21st century is often reference in
education we talk about education or the
21st century 21st century skills and
educating the 21st century learner
now I actually cringe when I hear 21st
century because I find it so limiting
there’s a video called shift happens and
it’s shift within happen and in it it
says that we are currently preparing
students for jobs that don’t yet exist
they will be using technologies that
have yet to be invented to solve
problems that aren’t even that we don’t
even know our problems yet now I suggest
that we look at the TED talks and TED
Talks are ideas worth spreading
and here’s my idea I think it’s time
that we move beyond just numbers and we
expand our thinking that we change our
words and we move beyond the number of
the 21st century and start talking about
educating the new humanity and was
learning like news many the new humanity
is the humanity that seeks to cultivate
a peaceful world of love beauty and
selfless service
it’s a harmonious world that embraces
unity interconnectedness and the
resilience of all and what that’s
educating the new humanity
educating the new humanity focuses on
teaching and learning that recognizes
each individual as a whole person you
need but United in the world and what
does educating the new humanity look
like in the schools educating the new
humanity is recognizing and not just
recognizing but honoring each student as
a whole child now we hear the term whole
child used in education and many of you
may know that the whole child consists
of the cognitive physical social
emotional and spiritual components now
we do a really good job in education in
the first floor especially now since
social-emotional learning has really
found the important place in education
but you know what we still don’t do a
good job with spirituality in education
and much of that is because education is
so afraid of confusing spirituality with
religion the spirituality is not
religion and I ask you if in fact we
aren’t going to address the spirituality
component in our students and in our
schools can we really say that they are
educating the whole child I think not my
research in resilience
my research findings have found
consistent findings with others in
research and who have found that is
often the spirituality
in our students
that’s the portal for them to tap into
their resilience as they confront and
navigate the family school and life
challenges of today yet like I said we
are so afraid of bringing spirituality
in our schools for fear of using
spirituality with religion so I’m going
to take a minute and without value
judgment make some distinctions between
spirituality and religion religion is an
institution organized around ideology
doctrine beliefs and rules spirituality
is something very individual and
personal to each person religion is
something we belong to spirituality is
something we seek we often talk about
being on a path religion is getting
answers to those big questions
spirituality is getting permission to
ask the big questions like the purpose
and meaning of life religion is of
invited by voices from the outside for
energy ministers pastors priests rabbis
spirituality is guided by our part the
voices within now within the context of
Education I talk about spirituality as
the natural odd and Wonder and intuition
wisdom and reverence for life that often
gets up out of kisses
get older now in education we have to
recognize that there are people who have
done research now naty’s professor at
Stanford in her book a challenge to
Karin schools she talks about
spirituality as being one of the things
that’s lack the most in public school
education her partner author of courage
to teach he talks about and divine
spirituality as the eternal human
yearning to be connected to something
greater than one’s own ego and he too
recognizes that spirituality is missing
in education and with our students so
now the question becomes can we do this
in education well not only can we do it
but in fact we are doing this I have the
privilege of being the director of
engagement and professional development
at a schools in Lafayette California
called the major schools mayor means
compassion the bigger schools has a
white pony component of through school
and then a k5 component called the mater
school and together that we’re called
the Vator schools now the mayor schools
the major schools Foster’s individual
achievement in an atmosphere that
celebrates creative expression unity
inclusivity and diversity we are truly a
school of the heart committed and dead
to educating and recognizing and
honoring the whole child now what does
this look like I want to tell you a
story about what it looks like in our
schools because one of the things in our
school we have a physical environment
they totally embrace this beauty
our schools are surrounded by gardens we
have Gardens throughout the school and
these are gardens that are butterfly
gardens fruit Gardens vegetable gardens
and the kids ten of the gardens we also
have no desks in our classrooms instead
we have tables that encourage
cooperative learning routes and we
encourage our students to help each
other not compete against each other in
fact there’s a cute story about how one
of the stood one of our students one
time a teacher was teaching and someone
raised their hand and she said so-and-so
is looking on my paper and the answer
that the teacher gave was well then move
it closer so they don’t have to strain
our curriculum our curricula is in use
through the arts we hold in the mayor
school we hold that the arts the arts
are the vehicle that express the beauty
and unity that underlie diversity we
hold the arts to be the catalyst and the
tool that touches passion and love with
all our students and I’m going to give
you two a story of what this looks like
our teacher
or tirelessly to to throughout the
curriculum to infuse drama dance song
storytelling and visual arts one time I
was in the preschool is there two three
and four-year-olds and I was sitting in
the circle with the kids and there was a
teacher sitting in a chair and she was
beginning her drama of Jacobean stuff
and she gets and starts going and she
hits the tirade of fee fie foe fum and
the teacher she could have stayed in
character or she could have just ignored
the question but instead she stopped
took a cleansing breath plastic hands
