This blog is about my Global Dignity Day experience at my old high school, R. H. King Academy, on October 20^th, 2011.

My 40-minute Global Dignity presentation was scheduled to be in the library with two classes of grade nine students.  Before jumping into anything, I took the advice of Mike Layton (whom I met just a few days earlier at a Civic Engagement Network conference) and tried to build a connection with the students first by telling them my life story; milestones that shaped who I am today.  I mentioned my grade six teacher who changed me for the better by showing me compassion instead of frustration (I was quite the trouble maker in elementary school!).  I also told them about my experience as a grade nine student; how I hated it because I was shy, had very few friends and was too nervous to talk to girls.  But then high school got better as I got more involved with clubs and student council.  It wasn’t because I had more friends but because I felt like I had a purpose at the school.  Then I told them about university at McMaster and how, if it wasn’t for peer support and group work, I might not have made it past 2^nd year in the Physics and Astronomy program.  I finished off my story with my experience at OISE and how it led me to TakingITGlobal.  Mike Layton was right!  By opening up and showing them that I was nothing special, just a regular person like them with passions and limitations, they felt comfortable doing the same and sharing their thoughts with me.

After this initial icebreaker, I jumped into a group activity.  The students were already seated in groups of 4-6 people so I handed out a piece of flip chart paper and markers for each group and asked them to work together and come up with two things:

1. What does dignity mean to your group?
2. Write down a story that you know of where a person did something to make someone else’s life better

I then had one person from each group (there were 11 groups in total) come up to the front to present their group’s work.  In the days leading up to Global Dignity Day, I was told by a couple of people that starting with this activity might be tough because, since dignity is a difficult word to define, the grade nine students might not be able to come up with much.  I decided to start with it anyways because I didn’t want to influence them by telling them my version of what dignity is first; I wanted to hear their fresh and objective thoughts and it turned out great!  The presentations were amazing!  A quote from Shunryu Suzuki’s book “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” effectively captures the lesson I learned from this activity:

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”

Had I discussed the concept of dignity and shown them the Global Dignity Day video before asking them to participate in this activity, I might have ended up with 11 similar responses.  Instead, allowing them to think for themselves and work together resulted in 11 significantly different definitions and stories.  This is an example of why I think it’s important to have faith in the potential of young minds (especially when they’re in groups); I ended up learned a lot today because I gave them the chance to speak their minds, rather than trying to get them to regurgitate something.

So I came to the school expecting to teach the students something but they ended up teaching me a lot too.  Here’s another example.  At some point in my talk I told them about how I feel sad and a bit hopeless sometimes because there are so many world issues that I care about that it makes the problems seem so large.  Sometimes I secretly question how much one person can do; it’s something I struggle with on and off.  After my presentation, a girl came up to me and told me “I totally know what you mean but you shouldn’t look at it that way.  Sure there are a lot of problems in the world but there are also a lot of good people who do good things too, you should focus on that.”  Her words had such a big impact on me.  It’s one of those things that you think you know but you never fully process; obviously I know that there are good people in the world and that it’s more productive to focus on them, but it just didn’t click until she pointed it out.

I also learned an important lesson about the process of teaching and learning.  Up until now, I had prepared for lessons by carefully creating lesson plans and practicing them at home so that I always knew what came next.  I tried a different approach on Global Dignity Day though.  During the student presentations, I glanced at my watch and noticed that they were taking up quite a bit of time and that I wouldn’t be able to show them the rest of the presentation that I prepared.  They were so engaged though!  So instead of rushing them for the sake of having the talk go the way I expected, I embraced what was happening and just had fun with them.  At the end I had students who shook my hand, asked the librarian to take a picture with me and stayed afterwards to talk to me (I was probably at the library for another 30 minutes!).  So, the other thing I realized today was that learning can never be fully planned for because it doesn’t always follow some predictable structure; learning unfolds in its own way.  This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have a plan, but just that we should be prepared to throw it out the window once we step into the classroom. 

Since R. H. King was not able to organize an assembly for Global Dignity Day due to conflicting school events, the wonderful school librarian organized a poetry cafe after school that I wanted to stay for.  About 10 poems on the topic of dignity were read by students and once they were finished, something really interesting happened.  One of the students asked the group if they wanted to tell more dignity stories!  So, just as it happened in the morning, students were once again sharing stories of how people were making other people’s lives better.

I think that being present is such a simple yet important part of teaching.  Often times when we’re planning and thinking about our personal agendas, we miss out on the many opportunities and conversations that make life so rich.  Being present allows us to respond to the needs of the people we work with as well as truly hear what they have to say.  Although I only used about 60% of the presentation that I prepared, what resulted was 10 times more fun and inspirational than I had hoped.

