Category Archives: Activism

The Age of Stupid

I usually post my reviews of books, music, and film on my personal blog, but the film I watched last night and am about to review seemed a better fit here. For years, I have been actively working with students who are passionate about Global Issues, Social Justice, and student activism. Helping students raise their awareness about the issues we face as a citizens of one shared planet and helping them find ways to effectively spurn action is really the only reason I got into teaching. I am a firm believer that all content and skills no matter the class should have some connection to a better understanding of Global Issues. School should be a place where our curriculum culminates on making life on Earth better for as many people as we can. Forget getting kids ready for college, I want to get them ready to save our lives! We are very to close some pretty scary times, to waste time on anything else would be criminal. We need this generation and every generation after it to be aware, vocal, and active. If I sound panicked, it is because I am.

I was a bit apprehensive about watching The Age of Stupid. Someone had sent me the link on Twitter a while back, and the film has sat on my hard drive since. I’m not sure if it was the title or the lackluster trailer, but something about it made me feel like it wouldn’t be any good. Last night with my wife out of town, I decided to give it a try and man was I pleasantly surprised.

The blurb from IMDB reads:

This ambitious documentary/drama/animation hybrid stars Pete Postlethwaite as an archivist in the devastated world of the future, asking the question: “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we still had the chance?” He looks back on footage of real people around the world in the years leading up to 2015 before runaway climate change took place.

Wikipedia says

Amid news reports of the gathering effects of climate change and global civilisation teetering towards destruction, he alights on six stories of individuals whose lives in the early years of the 21st century seem to illustrate aspects of the impending catastrophe. These six stories take the form of interweaving documentary segments that report on the lives of real people in the present, and switch the film’s narrative form from fiction to fact. The people who feature are:

Al Duvernay, a resident of New Orleans who stayed behind and helped in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. He reflects on what it feels like to have had all his possessions washed away in the flood, and also on his job in the oil industry and how valuable resources are being wasted.

Indian businessman Jehangir Wadia, who talks about the start-up of his low cost airline GoAir and his democratic vision of a world in which all people, rich and poor, are able to afford air travel.

Two Iraqi children, Jamila and Adnan, who fled with their family to Jordan during the Iraq War, who tell the story of their father’s death and of their desire to be reunited with the older brother they left behind.

Fernand Pareau, an 82-year-old man who works as a guide on the Mont Blanc glacier in France – he takes an English family on a tour of the glacier and explains how he has seen the ice recede massively in his lifetime. The guide is also shown taking action against expanding road infrastructure in his area.

Wind-farm developer, Piers Guy who talks about his efforts to bring sustainable energy to an English village, and how he is being blocked by people who profess a commitment to fighting global warming but do not want wind turbines destroying their views. His family takes action in reducing their carbon footprint and contemplate the effects of air travel.

Layefa Malemi, a Nigerian woman who struggles with poverty despite the wealth of oil in her country. She talks about her ambition to study medicine and the everyday impact of the exploitation of oil by Shell Nigeria on health, security and the environment in Nigeria.

These glimpses into the lives of a disparate group of people all affected by the oil industry are a perfect backdrop to the main message of the film. Which are: that it highlights the fundamental causes that have brought us to where we are as a species- A species that is rapidly destroying its own habitat. One of the most frustrating factors about working with young people who want to learn about global issues is that we rarely dig deep enough to truly understand the core causes that connect so many issues like climate change, poverty conflict etc…

We work on projects to educate students about recycling and green living, or maybe discuss the state of a world where most people live on a dollar a day, but at the end of the day most students, as least the ones I work with, will return to their world of blind consumerism that has been drilled into them since birth by the ever expanding global free market, because they are never asked to really look at the source of the problems. It is one thing to lead a recycling program at a school or help build schools in Africa, but no sustainable change, not the kind we need to save us from extinction, will come from such surface level actions without true understanding.

We need to help kids look deeply at why the world’s wealth is horded by a small number of its citizens, while so many people suffer. We cannot be afraid to examine concepts like colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. We cannot expect a student to understand why Africa is “always so messed up,” without understanding the rape of the continent by European countries centuries ago. Student can never understand the root causes of terrorism and conflicts in the Middle East without having a basic understanding of imperialism and the implications of fossil fuels on the world’s military powerhouse’s need for it.

One site I recently found that does a great job of helping kids look beyond simple living green platitudes is Dropping Knowledge. Covering a range of ideas from gender equality to animal rights, the site does not shy away from asking questions that most teachers would avoid, and the best part is that student asks the questions themselves. If you really want a deep and robust Global Issues program I suggest you have your students take the time to ponder a few of them.

