WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM CHINESE TEENAGERS WHEN WE REACH OUT TO THEM?

NB: Photo of happy teenagers taken by me on my last visit to China in 2018

A few weeks ago I ran my 'Global Citizenship – It Starts with us!' workshop online for over 260 teenagers in China. I had been wondering what they would know and feel about Global Citizenship as a concept. Their immediate responses showed me they are aware, awake and stepping up to be humanitarians.
Their deep concerns were for our planet. "That everyone should take real measures to help others no matter who and where they come from." That "We need to take responsibility for our environment." And that "Global Citizenship is a hope for the future."
We agreed to have open and courageous conversations. They told me of their fear of being blamed for Coronavirus. They were well aware of the racism already billowing. It is terribly unfair to subject teenagers to such degradation. I invite you if you ever hear racist comments, to stop them in their tracks immediately.
These teens spoke about the wet markets. They understood the danger. I taught them two new words: Ahimsa – 'non-violence and respect for all living things' and 'specie-ism' – pertaining to the arrogance of humans to all other species on our planet. We shared ideas on how we could change our attitudes, to create a greater humanity. One we can be proud of.
 
I have come away with such respect and hope for what these young people can achieve. I am proud of their intentions and willing to support them as they move forward. I hope you are too.

“ That everyone should take real measures to help others no matter who and where they come from. ”

Cheery blessings,

Marg

Margaret Hepworth teaches Global Citizenship and Non-Violence to young people in schools and youth forums.

She can be contacted on margaret@margarethepworth.com

www.margarethepworth.com

MOVING CONFERENCES, IDEAS AND SHARED LEARNING ONLINE

When the Coronavirus shut down the Educators Today, Society Tomorrow conference in India, the ETST team moved it online. 

I have been a part of this group for several years now, traveling to India to facilitate at their conferences; to run workshops for teachers and students organized through them; and to meet extraordinary people, adults and teens, who amaze me!
When it was suggested they move the conference online, it seemed to them a daunting prospect. Yet by engaging the right people who created an online Open Space platform, with tenacious attitudes, oh, and a lot of younger people who saved people such as me from technological disaster, the outcome has been superb!
We left alight with passion and energy and new ideas for our students. We are now examining ways to carry this forward into many classrooms. Action for change! 

My own contribution was to run a session I call "The Most Beautiful Planet."
 
Only the day before, I had taken 67 Indian teenagers on an online journey to find the 'Most Beautiful Planet.' 
This lesson on Global Citizenship is designed to expand young minds through high creativity and imagination, then bring all of this to a place of constructive action. A place for real change. For them to understand they have a role in this. For the kids to see, feel and sense beauty and hope, then create and apply very real steps towards building this. 
These teens were so engaged, willing to contribute and wanting more. It was wonderful to hear so many excited voices, sharing sensible and achievable ideas.
I taught this lesson to the teachers at the ETST conference, to become a shared concept across global classrooms.
 
Recently social media has flooded us with inspiring videos and quotes about the 'new normal' when we emerge from the Coronavirus crisis. The question is, well how do we actually do that? And will we actually do that?
Will we commit to creating 'the most beautiful planet'?

Through these lessons we are already putting that into action. Young people with inspiring attitudes are emerging. 

“Through these lessons we are already putting that into action. Young people with inspiring attitudes are emerging.”

If you are interested in learning more about my workshops, or running one for your students and/or teachers, then write to me margaret@margarethepworth.com

Cheery blessings,

Marg

Margaret Hepworth is the founder of The Gandhi Experiment, a former Assistant Principal and a teacher for over 30 years.

www.margarethepworth.com

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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE FORCED TO SLOW DOWN?

Social distancing meditation with my son James

For such a long time we have felt that life is too fast paced. The world is moving too quickly. If only we could we could just slow down.

Well, here we are, in the time of Corona. Slowed.

What happens when we are forced to slow down?

Firstly comes the realisation. The pace of the world never changed; the rotation of the earth never sped up; the sun’s heart never skipped a beat; the moon steps slowly, at its same consistent rise.

It was never nature that sped up. It was us! We made our lives too fast. So fast we had trouble keeping up with ourselves.

Our second realisation is this. In moving so quickly, we only ever create band-aid solutions to virtually all our problems. Our health-care; our self-nourishment; arguments with our kids; conflict with our partners, friends and family. Our selfish grab and steal on the environment.

Band-aid solutions.

Finally, we realise there are other ways. Lateral, plausible, creative and beautiful solutions.

Now in Lockdown, take the time to open to new ways of doing things.

Teach your children to meditate. Teach them how to sit comfortably in silence. At the rate we were going, whirling and swirling them into the next activity, and the next and the next, without pause for breath, we were setting them up to become fast-paced, breathless adults.

Now is the time to give them time.

Do we still need the Band-aids? Yes, we do. Yet we will place them alongside long term, solution focussed visions of our world.

I realise as I write, for some in the time of Corona, life hasn’t slowed down. For our doctors and nurses, our health professionals, our emergency services, and many working to feed us and keep us safe and healthy, their pace has got faster and faster, almost out of their control. For many of the world’s poor, life has become an even steeper trajectory of pain.

So, we slow down for them. We slow down with them. We slow down to reflect, to find solutions, to understand how we can contribute to a better world.

“ When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’ doesn’t make any sense.” Rumi

When the goose arrived to meditate!

‘The Conundrum of Inner Listening’ is Chapter Five in The Gandhi Experiment - Teaching our teenagers (and us) how to become global citizens. Purchase now as an e-book to learn how to slow down.

Cheery blessings,

Marg

www.margarethepworth.com

margaret@margarethepworth.com

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