Today was an exciting day!  Zenia, Christy and I were asked to work as a team and lead a TIG tour for a group of 5^th & 6^th grade tech students. 

As soon as they stepped into the office they were all so excited and curious (as children usually are); looking around the office at the colourful rooms and asking us if they could sit in the beanbag chair in the corner. 

After assuring them that we’d take them on a tour at the end they agreed to follow us into the meeting room where we had prepared a presentation for them.  We started off by asking them to make name tags, which they eagerly decorated.   After introducing ourselves we asked them to do the same and tell us how they use technology in their daily lives.  We were quite surprised to hear how adept they were with programs like Word, Powerpoint, Prezi and Bitstrips.  Many of them also used social media such as Facebook to keep in touch with friends.

To lead into our discussion of the pathway to action “Inspire.  Inform.  Involve.” we asked them the following question:  How can you move from individual change to global change?  One of the students answered “You tell your friends and then your friends tell their friends and it spreads” another student responded with “You have to change yourself first before you can change other people.”  This led beautifully into the idea that TIG doesn’t just inspire people (through features like Member Stories) without providing them with resources to learn more about the issues and spark change on an individual level.  To lead into our discussion of the last step “Involve” we asked them “So you get inspired and inform yourself about an issue, then what?”  to which a student answered “You need to do something about it.  You need to take little steps to move forward and every little step counts.” 

After going over the pathway to action, we wanted to introduce the different departments and programs at TIG.  While discussing “Defining Moments” and the idea behind Local Engagement a student raised their hand and asked “Is this kind of like how you need to understand yourself and your own culture before you can really understand others?”

When we first saw how little the students were, we were worried that our questions might be too complex for them and that we would receive very little involvement.  They definitely proved us wrong with their enthusiasm and incredible responses!

During the question and answer period they also asked us “How old do you have to be to make an account?” “What’s the difference between the green dots and the purple dots on the member map?” “How many members online have made a difference?” and “Can you have round tables instead next time so that it feels like a roundtable meeting?”

Since the students were part of a technology class, their enthusiasm increased ten-fold when we took them on a tour to meet the tech & operation teams.  It was super cute to see these little kids running around taking pictures and asking questions to any adult who would listen.  We then took some group photos and just like that, it was over.

It’s funny how when you set out to help someone else, you often end up learning a lot yourself as well.  As a soon-to-be teacher, this experience was a great reminder that although children might not be able to express themselves as eloquently as adults, they can often understand issues at a greater depth than we give them credit for.  If the teacher is careful in the language they use and the way they present the issues I believe that even very young children can use their incredible sense of what is unjust and unfair to ask questions and participate in a discussion.  As a Math & Physics major I am well aware of the idea that it’s useful to have multiple perspectives when solving any problem.  I therefore hope that over the years I won’t forget that teachers can learn a lot from their students and that often times, asking children for their input and truly listening to their responses can result in perspectives and ideas that we adults would have never imagined.

I've always been skeptical about the idea of “Fair Trade” coffee (or any goods for that matter).  Is it really helping farmers or is it just a clever marketing ploy used as an excuse to charge consumers more?  Some people say it benefits farmers, some say it doesn't.  What should a consumer believe?  I sincerely hope that my efforts to make responsible decisions, purchasing “Fair Trade” products for example, are not in actuality making matters worse.

I read some really interesting stuff from Bean North's blog

http://www.beannorth.com/newsblog#

But I still don’t have an answer to my question; the politics and issues seem complex.  It's a lengthy blog so I’m posting some select passages I found interesting in hopes that you can help provide me with some opinions to make this issue a bit more clear.  Thanks in advance!

...Counter intuitively, as prices were plunging for coffee farmers, middle-class Americans were learning to pay double or triple what they once had

...Farmers were being squeezed by middlemen, known as coyotes, so that even the dismal profits from cheap mass-produced coffee failed to reach them. Growers lacked basic information about what their crop was worth, how to maximize production, and how to market their beans, and it was to the coyotes’ advantage to keep it that way.

...The FLO defines a fair farm as a family farm that is a part of a large democratic cooperative.

...Martinez owns a small family farm and produces a high-quality coffee, but none of his beans carry the Fair Trade label. His farm isn’t part of a cooperative, a Fair Trade non-negotiable that disqualifies small, independent farmers

...Fair Trade spurs disempowered growers to form cooperatives, creating islands of democracy in often autocratic regimes.

...“Co-ops can be just as corrupt as any organization,” ... “It’s not the farmer who is getting that $1.26 per lb. The co-op decides what the farmer is going to get.” A corruptly managed co-op, like a coyote, can mask the real price of coffees from individual farmers.