Back to the film. The Age of Stupid does a great job of getting to the source of many of our problems. White its focus is on the effects of climate change, there are a few animated segments that highlight the concepts I mentioned earlier. Cause of the perfect length and simplicity, I highly recommend you use them with students as discussion starters. This clip highlights how nearly all human conflicts have been a result of human beings’ need for resources, played perfectly over the backdrop of colonialism and imperialism, it subtly segues into the role of oil in current conflicts.

This clip could lead to great discussions about how the world’s imperialistic need for resources and control is not something we simply study in history, but that this lust for goods is the source of our problems today.

The second clip illustrates how our casual attitude toward consumerism stems from the impetus of the same capitalistic motives. The clip does not shy away from putting capitalism in the spotlight and questioning how we are expected to understand a system that is based on infinite growth using finite resources. That very question, alone, could lead to some intense discoveries for young people.

They are told everyday, everywhere they look that there is one system that epitomizes progress, and this system demands that they must consume to be successful. It must be our goal as Global Issues facilitators to not only change how they act by doing futile recycling drives, but how they think about their own roles as consumers and global citizens. We must allow young people to consider alternative economic systems and ways of life. Before I get a rash of comments telling me that Stalin and Mao didn’t work, and the free market system is the best we can do, let me say, “I get it.” I am not championing communism here. I am saying that we must have a completely new system. New ways of thinking. We cannot continue to believe that we will survive within a system that demands progress and growth as if we have infinite resources. We need today’s young people to help us, and they cannot if the do not understand the past and are blinded by the false hype of capitalism. It cannot be considered blasphemy to criticize and examine a system that is in crisis. A system that is literally leading us to extinction. Now is the time.

The Age of Stupid reminds us that we are headed for some dark times. It also points out the terrible suffering endured by many of the planet’s citizens so that we can live in the comfort and ease we have come to expect in the “developed” world. Nothing will change until young people are exposed to the underlying causes of our planet in collapse. This film is a great first step to getting them to think about these causes.

Dazed, Amazed, and Determined

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Every teacher probably has their own unique reason for getting into education. Somewhere our motives our probably interconnected in some sort of inspirational lattice, but I am not here to conjecture on why you teach. I want to share a story that elucidates why I got into the business.

Every once in a while, a student does something, or says something that shows the teacher that the hours spent wondering if anything he/she said made any difference in the student’s life. We speak so much about learning and where to find it, and what it looks like, and how to assess it that we have lost touch with any sense of what it means to the life of the children we are dealing with everyday. So consumed are we with skills and content and curriculum that we have forgotten that learning is a long slow process with results we may never see. We plant seeds and tend them the best we can a few hours a day, a few years and then hope that sometime in the future they will bear fruit.

I am here to say that one of my young seedlings from last year just blossomed. James was always mature beyond his age. I always had a hard time understanding how his brain works the way it does, seeing he just finished the seventh grade. Understanding, kind, and deliberate with his learning, he was a pleasure to work with.

In class this past year we struggled with certain themes regardless what we were official meant to be studying.

We looked at the environment and the relationship humans have with it.
We looked at class and how it dictates our relationships.
We looked at how we can work to make the world a better place.

You tell me; how can you assess to see if a 7th grader has learned anything about these insurmountable ideas? Is there a standardized test that can show growth in the field of developing an environmentalist consciousness? Is there a I can give to see if my students are learning that their lives are tightly interconnected with the lives of people spread across the planet? Can we assess the understanding that the way we view the most mundane aspects of our lives is what poetry was meant to do?

Well, today I got a clue. James wrote his first blog post upon returning to his homeland, Nigeria. The fact that he has chosen to carry on with his school blog makes me so proud. It demonstrates that he understands that writing is more than an exercise made monotonous in school. He understands that when faced with emotions that may appear difficult or euphoric it is natural and important to write.

But what did he write, you may ask? The post was not simply a teenager writing about the minutia of his day. You can read the entire post here, and I encourage you to leave him comments. I was also very pleased that he used a CC image and cited it correctly. Without further ado I will share my favorite lines:

I am sitting at the table with the soft music of nature- the wind, blowing in through the windows. I wish I can share in detail how much nature is showing her wonders. From the rustling of the trees up above to the cry of the insects down below. From the whistling of the wandering wind up above, to the hypnotic voice of the woman as she chants while she works, down below. These things cannot just be told, to be understood. They need to be felt to appreciate the remarkable wonders nature as got.

I feel sad and dazed of how much life has changed. Looking back to where I came from and then looking right now to where life’s journey has brought me, there are definitely some differences. I have been here for just a short while and already, I can see the different social classes and their style of living.

Trying to answer that, I started changing my perspective of where I am. Then I started to see the hidden beauties it has. Every time I look outside the car’s window, there are stories all around, stories just around the corner. Stories shown by the way people live, the way people bustle about the streets with emotions that can’t be explained in a thousand words. Stories waiting to be told.

