AT SCHOOL
You have seen young changemakers operating at schools.
Cassandra
Emma
Meghana
Meghana 3D-prints ...
… prosthetic hands.
She had always been fascinated by the technology, but never found reason to use it … until on a holiday in rural India, she saw children that had lost fingers, hands or feet through accidents.
In rural India, even adults cannot afford protheses, and surely not children who outgrow them within a year or two. It was shocking to see, and Meghana felt like from a different world. But this was exactly why she could help.
“I can print these myself”, she realized, and it took her only minutes on the internet to find templates, tutorials – easy. And it cost only $25€ a piece. Just some pocket money to change a child’s life. “What kind of person would she be if she didn’t act on this?”
Back home, she walked her talk. A common 3D-printer as enough, hit go, zip zap, go to sleep, and next morning assemble pieces with a few screws and rubber bands. Complete before breakfast.
Meghana served many children via partner organizations, but to top it off, she also explains what this truly is:
A rare opportunity to add real-life purpose to Maker Stuff and fablabs – especially at schools! You bet, teachers and students love it.
It’s now in your hands to tell makers, teachers and – what a cool mission – to start printing with a purpose.
Ana
Namaste Nepal
Lulu
Here is what they say about school.
Prick your ears. You’re now getting an education 😉
“One of the first things we ever did as a team was sit down and talk about our strengths and weaknesses (it’s harder than you would think!). Sometimes we have to turn down events if we have a conflicting schedule. We needed to learn time management, which is another life skill. We lead a rich and vibrant Life!
As cheesy as it sounds, I would not be the same person I am today if I hadn’t started TGIF. I’m a lot more confident in myself since starting this project, which has positively affected my relationships with my friends and family. My presentation skills and public speaking have dramatically improved as well! My teammates also have high self-respect and they carry this into their academic work.
Kids learn in so many different ways. You can learn so much by creating a video, or making a presentation to the class, or designing and making crafts. If you only allow teachers giving lectures in a classroom and that sort of thing, you’re really just limiting the kids and their potential.
The benefits of a student project go on and on. Along the way, you learn so many lessons that are going to stay for you for the rest of your life, like how to be a salesman (we sell our project to restaurant owners), engage with audiences, public speaking, and teamwork, to name a few. These things cannot be taught in a book or in a lesson. You have to be out there and experience it for yourself!”
In short:
“The idea (of education) is not to turn us into your kind of adults. But into better adults than you have been.”
Adora, age 12
View her 10-minute talk
Do YOU actually know the Purpose of Schooling?
Most likely – it’s not what you think.
Law of Education, State of Berlin
§1 The Purpose of Schooling
The purpose of schooling is to unfold all of students’ precious talents, and to nurture an excellent degree of faculty of judgement, sound knowledge and skills. The goal has to be the education of personalities that are able to strongly counter the ideology of nazism and all political ideologies aiming at a rule of force, and to form societal life on the basis of democracy, peace, liberty, human dignity, gender equality, and in harmony with nature and the environment. These personalities must be aware of their responsibility towards the community, and their demeanor must be defined by the recognition of equal rights for all people, the respect of all honest conviction, the recognition of the necessity for continuous development of societal conditions, and peaceful agreement among peoples. In doing so, Antiquity, Christianity, and the essential societal movements that led to the development towards Humanism, to Liberty and to Democracy shall be outlined.
In short:
The purpose of schooling is to enable able, active, caring citizens of peaceful libertarian-democratic societies that are also sustainable in a harmoniously collaborating global family of nations.
We’re pretty sure that your state’s Purpose Of Schooling is about the same. Go check it out and send it to us attached to your Reflection Form below.
Please tell us about your state's Purpose Of Schooling
This is where Craig’s story continues.
Craig Kielburger: “Never before in human history have teachers been this important. They decide whether we get a chance to learn to create a good world for all, or not.”
As youth teams sprung up at thousands of schools, they decided “we need to bring our teams together, for inspiration, to celebrate their achievements and kick off momentum for a new year of action” … and thus they founded WE DAY.
You cannot buy a ticket to WE DAY.
You earn it, through service – by doing 1 local + 1 global action.
