I recently watched a TED talk by High Evans, “What Does it Mean To Be A Global Citizen of the World” (click on the image below to see the talk) and it got me thinking about a few things with regards to this concept.
Firstly let me say i think that the ideas that Hugh speaks of in his talk is first class. I think his concept of creating Global Citizens is an important step forward for humanity to ensure that we all understand each other and that we develop empathy towards people of different backgrounds. The element that i think is missing from his process is where it needs to start – i believe it needs to start with children in their education at school. Let me unpack this idea to explain what i mean and how this can happen.
I am a Music Teacher, and music is a tool that is commonly used by various people to connect with others, Hugh even comments that music is the “universal language” which he and his team uses as the cornerstone to sharing his message – through concert. A focus of my teaching and the programs that i run is to give students the opportunity to experience how their music can change the lives of others. At my school we have regular lunchtime concerts which support various different local school events and fund raising activities, which helps on the local level… but to extend this idea the Music Department sponsors a child from Kenya through World Vision, and the performances that we hold raise money to make a difference for that child in Kenya. This is one way that the kids see how playing their music is making a difference for others. Another example is a Music Tour that i run for the senior students. Schools going on a Music Camp is nothing new, but this tour is reflecting upon an idea that was drawn from a book i read about iconic Australian band Midnight Oil. In this book they speak of a tour that Midnight Oil did with the Wurumpi band (Aboriginal Band) touring a show to remote areas of Australia that don’t get to experience this. I was inspired by this idea and adopted it into my school and started a tour that took the senior music students (and a sound engineering team) to rural areas to perform their music for kids and communities that don’t experience it. With some recent tragedies in Australia (Black Saturday, Droughts, Floods etc) we called into these communities to play for them. These experiences gave my students the opportunity to use their music to make a difference for these people and kids who had been doing it tough. On the surface, this tour gave my students the opportunity to tour their music and to experience life on the road as a musician. However on a deeper level the experience gave them the opportunity to see how their music can make a difference for people who don’t live and operate in their community, people that they don’t know, haven’t met before and may never meet again. These are the kid of activities and learning that can occur in our schools to foster Hugh’s Global Citizens ideal. If we give our students the opportunities to experience ways in which the can use their skills and knowledge to make a difference for others, we are setting up a systemic idea that they can then carry forward into their lives post schooling.
You may be reading this thinking “but this doesn’t relate to my English or Maths class” but its the bigger idea that I’m trying to get across here. If we, as teachers, can find ways to incorporate bigger picture, global thinking into our classrooms we can establish the Global Citizen ideal with people at an early age. Another example of this is in my wife’s teaching. Her primary class watched a “behind the news” segment about malaria and its spread throughout Africa. This classroom activity turned into a student driven fund raising activity that saw students finding ways in their local community to raise money to sponsor communities purchasing malaria preventative measures. The students raised enough money to purchase 6 malaria nets for these communities that we had seen on the segment. This empowered them to feel that they could make positive change for those on the other side of the world. This is yet another example at how we as teachers can embed this Global Citizen idea into the development and growth of our students to empower them to connect to others outside their local community.
If we can model the idea that we need to think and act bigger than ourselves and that these actions can make a societal difference we can help to establish a much brighter, positive and accepting world. If we as teachers can find ways for our students to experience what we are lucky enough to have established for our students, we will be not only helping our students to be much more thoughtful and empathetic people, but we are working to embed Hugh’s Global Citizen idea into society – which will take the idea from being an TED talk that has inspired me to write this post and will turn it into the societal norm with how we think about and interact with others in the world.
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