Global awareness
Dear Teacher,
I am a survivor of a concentration camp.
My eyes saw what no man should witness:
Gas chambers built by learned engineers,
Children poisoned by educated physicians,
Infants killed by trained nurses,
Women and children shot and burned by high school and college graduates.
So I am suspicious of education.
My request is this:
Help your students become human.
Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.
Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.
A letter from a headteacher to his staff
(quoted in Steiner, 1993, p. 12)
Now complete the activity on the right. This aims to provide a clearer idea of 'our place' within global society and thereby demonstrate the importance of the global dimension to teaching and learning. It can be completed with colleagues and may be used during a staff INSET session.
Activity Resources:
- Images
- Interactive
- Sound
- Text
- Video
Activity
- Click on the Text icon and print off sufficient copies of 'Global village 1' and 'Global village 2' (based on DEA, 2001, and Theodore, 2000).
- Ask the staff to work individually or in pairs and estimate numbers for each category on 'Global village 1'. When everyone has completed this task, hand out 'Global village 2', which shows the actual figures.
- Now ask the staff to consider the following questions.
- What knowledge and perceptions do you consider informed your decision making in this exercise?
- Who informed you?
- Does the exercise reveal anything new to you about your or our place within a global society?
- What, if anything, does the exercise demonstrate about the importance of a global perspective to teaching and learning?
- Try this activity, or ask a colleague to try it, with a Year 6 group noting, where possible, what knowledge, understanding and perceptions inform pupils' decisions. Consider these questions.
- How does the activity inform you of pupils' understandings of the world?
- What does it reveal about their existing knowledge and perceptions?
- Does it suggest areas or issues where future teaching and learning might increase pupils' knowledge, improve their understandings, and challenge some of their perceptions?