I nearly cried pasting these passages above. Here is a young man who is thinking critically, asking important questions, using a fluid and simple prose to help guide him through his emotions. He sees the poetry in his life and understands it is wrapped in politics and art.

Thank you James. Thank you for listening. Please stay in touch we have important work to do in the years to come…

What Had I Done?

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In 7th grade history class where we have just begun studying the Industrial Revolution. As we lay the ground work for the unit, the curriculum suggested we take a look at a few key terms: laissez faire economics, factories, stocks, corporations, communism, unions and capitalism.

Fair enough. This is my cup of tea. This is what I love to teach. I started with a very simple, what I thought was unbiased and objective look, at the basic principles of capitalism. We discussed, corporations, shareholders, profit margin, competition, etc… The kids seemed very interested.

Then we moved on to Communism. We discussed labor, unions, strikes, means of production, etc…

By the end of the class, I had a few kids yell out, “I want to be a communist!” Woah, what had just happened? All day, I have been thinking about how we teach. What had I done? Even though it was not my intention had I skewed their views to match mine? Or had they simply, at the age of twelve, been able to see the fundamental flaws in a system that is rarely questioned.

I explained that we had simply looked at very basic outlines of both economic systems and that we would be looking more closely at them both throughout the unit, as they were the major outcomes of the Industrial Revolution. But will looking at child labor, factory conditions, both then and now in the developing world, build a case of Capitalism? How do I do that? Should I do that? Isn’t the world we live in constantly bombarding them with cases for capitalism? From the media they consume, to the clothes they wear, to the food they eat, to the images of themselves they are forced to have? Who is making the case that maybe there is an alternative system? Not necessarily a communist one, but a system that doesn’t involve factories in China, a system that doesn’t generate wealth for 1% of the world’s population. A system that may be, what’s the word? Fair? Just? Sane?

While we often accuse young people of being unfeeling, materialistic, and shallow, (the very outcomes of life lived on the basis of possession and profit) they are often very kind, fair and egalitarian. They look out for people, this despite the fact that they have been marketed toward their entire lives. So what does that say about them that they recognize poor labor practices as not fair? That making money should not be the end all in the human story?

Despite the fact that nearly all international schools boast a litany of Values and Mission Statements which emphasize camaraderie, global citizenship, compassion, and honesty, I felt like I had done something wrong by encouraging them to question Capitalism. As if the ghost of Joseph McCarthy was somehow looming in the halls. It is 2010 and I was afraid I would get a parent email chastising me for spreading propaganda. When all I had done was try to lay out the two philosophies at their most basic level. One is designed to create profit and wealth for its shareholders at any cost. The other to empower the labor force to gain control of their own wealth. Is there more to it than that?

In an effort to make sure my students have as fair and balanced an experience as they possible, I have since sent out a Twitter notice asking for any ardent Capitalists to Skype into my classroom and make their case. I have also arranged a debate with a fellow teacher in which I will take the Capitalist view and channel Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan.

But do I need to do all this? Should I feel guilty if I tried my best to be objective and the kids saw the flaws in a system that is at its core unjust? Anyway, would love your thoughts, ideas, or suggestions on where to go next.

Keep in mind that we have only briefly discussed Communism. We have not dealt with the regimes that came about, or the subsequent transformations of Marx’s simple philosophy. That is coming soon…

Maybe tomorrow I just sing this song and move on:

Generation We

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I first came across the Generation We video through my Twitter network. I think it was Alec Courous who posted it first. The video, while a bit overly produced and polished, seemed to have an urgent and authentic message. I followed the links to the website, and eventual I ordered the print copy of the book, although a PDF format is available from the website.

The book much like the video has its flaws, but over all the Generation We project appears to be a worthwhile endeavor. I will briefly highlight my criticisms, but I want to spend more energy on promoting the message, in hopes that more people will join the movement.

After reading the first few chapters, in which Eric Greenberg, identifies the make up of the Millennial generation, I found myself a bit insulted. The overly simplified generalizations, the slick use of stock photography, and the profusion of meaningless charts and graphs make the book appear to be more of a comic book than an important manifesto that will lead to any meaningful social change.

Greenberg spends too much time early on in his text, in my opinion, focusing on the importance of his project. The self-important tone early on in the book detracts from the powerful points he will later make. The overuse of colorful pull-quotes with words like “hopeful, optimistic, progressive, forward-thinking, and independent,” were a bit too much too handle for a cynical Gen X’er like myself.

I suppose that this sort of MTV-ifaction of his prose was meant to retain the attention span of a younger audience, but if Greenberg truly believes that this generation is as brilliant as he claims, then he should start by giving them a bit more credit, and simply deliver his message of hope and activism directly, rather than dilute it with shiny ornaments.

