My main distraction has centered around many hours of thinking, talking, and designing that has resulted in an exciting and innovative new position for me. In mid-November, I met teacher John Hunter and filmmaker Chris Farina and saw the film "World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements" among 150+ educators and colleagues in a community showing in Memphis. At our screening, which was sponsored for the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence, there was about a five minute standing ovation, and tears. I have since been to five or six additional screenings. Each time, exuberance, tears, and many AHA! moments for those ready to see it.
My reaction to seeing the film "World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements" was also very strong. In this film, I saw the physical and emotional representation of everything that I think is the optimal learning conditions and learning outcomes for children. That is, for children that we are really interested in preparing for the dynamic, interconnected, global, unpredictable world they will live and lead in. John Hunter has developed over the last 25+ years, the World Peace Game which gives his students a chance to engage in real world problem solving. He intentionally overwhelms them with complex, interconnecting, "wicked" issues that don't have binary, easy "yes or no" answers. Solving these types of issues, which the world is full of, demands well honed critical thinking and problem solving skills, the ability to learn on one's own quickly and deeply, the ability to team and collaborate, and empathy. John Hunter's World Peace Game gives students guided and facilitated rehearsal in all of these skills. It gives them knowledge and information about issues that are already part of the world they live in and issues that will be their responsibility to solve. I was moved by the spontaneous compassion and responsibility we see John Hunter's students think and act from in the film. One sees a global awareness, global perspective, and global sense of stewardship being cultivated in John Hunter's students by the learning he has structured.
After seeing and ruminating on the film "World Peace," my thought, that has resulted in a whole new direction for my work, was that if more people could see this film and spend time thinking about it, the experience and new learning would be transformative. Once one is moved and has learned something new, he or she cannot unknow it. In fact, it is, then, his or her responsibility to act on the new that is known. New knowing is a responsibility to act, shift, change, grow. I think it is essential to think this way because we are in a terrible gap, a gap where the world has changed dramatically and our schools and system of education has not changed to meet the new needs of a changed world. There is no fault involved here. Instead, lots of responsibility, challenge, and opportunity.
The talking, thinking, and designing has resulting in a new commitment and new opportunity for me. My new position, as of the first of 2012, is Director of Strategic Partnerships for the Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence. The Martin Institute is a relatively young foundation in Memphis established by a generous gift from former Saks, Inc. CEO Brad Martin. The foundation is the expression of public purpose of Presbyterian Day School, a PK - 6th boys school serving 630 boys in Memphis. The Martin Institute is dedicated to bringing world class professional development to teachers at public and private schools. In June the Martin Institute will be hosting its second summer conference. John Hunter will be their keynote speaker.
The first strategic partnership that I will be leading is with filmmaker Chris Farina and teacher John Hunter. Our hope is to bring the film "World Peace," the World Peace Game, and learning resources including Master Classes with John Hunter to as many communities as will have us around the world. Our hope is that the captivating story of possibility that the film shows and the deep conversations and sharing that can result from a shared understanding of the film and its many tangents will strongly influence others to create stimulating, engaging, bold, challenging learning environments where students encounter almost unsolvable issues and are intrinsically motivated to research, dig, talk, compare, share, team, try, fail, and try again to solve them.
If you have not seen John Hunter's TEDtalk, you can get a really good sense of his teaching philosophy and snippets of the film "World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements."
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