The Blue DOT Issue 13

CHIEF EDITOR’S
MESSAGE
Education:
Beyond the Rhetoric
DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE
“Look again at that dot.
That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.
On it, everyone you love,
everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of,
every human being who ever was,
lived out their lives.
The aggregate of our joy and suffering
thousands of confident religions,
ideologies, and economic doctrines,
every hunter and forager, every hero and coward,
every creator and destroyer of civilization,
every king and peasant, every young couple in love,
every mother and father, hopeful child,
inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals,
every corrupt politician, every superstar,
every supreme leader, every saint
and sinner in the history of our species lived thereon
a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
CARL SAGAN
PALE BLUE DOT: A VISION OF THE HUMAN FUTURE IN SPACE
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year 2021. I wish your loved
ones and you good health, and peace.
At the beginning of 2020, not many of
us would have imagined that we would
be locked up in our homes for most
of the year, transitioning to work from
home, with most schools shutting down
the world over and our children being
forced to adjust to the ‘new normal’ of
remote learning. The world has changed
significantly and I believe the COVID-19
pandemic has brought to fore three
overriding acknowledgements:
1) The first one is that humans are
really struggling to live in peace
with ourselves, trying to come to terms
with the change that has overtaken our
lives. While this trend has been on the
rise even pre-COVID, the pandemic has
re-enforced this further. According to
WHO (2015), 25% of children between
13 and 15 years have some form of mental
health issues, including stress, anxiety
and depression – a statistic that is quite
disturbing. The same report highlights
another disturbing statistic – that over
800,000 suicides are reported every year
across the globe amongst young people.
When we discuss sustainable development
and sustainability – this is definitely one
trend that is not sustainable.
2) The second issue is that we are
struggling to live with each other
– brought to fore by the systemic racism
and intolerance prevalent globally. In a
2015-2016 survey conducted by MGIEP
globally, in which we collected 1,200 youth
responses from 120 countries, many felt
that in times of national security – it was
okay to use force against others or it was
okay for some to have more opportunities
than others – again, a very disturbing
trend.
3) And the third issue is living in peace
with nature – viewing ourselves as
part of nature (not divorced from it) and
respecting nature as a living entity
These issues reiterate the need for change,
which must start with ourselves. And what
better way than through our education and
learning systems, which present various
opportunities that I detail below in four
propositions:
1) Proposition 1 – The education system
that we have perpetuates the existential
crisis we find ourselves in today because we
look at education purely as an instrumental
perspective – as a means to an end – an
end which is material wealth and social
status, propagating the I vs you and the us
vs them – this needs to be deconstructed.
2) Proposition 2 – We need an education
for human flourishing – flourishing in a
way that you have freedom to achieve the
life that you value. We need an education
system that trains us to be curious, to
enquire and to be critical for our own
understanding rather than just taking in
what the teacher says. Additionally, we
need systems that train us to be kind,
compassionate and empathetic.
3) Proposition 3 – A science and
evidence-based approach to design such
education systems as it is complex.
4) Proposition 4 – Lastly, we need to
relook at how we assess learning – it has
to be continuous, dynamic, interactive,
individualised – as opposed to being a
one size fits all approach – where failure is
embraced as a learning process.
Issue 13 of The Blue DOT aims to
go beyond the rhetoric by addressing
the four propositions presented above
in our quest to build peaceful and
sustainable societies. This Blue DOT
issue aims to propose new ways
of looking at education systems in
terms of content, evaluation and
assessments, pedagogy, the role
of the teacher, and capturing and
integrating voices of the youth in
education systems. We hear from
experts and youth around the world as
they present inspiring solutions and ideas
that are based on evidence and backed
by the sciences for an interconnected,
interdependent world.
I hope you enjoy reading this issue as
much as we enjoyed working on it – and
as always I look forward to receiving
your feedback on how we can work on
improving future issues of The Blue DOT.
ANANTHA KUMAR DURAIAPPAH
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