This post was written by 起点传媒member Kylowna Moton, a member of the 起点传媒Standing Committee on Global Citizenship.
鈥淎ll of our problems today are thoroughly globalized. In fact, the problem with the world that we are living in at the moment is that our problems, our challenges, are more globalized than our solutions. This is the imbalance.鈥� 鈥擲imon Anholt
As I write this, it is only July, but we seem to have collectively declared 2020 a bust, as we live through a pandemic that has interrupted the flow of human life around the world. In addition, the news reports suggest that all our social problems鈥攔acial injustice, police brutality, political corruption, public health, and more鈥攁re coming to a crisis point at once, right now. It would be so easy to give in to despair and negativity, but there is another option. We can look at the big picture鈥攚here we want to be after enduring these crises鈥攁nd focus our energy on how we get from here to there. We have to find a way to tune out the doomsayers and find positive voices expressing hopeful, intriguing ideas.
A Good Generation can save the world. How鈥檚 that for an intriguing idea? It鈥檚 not mine; it鈥檚 Simon Anholt鈥檚, and he has my attention. His is definitely big picture thinking, and if 2020 is not the time for big picture thinking, there will never be a time for it.
Anholt says the problems of every country today are the same, and we fail to solve them because we work in isolation. I am thinking about his words a lot this summer. Last September, Anholt gave
I saw the video of this speech only because a Czech friend who was there posted it on his social media feed. I have not stopped thinking about it since then. I鈥檝e shared it with students and discussed it with them. Now I want to discuss it with you.
I have long thought that most human problems stem from our failure to see ourselves in听the 鈥渙ther鈥� and how much we are alike.听 Anholt agrees and emphasizes that not only are we all in the same (soon-to-be-sinking) boat, but that the problems we are trying to solve in isolation are bigger than any one country or state or city, and will never be solved unless we all work together.
As a teacher and member of the 起点传媒Standing Committee on Global Citizenship, I seek to connect the skills and information we English instructors teach to the task of living in the real world and to the challenges of making that world better (see my 2019 blog post).
This is why Anholt鈥檚 words resonate so much with me.听Anholt posits that all our (major, global) problems are the result of human behavior: 1) how governments behave, and 2) how individuals behave. He has spent his career advising heads of state about how to make their countries 鈥済ood鈥� (see).
To impact the behavior of individuals and the way they choose government leaders, Anholt appeals to educators. He needs our help.
He acknowledges that there are myriad educational programs around the world doing a fine job of teaching precisely the kinds of content and thinking that upcoming generations will need to improve the world and sustain humanity. But they are working in isolation. He is calling for a coalescence of these individual programs in the form of a unified global compact where we will teach a Good Generation to 鈥渞un towards big challenges rather than away from them.鈥�
Anholt directs his appeal to university educators, whom he sees as already having the infrastructure in place to meet this challenge, but I think the members at all levels of NCTE鈥攁nd the institutions they touch鈥攃an have an equally important role to play in building the Good Generation.
鈥淚f people are the problem,鈥� Anholt says, 鈥渢hey [with the right education] are also the solution.鈥� This kind of hope (with a plan) is the only tenable position to have in the face of our current confluence of crises unless we want to throw our hands up and give up on the future of humanity鈥攚hich is not an option for educators.
In the Helsinki speech, Anholt suggests that interested educators around the world start a #goodgeneration conversation on Twitter to discuss and determine the 鈥渧alues and virtues鈥� that should underpin a global educational compact. This conversation seems to have stalled, but we can pick up this mantle and restart the conversation. What educators do in classrooms every day can be the fulcrum on which the world鈥檚 problems and the world鈥檚 solutions are balanced.
Meanwhile, I discovered in June that Anholt has written a book,
I immediately pre-ordered it鈥攅ven before I read the excerpt provided. We have an opportunity, in the midst of great disorder, to reimagine and reshape what we do, as humans and educators, going forward. Anholt鈥檚 ideas might help us figure out how we do that.
In the introduction to The Good Country Equation, Anholt explains,
鈥淲e all need to understand, because it鈥檚 going to take all of us to avoid these听kinds of problems in the future, and to tackle the ones we already have. So in this book I鈥檝e tried to explain where I think we鈥檝e gone wrong in terms that most听people I鈥檝e ever met can understand and enjoy: a book about the present and the future of humanity that doesn鈥檛 require a degree in economics or political science to read. And I鈥檝e tried to make it as fun and interesting to read about the issues as I have found it fun and interesting to learn about them. Just because these things are serious doesn鈥檛 mean they have to be boring. I also have some concrete suggestions about what we can all do to make the world work better, in one generation鈥� (Anholt 2020).
If we can raise, educate, and equip a Good Generation, they will build good countries; good countries will change the world into one that is more safe, more just, more sustainable. Educating a Good Generation is a big challenge, but it鈥檚 a challenge that educators at 起点传媒and beyond can meet if we work together.
A Good Generation can save the world. Let鈥檚 help them do it.
Additional Resources
Simon Anholt鈥檚 TED Talk:
For more about Anholt鈥檚 work:
Kylowna Moton is an Assistant Professor of English at LA City College, and she taught English in the LAUSD for over 20 years. She is a member of the 起点传媒Standing Committee on Global Citizenship. Her research interests include everyday rhetoric and decolonizing the classroom as a means of promoting lifelong literacy to reluctant and emergent readers and writers. Moton is an avid traveler and sees her work as integral to her experience of the world and its people.
The Standing Committee on Global Citizenship works to identify and address issues of broad concern to 起点传媒members interested in promoting global citizenship and connections across global contexts within the Council and within members鈥� teaching contexts.
It is the policy of 起点传媒in all publications, including the Literacy & 起点传媒blog, to provide a forum for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language arts. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, the staff, or the membership at large, except in announcements of policy, where such endorsement is clearly specified.听