...“Almost all coffee that isn’t Fair-Trade, shade-grown, or organic exploits workers and our environment.” That assumption, absorbed by at least some of the coffee-drinking public, drives roasters and retailers nuts. They say the idea that coffee without the Fair Trade label is based on coercion penalizes independent farmers who don’t conform to the Fair Trade vision. (They also say consumers who drink only Fair Trade coffee are missing out on some of the best roasts available.)

...In 2000, activist groups including Global Exchange launched an attack on Starbucks that has left the company stained with a reputation for mistreating farmers. Yet given its size, Starbucks likely has done far more than the Fair Trade movement to improve the lot of coffee growers.  In 2004 it bought that coffee at an average price of $1.20 a pound, slightly below the $1.26 Fair Trade pays but more than twice the average price for beans on the global commodity market.

...customer loyalty hinges on quality, not the perception of social justice

...The specialty revolution, with its $4 lattes and emphasis on growing methods, has probably jacked up prices for farmers far more than the Fair Trade movement has.  When consumers become coffee snobs, prices rise, and some of that increase makes it back to growers.  (My personal comment: Does it really?  Or do the companies like Starbucks just get more profit?)

...The best hope for farmers lies with consumers demanding better coffee, not just from Starbucks but from the supermarket shelf. This may be inevitable; a generation weaned on high-quality lattes is not going to turn to instant Nescafe as it grows more affluent. But there are signs that Fair Trade, with its predilection for uniformity, is retarding, not accelerating, that process.

...Fair Trade co-ops are composed of hundreds of farmers producing vastly different qualities of coffee. Often their output is blended together for sale to roasters, masking any quality improvements one farmer may have felt motivated to implement. Money then flows back to the co-op, not the individual farmer, and is distributed equally among the members. “There is no reward for the guy who works harder than his neighbour,” Nor is there much motivation for individual farmers to learn better farming techniques, experiment with new types of coffee, or seek new markets.  The system thus breeds anonymity and mediocrity in a business that desperately needs to focus on branding and identity. Ironically, this mimics the problems brought on by multinationals: Treating coffee as a single commodity, in large undifferentiated lots, prevents any single farmer from excelling and advancing.

...The redemptive story TransFair sells—its literature thick with the smiling faces of coffee farmers the world over—invites the consumer to act as protagonist.  “This is seen by many as a direct way by which they can influence the way the world is,”  Fair Trade consumers are buying a story of personal connection, a vision of transparency, and an impression of political influence—not a bad deal for a few extra cents. If the picture of Fair Trade as a poverty panacea is off base, so too is that of the duped, defenceless consumer.

...Yet what is revolutionary about Fair Trade is not the brand’s focus on poverty but the suggestion that consumption is a moral response to inequality. “Instead of boycotting the wrong kind of wine or the wrong kind of rice, we can now buy the right kind, the moral kind, and buy more.”

In Nelson Mandela's book 'Long Walk to Freedom' he said

"In African culture, the sons and daughters of one's aunts or uncles are considered brothers and sisters, not cousins.  We do not make the same distinctions among relations practiced by whites.  We have no half brothers or half sisters.  My mother's sister is my mother; my uncle's son is my brother; my brother's child is my son, my daughter."

It got me thinking about what it would be like to have such strong bonds.  In the society that I live in, I feel as though people are so disconnected.  When strangers are in an elevator together they act as if the other people don't exist.  When I give a friendly smile to a stranger they sometimes quickly avert their eyes.  Why is this?  What makes a stranger any different than a family member?  Aren't we all just searching for a sense of peace and happiness in our lives?  To love and be loved?  Why then aren't we all kinder to each other?  

As Chris McCandless said in 'Into the Wild' - "Money makes people cautious" and I totally agree with this.  In many ways, the society in which I was raised encourages a mentality that draws clear lines between what is "mine" and what is "yours."  Everything is categorized and therefore fragmented.  I have noticed that when I'm not careful (particularly when I'm stressed) this habit of categorizing sometimes makes it easy to not care about anything beyond the realm of "me."  Being truly selfless is not easy.  I don't expect to undo in a few years what culture and society have taught me in 23, but I definitely think that the world would be a much better place if everyone was a little less concerned about "I" and "mine."

Two quotes that essentially say the same thing.  They always serve as good reminders for me so I thought I'd share

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain"

-Anonymous

"Changing the filter, wiping noses, going to meetings, picking up around the house, washing dishes - don't let yourself think these are distracting you from your more serious pursuits.  Such a round of chores is not a set of difficulties we hope to escape from so that we may do our "practice" which will put us on a "path" - it is our path"

- Gary Snyder