying by the millions as our fellow citizens are injured and killed by bombs detonated at a hallmark of our physical achievement: the Boston Marathon.

Let’s remember this: For every person who is evil, there are countless people who are deeply kind. For every murderer, there are people coming to the aid of strangers in droves. For every act of senseless violence, there are thousands of acts of meaningful goodness.

There is a way to speed the arc of the moral universe toward justice. It is through humane education: education of the mind so that we understand each other across borders and cultural boundaries; education of the heart so that we care enough to build a world of kindness toward all people, all species, and the earth itself; education of the hands so that we have the skills and the tools to solve our still very significant challenges, with our wisdom and compassion as our guides.

Let’s commit to this then, to humane education. Let’s make such acts as the bombing at the Boston Marathon, as the abuse of a child, the rape of a woman, the cruelty toward an animal the story of history.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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There Are a Lot of Amazing Teachers in the World

Posted on April 15, 2013 by zoeweil
teacher at whiteboard

Image courtesy cybrarian77/Flickr.

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of keynoting and leading workshops at the EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Schools) international teachers’ conference in Shanghai, China. Eleven hundred teachers from across east Asia gathered together to learn, show, and grow, and I have never met a wiser, more compassionate, or more enthusiastic group of teachers in one place at one time.

I was so heartened and hopeful about the future, knowing that so many young people were learning from these amazing teachers. In my next few blog posts I’m going to share some of what I learned from them.

One of the highlights of the conference was meeting and attending workshops with Mike Johnston, the middle school principal at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore. He has co-created an educational movement known as EduCare. EduCare helps lead schools toward better environmental, global issues, and service learning education. Mr. Johnston has moved schools forward by presenting in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia at regional conferences. He has led workshops for teachers and administrators around the world on sustainability, global curriculum K-12, and how service learning should not just be what you do, but who you are as a school. He has dedicated much of his time to not only ensuring students are properly prepared for the world’s most pressing issues, but that they have the skills and desire to take action.

In the first workshop that I attended, Mike shared a diagram of how school curricula is currently structured and provided a vision of how they should and could be structured. Instead of having a school’s mission statement and the global reality standing apart from the curricula (as is the case almost everywhere), he suggests that our global reality – all the issues that humane education covers – be the overarching influence on both the mission of a school and the curricula that’s provided to the students.

With just a slight shift in perspective, our schools could reframe and refocus so that curricula served the real needs of our students and the world, not the needs of meeting IB or AP or standardized test requirements that themselves have been separated from what he refers to as the global reality. Simple, right? Wise, right?

Whether you’re a teacher, administrator, parent, or concerned citizen, spread this idea. It’s just common sense, and it could do a world of good.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxConejo talk: “Solutionaries”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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When Critical Thinking Proponents Fail to Think Critically

Posted on March 28, 2013 by zoeweil
Image courtesy vipez/Flickr.

For the past several years I’ve been reading lots of books about why we often believe so many unsubstantiated things.

Part of this reading is due to my fascination with human belief systems – something I’ve pursued for decades and which compelled me to study world religions at Harvard Divinity School. Part of it is due to my commitment to find a good book on critical thinking to include in our graduate programs at the Institute for Humane Education. And part of it is because I want to understand how to better teach, inspire, and ignite critical thinking myself, because not only are critical and creative thinking hallmarks of humane education, but also because I don’t think we’ll be able to solve our gravest challenges if young people don’t learn to think critically and creatively.

I’ve written about critical thinking many times (such as here, here, and here), but I’ve yet to find the perfect book to include in our graduate programs. Over the weekend I began a book titled Hoaxes, Myths and Manias: Why we need Critical Thinking. I had high hopes. This book seemed to have all the right ingredients. But very quickly I read this paragraph:

“Possession of emotions is one of the things that defines us as people. While other animals may be said to have moods, instincts, or even thoughts, the human animal is the only one with true emotions as we know them. We experience avarice and anger, joy and jealousy, hatred and love….”

For such thoughtful authors — who are attempting to raise the bar on critical thinking and ensure that readers learn to distinguish fact from opinion and make reasoned arguments — to make such an unsubstantiated, and really quite ridiculous assertion (particularly when it doesn’t even advance their thesis), undermined for me their ability to do the job their book demanded and diminished their credibility.

Ironically, in this case, their statement actually stands in opposition to most of the false claims about human and nonhuman animal distinctions, which argue that animals may have emotions (one need not look far to witness jealousy, joy, and love among other species, not to mention fear) but cannot think.

I am trying to not judge the entire book by such an early statement, but it casts doubt on the authors’ own ability to think critically, not a good sign in a book on critical thinking.

But their flip comment about human v. animal emotions also raised a bigger issue for me. Too many sociologists, psychologists, cognitive scientists and others feel compelled to insert false and regularly debunked (and practically always different) claims about human uniqueness, even when entirely misplaced to advance their larger argument.

Until and unless these specious comments cease and these science-loving authors cite actual scientific studies of nonhuman animals, they can’t expect others not to embrace their own equally unsubstantiated beliefs.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxYouth@BFS “Educating for Freedom”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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Critical Thinking is Essential in Classrooms

Posted on March 7, 2013 by zoeweil
Image courtesy of Horia Varlan/Flickr.

No less a bastion of critical and scientific thinking – Scientific American – has published the strangest essay about teaching critical thinking to young people. According to Dennis Bartels, critical thinking is best taught outside the classroom.

Apparently, young people are not graduating from high school as very good critical thinkers, and, writes Bartels:

“Informal learning environments tolerate failure better than schools. Perhaps many teachers have too little time to allow students to form and pursue their own questions and too much ground to cover in the curriculum and for standardized tests…. For that, we have a robust informal learning system that eschews grades, takes all comers, and is available even on holidays and weekends.”

What comprises this robust learning system? “Museums and other institutions of informal learning” along with The Daily Show and The Maker Faire.

Museums and The Daily Show are great, but to depend upon them to teach our children critical thinking is not only folly; it is utterly irresponsible. Bartels is correct that critical thinking is paramount, but his solution is backwards. Instead of throwing up our hands and accepting the sorry state of schooling that fails to teach this most important skill to our kids, we ought to commit ourselves to the following:

1. Embrace a bigger purpose for schooling than passing standardized math and reading tests and “competing in the global economy.” Our students need to grow up to be solutionaries for a just, healthy and peaceful world, and they need critical and creative thinking skills to achieve this goal.

2. Identify what forms of teaching and learning produce critical and creative thinkers and jettison curricula and approaches that don’t achieve these goals.

3. Have schools do what Bartel suggests informal institutions do so well: eschew grades, take all comers, embrace questions, welcome failure, and while we’re at it, get rid of standardized tests.

~ Zoe

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm; Above All, Be Kind; and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDxDirigo talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach“
My TEDxYouth@BFS “Educating for Freedom”
My TEDxYouth@CEHS “How to Be a Solutionary”

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