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Summing up
– In Hindsight ...
The purpose of the Global Curriculum Project including this resource, and the three others, is to set in place a global curriculum that can be implemented anywhere in the world. Every school has the capability to integrate the broad concepts outlined in this project, that would comply with your mandated curriculum, no matter what country you live in. If you choose to adopt this suite of resources and implement it in your school, state or country, you would fulfil your mandate, as an educator, in preparing our young people for the world they live in now, and the future world they will experience.222
Last century there was a very different mandate for educators, as our societies were locked into a stereotyped set of norms and expectations. Most people conformed to those norms that we trained them to accept in their 8–12 years at school, and, as a result, we became what someone else wanted us to become. In this century, those rules have been rewritten and while we initially will struggle with the newfound freedoms this affords, this shift has the potential for every citizen to release their full potential and be who they are within an inclusive community.
Once we start viewing ourselves as a global community rather than a set of discrete countries, the possibility of equity becomes plausible on this spinning or we call Earth. The radicalism, changes in migration, open or closed borders, cultural fears and large variances in economic security and wealth are all creating heightened levels of uncertainty, however these are the birth pangs of what we hope will be a transition into a far more equitable and thoughtful, global community.
The global pain and grief we are now experiencing is to be expected, as these pains always precede the emergence of new life. When a child is born, we all stare in wonder at what has been conceived and the journey that that child went through to be born and we are all witnesses to the global changes, (the birth pangs), we are now experiencing. Our collective global challenge is to ensure that this emerging global culture is born healthy, with the curiosity and the strength to survive the birth process and take on the challenges that lay ahead.
Our schools are the birth places of culture, beliefs and dreams. If we get school right, then each of our communities around the world has a chance of being part of a new renaissance, a new period of enlightenment. The alternative slide into a new dark age; a stillborn child, is plausible, but does not bear thinking about.
Once born, the child must start making sense of their new world and their place in it. We may not be able to stop the natural disasters that will befall us but we can stop the man-made ones. This emerging global mindset requires us to have a perspective that will involve a strong global governance body that has the authority to provide the rights that some now enjoy, and bequeath them to everyone, no matter who they are and where on this planet they may live.
Yes, we all have rights, but we must earn those rights by attending to our individual and corporate responsibilities. We are not adorned with rights just because we survive birth; we must give more than we take, and if we do this, there will be plenty for all and no one needs to go without. We all desire the freedom to become who we are and express ourselves in ways that reflect our uniqueness, but first we must be conscious of our responsibilities to each other. That culture is blooded in families and refined in our schools and outworked in our lives.
222 The chapter 30 summary video can be found here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBzUyMMXhM0 if you are reading the book, otherwise click on the video icon at the top of the page and the video will open in your browser
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