and put them over or her instead
sometimes people’s hearts are not yet
awake that’s why the giant being the way
he did his heart was still asleep and
with that the child was satisfied with
the answer the other children were
satisfied with the answer and I was
totally blown away with the answer by
the way the teacher then went back and
started where she left off with a feed
by alum Park I realized right there in
that that that child that that teacher
was some doing something really anomaly
special children are innately kind the
children in the room donated kind the
giant wasn’t and there was the cognitive
dissonance with the children but that
teacher was able to recognize the
cognitive dissonance and preserve the
preserve the optimism hope in humanity
and wonder and love for those children
now as I said it’s things like the all
the wonder the reverence for life the
intuition that diminishes as our
children get older but you don’t have to
take my word for it I want to share with
you a letter that we received at our
school an anonymous letter and it talks
about what happened to these children as
they went into high school and to just
be used in context with this letter this
letter was written by students who
otherwise they were went to the mayor
school and if we went to another school
they would probably had to be in special
ed classes but the mayor school
practices inclusivity and so students
may be in our classrooms and they may
have aides that are working with them
with have accommodations but our
students are all in the same classroom
and we don’t have special ed classrooms
as the mayor of school so here’s the
letter dear leaders school the other
night I head up with a boy I haven’t
seen since we were fourth graders
together we caught up in bonded over the
fact that neither of us liked high
school which we realized was the result
of such a wholesome elementary
experience after growing up in such a
nurturing the world acceptance and love
high school seems shallow what is
special and I wondered on my first day
and never understood what happened to
the beautiful inclusiveness that blessed
the first decade of my life
thank you for shaking your students into
such kind-hearted people
good luck with this new year with
appreciation graduates because the mayor
school touches and works through the
heart over a hundred songs have
specifically been written for the mayor
schools to amplify the principles of
love duty and selfless service and so
with that I’d like to just share with
you the lyrics to one of our songs and
it’s called where every heart shall beat
is one when every heart shall be is one
and all mankind United in every land
beneath the Sun shall shine with truth
and life where darkness dwells
selfishness and light in unity when
every part shall be just one than one
love will be when in my eyes you see
yourself and I see me in yours
then we shall share the greatest wealth
our clusters flow indoors for loving
creases when share and leads to unity
through love our hearts shall be this
one
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
returning with me
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
education we talk about education or the
21st century 21st century skills and
educating the 21st century learner
now I actually cringe when I hear 21st
century because I find it so limiting
there’s a video called shift happens and
it’s shift within happen and in it it
says that we are currently preparing
students for jobs that don’t yet exist
they will be using technologies that
have yet to be invented to solve
problems that aren’t even that we don’t
even know our problems yet now I suggest
that we look at the TED talks and TED
Talks are ideas worth spreading
and here’s my idea I think it’s time
that we move beyond just numbers and we
expand our thinking that we change our
words and we move beyond the number of
the 21st century and start talking about
educating the new humanity and was
learning like news many the new humanity
is the humanity that seeks to cultivate
a peaceful world of love beauty and
selfless service
it’s a harmonious world that embraces
unity interconnectedness and the
resilience of all and what that’s
educating the new humanity
educating the new humanity focuses on
teaching and learning that recognizes
each individual as a whole person you
need but United in the world and what
does educating the new humanity look
like in the schools educating the new
humanity is recognizing and not just
recognizing but honoring each student as
a whole child now we hear the term whole
child used in education and many of you
may know that the whole child consists
of the cognitive physical social
emotional and spiritual components now
we do a really good job in education in
the first floor especially now since
social-emotional learning has really
found the important place in education
but you know what we still don’t do a
good job with spirituality in education
and much of that is because education is
so afraid of confusing spirituality with
religion the spirituality is not
religion and I ask you if in fact we
aren’t going to address the spirituality
component in our students and in our
schools can we really say that they are
educating the whole child I think not my
research in resilience
my research findings have found
consistent findings with others in
research and who have found that is
often the spirituality
in our students
that’s the portal for them to tap into
their resilience as they confront and
navigate the family school and life
challenges of today yet like I said we
are so afraid of bringing spirituality
in our schools for fear of using
spirituality with religion so I’m going
to take a minute and without value
judgment make some distinctions between
spirituality and religion religion is an
institution organized around ideology
doctrine beliefs and rules spirituality
is something very individual and
personal to each person religion is
something we belong to spirituality is
something we seek we often talk about
being on a path religion is getting
answers to those big questions
spirituality is getting permission to
ask the big questions like the purpose
and meaning of life religion is of
invited by voices from the outside for
energy ministers pastors priests rabbis
spirituality is guided by our part the
voices within now within the context of