My second and final critique of this book is that we should always be skeptical of any one who so easily generalizes about large groups of people, making grandiose statements like:

Members of Generation We see their friend’s coming home from was with permanent injuries; they find themselves unable to afford healthcare, to save for retirement, or to fill up their tanks with gas. They blame the right for these problems, and they see the obstinacy and narrow-mindedness of conservatives as being antithetical to their own optimism and spirit of innovation. So they reject the failed solution of the right, even as they refuse to commit themselves wholeheartedly to any political party.

Chapter two of the book is riddled with oversimplifications like the statement above, but I suggest that readers simply skim the first chapter and get to the meat of the book. While Greenberg’s sophomoric style takes some getting used to, his message is a valuable one. This book would make an excellent text for any Global Issues class. Let us now explore its merits.

We are here to learn and evolve as souls, and this journey we call life is about having a higher purpose and meaning beyond satisfaction of our sense and accumulating possessions. Life is about working on behalf of others, taming our egos, and sharing our talents to make the planet a better place.

The book first outlines the pressing issues facing the world today:

Environmental Collapse
Health Catastrophe
A Failing Educational System
Economic Disaster
Creeping Totalitarianism
A World Ravaged by War

Each one of these bullet points is elucidated by sharp, concise prose like this:

Today’s mass media are effectively an instrument of mass consumerization. Commercials and editorial content both serve the same purpose: to brainwash viewers into choosing violent toys, processed food, fast food, and other poor lifestyle choices. They program us to spend our lives in front of a TV screen, video-game console, or computer monitor, where built-in tools for marketing, promotion, and habit influencing can work on us continually, making us sedentary, obese, diabetic, weak, and dependent on artificial stimulants. This then affects our cognitive ability and locks in spending, time, and consumption patterns. Before we know it, they own us. And if we are different and dissent, they marginalize us and ostracize us from society, abandoning us to lives of hopelessness, voicelessness, and poverty.

Suddenly Greenberg’s book is no longer a cute comic book, but a manifesto for a coming revolution. A handbook for a cultural lost in its own self-obsession and preservation. He goes on to say:

Simply put, Generation We inherits a planet in peril, in which plunderers who treat the world as their private property are exploiting institutions of government, society, and business to control resources, manipulate media and markets, and sell out the long-term interests of their nation and the world for personal short-term gain.

These hostile trends aren’t accidental, nor are they unconnected. They form a pattern by which plunderers and speculators seek to manipulate society so as to maintain and expand their own power and wealth. A former president and first lady used to speak about “a vast right-wing conspiracy.” Here, if anywhere, is the real conspiracy—collusion among business and governmental leaders, media moguls, educators, and religious leaders who have contrived national and international systems that serve to keep the people weak, fearful, helpless, and under control.

The goal of this conspiracy is not to impose ideological or political doctrine but simply to control the world’s power and wealth. These systems keep people sick and drained of energy through food that is non-nutritive, healthcare that is unaffordable, and an environment that is toxic. They keep people ignorant through an educational system that stifles dissent, stultifies creativity, and deadens the mind.

They keep people physically and psychologically dependent through reliance on illegal drugs, pharmaceuticals, other addictive substances such as nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol, and addictive behaviors such as gambling, electronic games, and mindless entertainment. They prosecute and convict record numbers of youth, especially minorities, to keep them from exercising the power of their numbers in the political system. They keep people frightened through constant drum-beating for war, exaggerated threats of terrorism, and media-created bogeymen (from Islamist extremists to illegal immigrants). And they keep people helpless through out-of-control debt, brainnumbing work, and financial dependency.

Their goal: to create a world in which the majority of the population are like high-paid serfs, unable or unwilling to organize, protest, or assert themselves and capable only of serving their corporate masters.

Greenberg goes on to outline the opportunities available to fight these perils:

The Power of Technology
The Global Spread of Knowledge
Environmental Awareness and Holistic Thinking

And a comprehensive agenda for what needs to be done. (This agenda can be found from the PDF book on pages 145-147)

Maybe you have a few other items you would like to add to this list. That’s great. Our goal here is to prime the pump—to start a national conversation, especially among Millennials themselves, about where we want to take our nation and the world. We are proposing an agenda—a list of items for discussion—not a plan. It is up to you, and every concerned citizen, to take part in shaping the strategy. Maybe you think some of the goals we’ve listed here are too ambitious—that we are being unrealistic in our dreams for the future. You may be right. But history shows that the human capacity to achieve great things is far greater than we normally realize.

The book ends with an impressive declaration and plan for action. You can find and sign it on the Gen We website. While I had qualms with the presentation of the content, I found this to be an important movement, and I recommend that teachers make the effort to connect our students to its message.

I plan on introduing this project to students on Intrepid Classroom. What do you think? How can your students get involved? Please leave comments with ideas about collaborarte, and let’s do some work on the ideas presented by Generation We.