{"id":104,"date":"2012-10-28T18:01:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T18:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/?p=104"},"modified":"2015-09-08T21:23:39","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T21:23:39","slug":"what-should-a-21st-century-syllabus-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/2012\/10\/28\/what-should-a-21st-century-syllabus-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a 21st Century Syllabus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albert Schweitzer<\/a>\u00a0once said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what your destiny may be, but one thing I know. The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powerful claim.<\/p>\n

In the age of digital immigrants, natives, and net generations, where an i-market has created an i-army of consumers and followers, perhaps the notion of healthy service has been confused with a kind of enslavement.\u00a0 Competition for university entrance, brand name schools, high-end results, etc., places students under enormous pressure to perform for fear of being left behind.\u00a0 They are in perpetual motion, running up the down escalator with no emergency stop button to let them catch their breaths, or take stock of where they’ve been or where they’re headed, or sadly, if they even want to run in that direction.\u00a0 The path is set for them and we tell them to run.<\/p>\n

In this flurry of fear and action, students think only of themselves in their contests for success.\u00a0 There is no time to consider others, no time for real service as someone else might pass them in the never-ending race to \u2018success\u2019. \u00a0The result?\u00a0 The i-army is cut off from others, from the self.\u00a0 When \u2018successes\u2019 are achieved, they seem empty, transitory, because students have no time to reflect on them as they are pushed forward to the next escalator. There is no joy in the process; sadder still, there is no joy in the success. \u00a0Achievement is fleeting and unfulfilling.<\/p>\n

In Schweitzer\u2019s words, service to others is essential for one\u2019s happiness.\u00a0 Schools are recognizing this imperative and applying it in new ways.\u00a0 They are re-thinking 21st<\/sup> century education in the context of service.\u00a0 What is more, they are inviting students to the table, to be active participants in this dialogue. \u00a0There is a newfound focus in the desire to enfranchise students. Craig and Marc Kielburger\u2019s Free the Children<\/a> and Me To We<\/a> are clear examples of this shift.\u00a0 Students across the country workshop ideas and strategies to bring awareness of the realities of poverty and child labour to their schools and communities.\u00a0 Students raise funds through service initiatives to provide materials for the construction of schools and wells in various communities across the globe.<\/p>\n

As students are invited to consider, at times create, and impact on their curriculum, they develop accountability for their education.\u00a0 They develop life skills for the 21st<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Studies show that students who contribute to the way they learn develop lasting pride, ownership, and curiosity in what they learn.\u00a0 Dr. Anthony Seldon<\/a>, Master of Wellington College, Berkshire contends, \u201cThese lessons will challenge pupils to explore themselves and their talents, learn in a practical way how to better look after their bodies, minds and emotions, enhance their relationship with others, with technology and the environment, and help them to learn how to make themselves, not others (including friends and parents), the masters of their lives.\u201d What educational curriculum would not want to embrace these objectives and develop free-thinking and responsible individuals?\u00a0 Asked to present their version of a free-thinking and responsible curriculum, two high school students in Ontario produced the mind map below.\u00a0 It’s worth a look.<\/p>\n

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Happiness and service are linked by ownership and self-determination.\u00a0 Students need time to think <\/em>about what will be meaningful, to them.\u00a0 But where in our congested and frantic timetables do we provide time for this kind of reflection and meditation?<\/p>\n

Where do we provide occasion for students to pause and reflect, breathe and wonder?\u00a0 To know who they are, and not who their parents, coaches, teachers, schools, media think they should be?\u00a0 When do we allow students time to have these vital conversations with themselves?\u00a0 It\u2019s not in the curriculum. \u00a0Not yet.<\/p>\n

Nigel Barlow<\/a>, at the Apple Education Leadership Institute 2012, Toronto, introduced the idea of building quiet time into the structure of the day.\u00a0 He recommends fifteen minutes of uninterrupted meditation, twice a day, school-wide.\u00a0 He cites the Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco, California as an exemplar of the Transcendental Meditation Program in practice.<\/p>\n

[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6kw79-d7LV0[\/youtube]<\/p>\n

Fifteen minutes, twice a day, school-wide.\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone quiet. \u00a0Still with their thoughts.\u00a0 Recalibrating, breathing, calming down and listening to the voice within, as opposed to the pervasive and invasive voices of media, teachers, parents, and the incessant honking of horns on the information highway.\u00a0\u00a0 As small and subtle as this shift may appear, the results indicate that reflection is critical<\/em> for learning.<\/p>\n

Students who have a voice in determining what they learn will experience the real joy in learning.\u00a0 That, in turn, makes our service as teachers genuine and fulfilling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albert Schweitzer\u00a0once said, \u201cI don\u2019t know what your destiny may be, but one thing I know. The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.\u201d Powerful claim. In the age of digital immigrants, natives, and net generations, where an i-market has created an i-army … Continue reading “Creating a 21st Century Syllabus”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,1],"tags":[14,19,38,7],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-21st-century-curriculum","category-uncategorized","tag-21st-century-syllabus","tag-curriculum","tag-meditation","tag-nigel-barlow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}