Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Complex Conversations. Simple Peace.

An older gentlemen related an account of his son's coping with a difficult employment position recently in these terms: "He won't be satisfied until he completes the cycle. Only then will he feel accomplished." This exchange said a great deal and stuck with me. It said that the process of dealing with change is genuinely organic meaning that it requires something only we can feel has been supplied.

I suppose the same goes for me as well. But recently I was thinking what is "my cycle"? How do I define success and satisfaction with my work? I have to believe that I am most satisfied when I feel like I am in the midst of serious productivity in the classroom. Demonstrated by creativity and conversation, when the energy in the room reaches a point where the students are thinking outside the nutrition box and pulling their own habits and preferences into the box, I feel satisfied. This is the sort of work that is sustainable and exciting for young people. The great trick is incorporating material from their regular curriculum into these kinds of activities to balance the age-appropriate mandated materials with the exciting/engaging materials so that the activities are relevant to all parties: students & teachers.

This is a serious time for our world. As we confront global catastrophe in the form of wars, terrorism, climate change, consumerism, economic manipulation, etc. you must consider education to be as much if not more of a concern than any of those. For it is the uneducated civilian who will tolerate those ills. It is the uneducated civilian who will not demand a more just and appropriate world. In other words, the uneducated with not foster fair and just relationships with those people they interact with. Such relationships are the foundation of sustained change and peace.

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