I am a teacher by trade and a learner by nature. I firmly believe that teaching is an act of faith and hope... if we didn't have hope we wouldn't bother investing in the future, and that is really what teaching is, it is investing in the future.
At the moment I am reading a book by Michael Aschenbach- Vision 3000. I have only just started it but it has got me thinking.
Currently in New Zealand we are getting ready for our parliamentary elections, the behaviour of our politicians in the recent past has been really shameful and the behaviour of our media manipulative. Although I understand that corruption exists in many places I did think naively that in our country we were better than the depths of deceit and disregard for the regular folk we are witnessing. I am not the only one concerned, and this is not about any particular political persuasion, there seems to be a lot of people dismayed in a lot of ways and I get a sense that the discontent is becoming palpable. Perhaps this is also a reflection of other world events at the moment where we see people treating other people poorly, where power is being wielded unwisely and trust is being broken time and time again, perhaps in New Zealand we are realising that we don't want to follow the others this time.
In Michael's book he talks about this turmoil being part of a transformative process. When we as human beings decide enough is enough we will bring about positive change. Trevor Grice, a mentor in my past work, said the following often 'in our struggle we find our strength'. I have to think that through the struggles we are currently experiencing locally, nationally and internationally we are finding strength. Strength to change the way things work, strength to let past hurts go so we can embrace diversity rather than fight it, strength to hold on to that which will move us forward and let go of that which is holding us back.
In order for that to happen I believe we need to be educating our children to think widely and question deeply. They need to engage their imaginations and dream big, bold dreams. They are the leaders of our future and god willing they will be stronger, better leaders than many of us are looking to at the moment.
There is so much to be grateful for, so much good in this world and so much to look forward to... we do not have to keep repeating the mistakes of our forbears or of other nations/belief systems around the world. We can forge new paths on the way to create the kinder, braver, better new world that we want our children to inherit.
At the moment I am reading a book by Michael Aschenbach- Vision 3000. I have only just started it but it has got me thinking.
Currently in New Zealand we are getting ready for our parliamentary elections, the behaviour of our politicians in the recent past has been really shameful and the behaviour of our media manipulative. Although I understand that corruption exists in many places I did think naively that in our country we were better than the depths of deceit and disregard for the regular folk we are witnessing. I am not the only one concerned, and this is not about any particular political persuasion, there seems to be a lot of people dismayed in a lot of ways and I get a sense that the discontent is becoming palpable. Perhaps this is also a reflection of other world events at the moment where we see people treating other people poorly, where power is being wielded unwisely and trust is being broken time and time again, perhaps in New Zealand we are realising that we don't want to follow the others this time.
In Michael's book he talks about this turmoil being part of a transformative process. When we as human beings decide enough is enough we will bring about positive change. Trevor Grice, a mentor in my past work, said the following often 'in our struggle we find our strength'. I have to think that through the struggles we are currently experiencing locally, nationally and internationally we are finding strength. Strength to change the way things work, strength to let past hurts go so we can embrace diversity rather than fight it, strength to hold on to that which will move us forward and let go of that which is holding us back.
In order for that to happen I believe we need to be educating our children to think widely and question deeply. They need to engage their imaginations and dream big, bold dreams. They are the leaders of our future and god willing they will be stronger, better leaders than many of us are looking to at the moment.
There is so much to be grateful for, so much good in this world and so much to look forward to... we do not have to keep repeating the mistakes of our forbears or of other nations/belief systems around the world. We can forge new paths on the way to create the kinder, braver, better new world that we want our children to inherit.
Yes I think we are getting closer to the edge of having to make a decision as a human race. Decide to push through and change, which will be difficult or accept and be unhappy and unfulfilled as a race. Much like the caterpillar transforming into the butterfly - it must go through the struggle to be strong. I think there are wonderful examples of people that have lead the way in the past. Kate Sheppard being an obvious starter...
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking of the caterpillar quote when I started writing this... just when the caterpillar thought the world was over it became a butterfly :)
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