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Educators Must Engage Young People in the Great Tasks of Our Times

By Mike Connolly

One of the most difficult problems we face is to make it possible for young people to participate in the great tasks of their time.

We have designed our society in such a way that most of the possibilities open to young people are too bookish or frivolous. John W. Gardner, former US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (Self Renewal, p.126)

Young people, filled with youthful idealism, long to make the world a better place in which to live. Yet we have designed our society and our educational system in such a way that this youthful idealism is anesthetized in most and snuffed out in many before it has a chance to blossom. The result is a world full of misery, much of which could be relieved if relieving it were to become a priority, and young people were encouraged to and given opportunities to become active in bringing about needed change.

Think of the disheartening non-verbal message of most of our schooling. In twelve or sixteen years you’ll get to use what you are learning here for something more meaningful than more schooling. We, who are educators can do better than that. We can help young people find opportunities to participate in the great tasks of our time.

In 2007 speaking at Harvard University’s Commencement, Bill Gates lamented the fact that he “left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world—the appalling disparities of health, wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.” He went on to ask the Harvard Faculty, students and parents gathered there a question that all educational institutions, not just universities, should ask themselves:

Should (insert your school’s name here) encourage its faculty to take on the world’s worst inequalities? Should (insert your school’s name here) students learn about the depth of global poverty… the prevalence of world hunger… the scarcity of clean water… the girls kept out of school… the children who die from diseases we can cure? … These are not rhetorical questions –you will answer with your policies.

There is a danger in international schools that the young people in them can remain as isolated from the reality of “the awful inequalities in the world,” and the “appalling disparities of health, wealth and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair” as Bill Gates was. My wife and I are currently interviewing young people who are aware of the inequality and misery that exits in our world and who have initiated inspiring projects, many of them on their own, to help relieve that misery. We plan to celebrate them and their accomplishments in a book titled Surrounded by Heroes.

Some of those students come from international schools and predictably they mention that students in international schools live in “a bubble world” sheltered from the realities of the lives of the locals around them. We know what they are talking about; we have lived and worked in that “bubble world.”

But like the students who we have interviewed, other young people can break out of that bubble with the help of their teachers and can satisfy their yearning to make a positive difference in the world. Admittedly, EARCOS schools whose students are involved in GIN and other humanitarian initiatives locally and beyond are doing this. But more can be done—and must be done. Consistently, the young people in our book, who range in age from seven to twenty one, tell us that it wasn’t until they actually saw the face of misery—and in particular in the expressions of children—that they were moved to action. Many of them had been involved in humanitarian fund raising activities in the past that had little emotional impact on them because these young people had yet to see and feel the reality of what they were raising funds to defeat. Once confronted with that reality they were moved to action in ways that are truly inspiring—and for them empowering.

Most of the conversation we hear these days about improving education still focuses primarily on preparing students for future employment in the global marketplace. While preparing students to make a living is important, we should never confuse ourselves or our students by equating this practical necessity with making a life. Learning must not simply prepare students to nourish their bodies; it must prepare them to nourish their spirits. One of the best ways to help them to nourish their spirits is to give them opportunities to bring about positive change in the world.

In 2008, a former student of mine addressed a gathering of over 1000 teachers at an EARCOS Conference. Perhaps some of you remember him. Yeon Duk Woo, speaking on the subject of how teachers could foster genuine Global Citizenship among their students, told the following story.

One day a son came to see his father. He was tired and frustrated. He complained to his father about how difficult life had become and confessed that he just wanted to give up. His father, who was a chef, pulled a chair up for his son and invited him to sit down. When he was seated, he took three pots of water and placed each on the stove. When the water came to a boil, he took a carrot and cut it up into the first pot. Into the second pot he put an egg and into the third pot he put some ground up coffee. After a few minutes he said to his son “Come on over here son, I want to show you something.”

As they stood looking at the pots boiling on the stove the father said to his son. “What do you see? Impatiently the son replied “I see three pots one with carrots, one with an egg and one with coffee”. “Look closer”, his father said, can you see: That when the carrots were subjected to the boiling water, they became soft When the egg was subjected to the boiling water, it became hard But the coffee… ah son, the coffee changed the water?

Yeon Duk concluded his speech with words that are both a compliment and a challenge to all educators: Ladies and gentlemen, you are the ones, in your classrooms, who teach students what it means to be a global citizen... You are the ones who teach us that we have the power to “change the water.”

Young people yearn to make a difference in this world. When they find ways to do that, their lives have more purpose, and more meaning -- and so does their learning. Part of the job of international educators—indeed all educators—must be to redesign education so that it is not simply bookish and frivolous but gives young people opportunities to engage in the great tasks of our times.

Mike Connolly worked as a principal in international schools for sixteen years. He is the author of two books:Teaching Kids to Love Learning, Not Just Endure It and What They Never Told Me in Principal’s School.