THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE AND GLOBAL EDUCATION

As we are forced to take note of the horrible events in Haiti in our global education classrooms, we should focus on the effects of massive poverty on an entire nation. With more than 80% of its people below the poverty line and an almost total lack of infrastructure, Haitians are at the mercy of the powers of nature.

How do we try to make sense in our classrooms of the natural events that have befallen Haiti? The truth is, we can make no ethical or moral sense of it at all, because the events are simply "accidents of nature" -- uncontrollable planetary forces that obey no ethical or moral code.

Some may try to find an answer within the major religious traditions; those attempts are headed toward certain failure. In the current issue of Newsweek Magazine, referring to the story of suffering Job in the Jewish and Christian scriptures, Lisa Miller writes,

Haiti is surely a Job among nations. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere: half its population lives on less than a dollar a day. With 98% of its forests felled and burned for firewood, Haiti is uniquely vulnerable to flooding from hurricanes. In 2008 four storms in as many weeks left half a million homeless. Haiti has an infant mortality rate worse than that of many African nations, and its people are plagued by disease....

Now, with as many as 100,000 dead in last week's earthquake, a sensible person of faith has to grapple with the problem of what scholars call theodicy. If God is good and intervenes in the world, then why does he make innocents suffer? Why, as Job might have said, would God "crush an impoverished people with a tempest and multiply their wounds without cause?

The theodicy dilemma has been the most intractable issue for theologians of all faiths for two thousand years; it appears to not have a rational solution. An omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omni-benevolent God decrees or allows unspeakable misfortune to befall hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children. A rational explanation is not easy to come by. Like Voltaire's Candide trying to understand how the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 could occur in "the best of all possible worlds," reason forces us to question our cultural conditioning.

In the absence of rational explanations, others, like American TV-evangelist (and former Presidential candidate) Reverend Pat Robertson, will concoct weirdly fanciful stories that fit their theological schemas, such as a Godly punishment to Haitians for making a "pact with the devil" as part of their war of liberation against the French. In his surrealist version of reality, Reverend Robertson does not explain why his benevolent God would kill today's infants and children for what anyone did 200 years ago.

We are largely at the mercy of nature; let's just admit that. Human science has not advanced enough to provide a shield against these massive planetary forces.

Rather than attempting to explain the unexplainable by using failed and irrational means, let us try to concentrate in the global classroom on the causes of under-development, the disintegrating impact of national poverty, the role of national and international organizations in ameliorating disasters, and the prospects for a more rational and just future global society.

We should also take note of the unanticipated outcomes of technological development. While often these byproducts are negative, in this case they have a positive aspect. Note the tremendous ease with which anyone can donate to the Haiti relief efforts in a matter of seconds by simply "texting" his/her contribution. The inter-relationship among science, technology and society is most complex and often surprising!

We should further discuss in our classrooms that, in cases of obvious "natural malevolence," normally self-centered humans and the nations we inhabit are capable of cooperation and good will. The empathetic global response to Haiti's catastrophe shows the best of human nature at work. It gives us hope that, under the right circumstances and with inspired leadership, we may one day set aside our petty national, ethnic, or religious conflicts in order to survive and prosper as a human species.

PESSIMISM, OPTIMISM, OR REALISM ?

In the last post I commented on my selection of the "Key Global Issues of Our Time," identifying five issues that in my opinion should become part of every global education curriculum.

Obviously, we cannot limit the global issues of concern to humans at this point in time to only five. We should be focusing on 10 or 15 issues that are worthy of our efforts (for example, the energy crisis, over-consumption among the world's ultra rich, and the rapidly approaching global water crisis.)

The purpose behind limiting my initial selection to five and asking readers to make their own selection was to promote critical thinking and forced ranking in order to intensify the level of analysis normally given to major global issues.

As anyone can see, our readers did an outstanding job commenting on my selections and offering others of their own choosing. Great job!

A frequently asked question among educators is, "Don't we create unnecessary pessimism when we discuss such heavy-duty global issues in the classroom?" I believe the real educational problem is a different one. Yes, there may be moments of pessimism in the classroom as we consider the by-products of climate change, or the aftermath of a nuclear confrontation. However, do we do our students and their parents -- or human society -- a favor by ignoring the obvious?

Some issues are as problematic as they are real. As educators, we do not have a choice to lie to our students about the nature of the reality they inhabit. A lie of omission is a betrayal of our educational duty to speak truth to our students.

While unnecessary pessimism ("The sky is falling and there is nothing you can do about it!") is neither realistic nor functional, rosy optimism and the lie of silence are unworthy of being considered real "education." We must insist on the objective presentation of the real dangers to global health and well-being, at the same time that we make clear that these issues are largely of human manufacture and can be solved or ameliorated with proper focus, analysis, and commitment.

We live now in the world created by our ancestors. By most accounts, they did not do a terrific job. We can -- and must -- do better. Our students will have that duty as part of their "job description" for living in peace and justice on planet Earth. Lying about the nature of the reality they face isn't going to improve their future. Quite the contrary -- it will make their lives worse.

And when, you may ask, should we confront our students with their real world? As soon as possible, and at the level of cognitive functioning that they are capable of. Any simplification of an issue's complexity or harshness should be indulged in only to adapt instruction to the students' intellectual capability -- not to pretend that the world is rosier than it is, or to make it easier for the teacher to trek through difficult terrain.

As a human family, we can create a better world and a better future for all -- but only if we are well informed of the reality we inhabit and have the wisdom and the courage to commit to the creation of that better world.