Education I talk about spirituality as
the natural odd and Wonder and intuition
wisdom and reverence for life that often
gets up out of kisses
get older now in education we have to
recognize that there are people who have
done research now naty’s professor at
Stanford in her book a challenge to
Karin schools she talks about
spirituality as being one of the things
that’s lack the most in public school
education her partner author of courage
to teach he talks about and divine
spirituality as the eternal human
yearning to be connected to something
greater than one’s own ego and he too
recognizes that spirituality is missing
in education and with our students so
now the question becomes can we do this
in education well not only can we do it
but in fact we are doing this I have the
privilege of being the director of
engagement and professional development
at a schools in Lafayette California
called the major schools mayor means
compassion the bigger schools has a
white pony component of through school
and then a k5 component called the mater
school and together that we’re called
the Vator schools now the mayor schools
the major schools Foster’s individual
achievement in an atmosphere that
celebrates creative expression unity
inclusivity and diversity we are truly a
school of the heart committed and dead
to educating and recognizing and
honoring the whole child now what does
this look like I want to tell you a
story about what it looks like in our
schools because one of the things in our
school we have a physical environment
they totally embrace this beauty
our schools are surrounded by gardens we
have Gardens throughout the school and
these are gardens that are butterfly
gardens fruit Gardens vegetable gardens
and the kids ten of the gardens we also
have no desks in our classrooms instead
we have tables that encourage
cooperative learning routes and we
encourage our students to help each
other not compete against each other in
fact there’s a cute story about how one
of the stood one of our students one
time a teacher was teaching and someone
raised their hand and she said so-and-so
is looking on my paper and the answer
that the teacher gave was well then move
it closer so they don’t have to strain
our curriculum our curricula is in use
through the arts we hold in the mayor
school we hold that the arts the arts
are the vehicle that express the beauty
and unity that underlie diversity we
hold the arts to be the catalyst and the
tool that touches passion and love with
all our students and I’m going to give
you two a story of what this looks like
our teacher
or tirelessly to to throughout the
curriculum to infuse drama dance song
storytelling and visual arts one time I
was in the preschool is there two three
and four-year-olds and I was sitting in
the circle with the kids and there was a
teacher sitting in a chair and she was
beginning her drama of Jacobean stuff
and she gets and starts going and she
hits the tirade of fee fie foe fum and
the teacher she could have stayed in
character or she could have just ignored
the question but instead she stopped
took a cleansing breath plastic hands
and put them over or her instead
sometimes people’s hearts are not yet
awake that’s why the giant being the way
he did his heart was still asleep and
with that the child was satisfied with
the answer the other children were
satisfied with the answer and I was
totally blown away with the answer by
the way the teacher then went back and
started where she left off with a feed
by alum Park I realized right there in
that that that child that that teacher
was some doing something really anomaly
special children are innately kind the
children in the room donated kind the
giant wasn’t and there was the cognitive
dissonance with the children but that
teacher was able to recognize the
cognitive dissonance and preserve the
preserve the optimism hope in humanity
and wonder and love for those children
now as I said it’s things like the all
the wonder the reverence for life the
intuition that diminishes as our
children get older but you don’t have to
take my word for it I want to share with
you a letter that we received at our
school an anonymous letter and it talks
about what happened to these children as
they went into high school and to just
be used in context with this letter this
letter was written by students who
otherwise they were went to the mayor
school and if we went to another school
they would probably had to be in special
ed classes but the mayor school
practices inclusivity and so students
may be in our classrooms and they may
have aides that are working with them
with have accommodations but our
students are all in the same classroom
and we don’t have special ed classrooms
as the mayor of school so here’s the
letter dear leaders school the other
night I head up with a boy I haven’t
seen since we were fourth graders
together we caught up in bonded over the
fact that neither of us liked high
school which we realized was the result
of such a wholesome elementary
experience after growing up in such a
nurturing the world acceptance and love
high school seems shallow what is
special and I wondered on my first day
and never understood what happened to
the beautiful inclusiveness that blessed
the first decade of my life
thank you for shaking your students into
such kind-hearted people
good luck with this new year with
appreciation graduates because the mayor
school touches and works through the
heart over a hundred songs have
specifically been written for the mayor
schools to amplify the principles of
love duty and selfless service and so
with that I’d like to just share with
you the lyrics to one of our songs and
it’s called where every heart shall beat
is one when every heart shall be is one
and all mankind United in every land
beneath the Sun shall shine with truth
and life where darkness dwells
selfishness and light in unity when
every part shall be just one than one
love will be when in my eyes you see
yourself and I see me in yours
then we shall share the greatest wealth
our clusters flow indoors for loving
creases when share and leads to unity
through love our hearts shall be this
one
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
returning with me
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
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