Why Learn?

Here's where I've been doing most of my reading and learning this summer. Leaving today.

What age do you think older people most often pinpoint as the happiest time of their lives? Adolescence, when they were at the peak of their physical prowess? Marriage? Kids? Career peak? Grandkids? Retirement? Nope: 82. For most of us, according to Daniel Levitin in Aging Successfully: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives, the best is yet to come (loc 417). I picked up the book because I had a question as I watched the generation above me growing older and realized my turn will come: "How can I steward the years God gives me?" I learned a lot of interesting things that can make a difference in my life, and I'm looking forward to 82!

I've been reading a lot this summer, getting answers to a variety of questions, so I can make a difference in my own life and in my classroom. Questions like…

• How can I increase my awareness of how God meets me in the present moment? (The Mindful Christian: Cultivating a Life of Intentionality, Openness, and Faith)
• How can I effectively teach bilingual and multilingual learners? (Bilingual and Multilingual Learners from the Inside Out)
• How can I teach students to read nonfiction critically and with curiosity? (Reading Nonfiction: Notice and Note Stances, Signposts, and Strategies)
• How can I use book clubs in the classroom? (Talking Texts)
• How can I promote justice and equality? (How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice)
• How can a Christian school meet “the challenges of the day while working toward God’s shalom in a broken but redeemed world.” (Teaching to Justice, Citizenship, and Civic Virtue: The Character of a High School Through the Eyes of Faith, loc 41)
• What motivates students to learn? (Difference Making at the Heart of Learning: Students, Schools, and Communities Alive with Possibility, by Tom Vander Ark & Emily Liebtag)

As I read that last book this week, 2 things happened:

• I was refreshed by remembering the “why” of learning—In the last year of teaching new classes I’ve become so focused on the what and how that the why momentarily slid out of focus. Humans were meant for community and for contribution. When learning has the goal of contributing to community, making a difference, it is hugely motivating.
• I suddenly realized that is exactly what I’ve been doing all summer in my learning: Responding to needs I see in myself and in my community by learning things so that I can use them to make a difference. To live differently, teach differently, impact students differently.

Now I’m wondering how 4th-8th grade readers, writers, and English language learners can use what they learn to make a difference in their communities—class, school, family, neighborhood, and beyond. This requires knowledge and skills—in the context of finding a problem and applying the knowledge and skills to creating a solution. The authors build a convincing case for giving learning a larger purpose, and they include a helpful compilation of 25 important issues in the world today to help teachers and students begin to think about what problems they want to be part of solving as we love our neighbors and steward the earth we have been given for a time. (See below for quotes and for the “Earth Owner’s Manual”)

Here are a few of the quotes (highlights are my own):

“We make the case for making a difference and living in a way that is not just in service of self but that puts the well-being and vitality of others and our communities at the heart of learning and life. We present an Earth Owners Manual, or the 25 most important issues of our time. We believe these issues ought to be the frame for learning in schools—driving students’ lifelong quest to find purpose and contribute through meaningful projects and work.” (loc 547)

“The idea is new to modern public education, but it has been central to all of the great faith traditions and foundational to civilizations that flourish.” (loc 848)

“For example, Father of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, viewed vocation as the locus of the Christian life. He said the purpose of every vocation is to love and serve your neighbors. God does not need your good works, Luther said, but your neighbor does (Veith, 2016).” (loc 874)

“Education for the innovation economy is not just about knowledge and skill, argues Miller; it’s about mindset—collaborative, interdisciplinary, ethical, empathetic, entrepreneurial, and global. Developing these mindsets means an education that asks a new set of questions: 

• Identity: who do you believe you are? 
• Agency: what are you confident you can actually do? 
• Purpose: how will your life make a positive difference?” (loc 1734)

“Almost every significant contribution requires a team. That is increasingly true whether you’re a doctor, entrepreneur, first responder, or educator. Every profession has moved beyond the individual craftsman to delivery in teams—and teams are often diverse in discipline, location, race, and levels of experience. Collaboration is the result of the intentional design of culture and structure; it’s a set of agreements about tools and protocols; and it’s the cultivation of individual mindsets and skill sets (Vander Ark & Liebtag, 2018).” (loc 1750)

And for the "Earth Owner's Manual" compiled by the authors from a variety of sources, see below (loc 1372).

The 25 Most Important Issues in the World 
Adopted in 2015 by world leaders, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals provide a road map to a better future: 

• No poverty: End poverty in all its forms everywhere. 
• Zero hunger: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. 
• Good health and well-being: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. 
• Quality education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. 
• Gender equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. 
• Clean water and sanitation: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. 
• Affordable and clean energy: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. 
• Decent work and economic growth: Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth; full and productive employment; and decent work for all. 
• Industry, innovation, and infrastructure: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation. 
• Reduced inequalities: Reduce inequality within and among countries. 
• Sustainable cities and communities: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. 
• Responsible consumption and production: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. 
• Climate action: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. 
• Life below water: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development. 
• Life on land: Protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss. 
• Peace, justice, and strong institutions: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. 
• Partnerships for the goals: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development (The Global Goals, n.d.). 

The National Academy for Engineering with support from other leading think tanks adds a few emerging challenges and opportunities (National Academy of Engineering, n.d.) 

• Understand the brain: Predict how interactions between the physical and social environment enable behavior. Inform AI and advances in health care, manufacturing, and communication. 
• Cyber security: Prevent intentional or unintentional attacks on public systems and uses of AI systems that do harm or pose an existential risk (Future of Humanity Institute, n.d.). 
• Prevent nuclear terror: A global war could kill a large percentage of the human population, and the resulting nuclear winter could be even deadlier than the war itself (Future of Life Institute, n.d.b) 
• Biotechnology for good: Reduce risk from especially dangerous pathogens and curb negative effects of cloning, gene splicing, and a host of other genetics-related advancements (Future of Humanity Institute, n.d.; Future of Life Institute, n.d.a). 
• Engineer the tools of scientific discovery: Acquire new knowledge about the physical and biological worlds; expand access to data science and impact partnerships. 

The last three are widely supported but differently phrased contribution opportunities: 

• Powerful expressions: Extending the quality of and access to human expression and visual and performing arts. 
• Getting along: Values serve as a pillar of a healthy society (Global Shapers Community, n.d.). They are complemented by empathy, perspective, and self-regulation (Knowledge Works, 2017). They empower difference making in a diverse society (Asia Society, n.d.). 
• Extraplanetary Life: Exploration of space and the potential for life on other planets. Jeff Bezos said, “We humans have to go to space if we are going to continue to have a thriving civilization.” And, “Eventually it will be much cheaper and simpler to make really complicated things, like microprocessors and everything, in space” (Clifford, 2019). 

From 24 Goals to Save the Planet (T. Vander Ark, 2020)

I'll be coming back to this list a lot this year as I think about how to help students see themselves as difference makers who learn in order to love and serve their neighbors!