- by Tim Breen, Ph.D., Head of School
Last week I wrote about how we link all of our expedition courses to real challenges in the world, using a list of 25 great challenges as a guide. This, of course, relates to our mission of preparing students “to take on the world’s greatest challenges” and to our design principles -- specifically Real-World Learning and Work that Matters.
One of our other design principles is Student Agency. We want to engage students in shaping their education because we know that leads to the most enduring learning. In this spirit, a few weeks ago we surveyed students about what they see as the biggest issues or challenges in the world today. Ideally, we are learning about challenges that are both real in the world, and alive in the hearts of our students.
I was impressed with the range and depth of issues students raised. There was a cluster of five issues that clearly rose to the top for our students: climate change, COVID, racism, issues related to poverty and inequality, and issues related to political polarization and civil discourse (the lack thereof).
Even though students were not asked to elaborate, a few had short comments: A sample:
“I think that some challenges in our world right now are environmental issues and thinking about the future.” (I appreciate the forward thinking aspect of this.)
“Pandemics and global solutions to health crises.” (I like how this is not just about today and COVID, but about how we approach health crises broadly.)
“Black Lives Matter movements and how some people in the world are not taking things seriously.”
“The inability for people to be able to have a civil conversation without judgment or screaming and yelling. People seem to be unable to listen to others opinions.”
“I’m not really sure, but one of the major ones is the lack of accessibility to essential things for less privileged families.”
And while these issues rose to the top, just as important was the broad range of concerns our students raised -- including:
sexism
LGBTQ issues
social media addiction
pollution
animal cruelty
fascism
isolation
human rights
world peace
classism
women's rights
social justice
immigration
animal extinction
In a culture where we hear so much about the selfishness of adolescents, I feel lucky to be at a school where young people truly care about challenges in the world around them -- and where educators support students to think deeply, practice compassion, and voice their truths. I am deeply impressed with our students’ understanding of issues, with their empathy for others, and with their commitment to making a difference in the world.