If we do our job as educators, our students will do their job as the creators of a better world.

WHAT ARE THE KEY GLOBAL ISSUES OF OUR TIME?

When we implement a global education program, we must necessarily address within its curriculum the critical global issues that we humans confront in our time -- and the coming future. It is the realization that we must resolve these transnational global issues, that has forced even entrenched nationalists to understand and accept the need for a global focus on education and planetary problem solving.

Some educators prefer to address these global issues within the framework of an existing curriculum, infusing certain issues into the scope and sequence of existing courses (environmental degradation within Biology or Earth Science; energy issues within Economics; nuclear proliferation within Government or Political Science, etc.) One advantage of this approach is that it creates minimum disruption to the existing curriculum. In some situations this is all that a global educator can do, given the inflexibility of many curriculum planners.

It is most often better, however, to create a dual-pronged approach: infusing critical global issues within the existing courses, while at the same time creating a separate course on "Global Issues" or "Global Perspectives." This provides maximum flexibility in the selection of issues to be studied and allows sufficient time for the analysis and discussion of difficult, complex issues.

When teachers communicate and collaborate with one another with respect to the consideration of global issues in the classroom, students have the advantage of confronting issues from different perspectives and from different levels of analysis.

Whichever method is followed, the question remains: Which issues should be included in the curriculum? Some local or regional flexibility is needed. In the USA, for instance, the war in Afghanistan may constitute a national priority; in East Africa, piracy in the high seas might take precedence. Nevertheless, there is a core of issues of inescapable global significance that should be a part of every global curriculum. I will identify below my own selection of the top five current issues of global significance, at the same time that I invite all readers to comment and amend the list based on their own experience and opinions. There is no magic to the number "five." In effect, it is an arbitrarily small number to encourage discussion and hard choices in the selection process. The real list for a course on Global Isues could be two or three times longer.

In my opinion, a first, unifying core for all other issues considered must be the ABSENCE OF RESPECT FOR BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS IN TODAY'S GLOBAL REALITY. The analysis and discussion of a human rights paradigm will establish an ethical foundation on which to weigh all other issues considered. The definition of this human rights paradigm is made easier by the existence of many United Nations agreements and treaties that most nations of the world have accepted as a standard of acceptable human behavior -- even if in practice most nations violate multiple provisions of these accords on a regular basis.

At the very core of these UN agreements are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Establishing this human rights framework should be an initial priority of any global education program.

A second unavoidable issue is the ongoing revolution in gender roles that we can refer to as "THE FEMALE AWAKENING" -- possibly the greatest social revolution in human history. If we consider the extent of its direct and indirect impact on the entire human species and the restructuring power of the ongoing changes on all human societies, we must take note and help our students understand these revolutionary changes taking place in their lifetime. While it is true that this revolution is not affecting all human societies in the same measure and at the same time, it is also obviously true that no human society will escape the impact of the "Female Awakening."

The male domination of human society is over. The power of communications and transportation infrastructures will ensure that all corners of the world will soon have to adapt to the new human reality. The questions that still remain relate to the specifics of how the change will take place and the societal accommodations to the new order of gender equality. Not even the bulwarks of religious dogma will be able to withstand the impact of the female awakening.

A third issue of paramount importance is the dehumanizing impact of POVERTY, HUNGER AND DISEASE in the world. Poverty is at the core of hunger and disease -- as well as of overpopulation. Our students must confront the inhuman realities surrounding this issue. In previous posts we have discussed the need to develop "basic human empathy" to help our students understand and feel the destructive impact of abject poverty.

A fourth issue of paramount global importance is the ongoing and impending CLIMATE CHANGE, including global warming. Since so much has been written on this subject, I will not expand further at this point. Let us simply agree that -- given the scientific data easily available -- any teacher who at this point believes that climate change is not real, or that human impact has not been a significant contributor to the crisis, is not a teacher who should be teaching in a global curriculum.

My fifth issue is NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION. There are few things that political opponents around the planet normally agree on. However, whether we ask leaders of the USA, Russia, the EU, China, India or Pakistan, nuclear proliferation will regularly be mentioned as the top danger in an already dangerous world. We should listen and take note. The USA remains the only nation to have actually used nuclear weapons against an enemy's population; this unenviable record may be shattered if vertical and horizontal nuclear proliferation are allowed to continue.

While most national leaders are fully aware of the nuclear proliferation problem and have taken some limited measures to slightly diminish the dangers, the entrance of non-state actors --such as terrorist groups -- into the picture significantly complicates the future. If humanity is unable to deal with this problem, we are facing unimaginable disaster.

Those are my personal picks for the "top five" major global issues of our time. I realize that there are many others which could have been selected. One major barrier to the peaceful resolution of these issues is the lack of truly supra-national institutions that can speak and act for all humanity. We currently have an excess of nationalistic aggression and dogmatic fervor in the world. To counteract them, we have only international institutions (such as the UN) which provide a forum for all nations -- but are often not empowered to act effectively on behalf of all humanity. We must do better, either by creating new, truly supra-national organizations, or expanding the reach of the United Nations.

At the same time, we must develop better channels to listen to the voices of the weak and the oppressed, on whose behalf these supra-national organizations would labor.

The realization that we must move forward as a human species and seek trans-national solutions to global issues is seen in the partial success of the EU and other bodies; however, we must not delay. There is no guarantee that the dangers will wait for us.

All readers are invited to review my selections and make their own additions, subtractions, or changes as their knowledge and experience dictate. Feel free to discuss your views and agree or disagree in the "comments" section following this post.

I shall be looking forward to your comments!