ACTIVE STUDENTS IN THIS HALL
This is almost a vintage clip, from 2009
Learn how it all began
“One morning at breakfast when I was flipping through the newspaper looking for comics, I noticed a photo of a young boy in a red jacket holding up his fist. You don’t usually see such photos, so I read the article about the boy Iqbal Masih who was sold into slavery at age 4 to pay for his family’s $10 dollar debt. He worked weaving carpets up to 16 hours a day, no week-ends off. After he tried to escape, he was chained to the workplace. When he was finally freed by an Indian child rights organization, he started speaking out against child labor and gained attention of the media. At age 12, he returned to his village. Weeks later, he got shot dead by an uncle.
I was also 12 years old at the time, I didn’t know there was child labor, or where Pakistan was on the map. All I knew was – I had to do something.
At school, that morning, I asked my teacher, Mr. Fedrigoni, whether I could speak to the class about an issue I was passionate about. He replied ‘You have three minutes’. I explained what I had learned to the class, finishing with ‘I don’t know what to do, but I know we have to do something. Who wants to help me?’ 11 hands went up, Free The Children was born.”
When we told our parents ...
… ‘we need to liberate children from slavery’, and adults replied ‘that’s hopeless, impossible’, we did not listen to the adults. Instead, we liberated many, changed laws and got child labor free carpet seals established on the global market. As we found out that some children fell back into labor, for lack of options, we realized that they needed an education.
When we said ‘we need to build schools for these children,’ and adults replied ‘that’s hopeless, impossible,’ we did not listen to the adults. Instead, we started building a new school every week, 750 to-date, plus health clinics, water and alternative income programs.
Banish the terms ‘hopeless’ and ‘impossible’ from your vocabulary. We CAN change the world, and WE teams at thousands of schools are proving it every single day.
SCHOOLS INVOLVED IN 2020
YOUTH ENGAGED IN WE SCHOOLS 2017
WE DAY ATTENDANTS BY 2020
ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTED BY 2020
VOLUNTEERING HOURS BY YEAR 2020
$ RAISED AT WE SCHOOLS IN 2017
STUDENTS IN WE TEAMS
WE DAYS IN ALL CANADIAN CITIES + THE USA + BRITAIN
“If Mr. Fedrigoni had not given me those 3 minutes that day, I don’t know Free The Children would be today.”
“I am proud to know that as a teacher I played a small role in Craig’s beginnings.” – Mr. Fedrigoni
%
OF TEACHERS say they feel professionally more fulfilled
%
OF TEACHERS discover new leadership skills in their students
%
OF STUDENTS feel more self-confident
%
OF STUDENTS volunteer for favorite causes after school
%
OF STUDENTS feel a stronger connection to their local community
%
OF STUDENTS are more likely to stand up for others who are discriminated against
%
OF ALUMNI volunteer & donate to charity annually
%
OF ALUMNI eligible vote in elections
100+ MILLION DOLLARS WORTH GENERATED
The story doesn’t end here. In the Crash Course, we look in more detail at how Craig and Marc have made “creating a good world for all” integral part of learning culture and how YL helps do the same with an even greater scope of causes, activities, hero*ines and self-organization.
Essential Insight # 6
School is the only space and time in our life
- where all young people meet
- almost daily, for their 10 forming years
to learn how to create a good world for all
- to agree on common priorities and goals for their next 70 years on Earth together
- to take action, experience their agency and develop skills and trust in themselves and in others
with
- macro community
- good infrastructure
- support on demand
in a place meant to fulfill the maybe most important and sacred function in our society enshrined in the Law Of Education §1 THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOLING :
“to enable Able Active Caring Citizens of a peaceful, sustainable, thriving libertarian-democratic society, in harmonious collaboration with a global family of nations”
- which is a model of citizen yet unachieved by adult generations but masterfully embodied by today’s teen and twen changemakers
- young people that achieve to create a good world for all, which is universally recognized as #1 priority of our century
- recognized with our society’s highest awards, celebrated as hero*ines in media, their stories read at bedtime and invited as role models to speak at school
which means that ALL youth have the moral and legal RIGHT to learn to be like them, by growing up like them, be living life at school like they do – in Changemaker Student Clubs – and to be respected like them, like Our New Highly Gifted, actively involved by teachers to co-shape learning culture.
AND EVERY SINGLE PERSON CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THIS by making hero*ine role models with high impact projects that make tangible impact on lives and land omni-present at schools and connect youth and their adult allies to changemakers and coaches. This means – also you.