Updates

A Change In Thinking To Achieve Sustainable Development

Dr. Franklin Richard Schneider
Chief Executive Officer
Institute of Global Education

Presented to the National Convention on Sustainable Development at Gandhi Darshan, Rajghat, New Delhi, India, December 15, 2011

The need for sustainable development grows more imperative every day.  To move forward, a number of challenges must be overcome, challenges which grow more difficult every day.  Consequently, delay grows ever more dangerous and ever more costly.  What is fundamentally needed, above all else, is an attitude of cooperative interdependence.  We are interdependent - to heal the world we must heal ourselves and to heal ourselves we must heal the world.  With an attitude of cooperative interdependence we can develop a mutually designed approach, cooperative actions and shared determination.

Be aware of what we know from experience:  (1) Nature has the purifying ability to organize and correct itself to produce balanced optimums of life, diversity and cooperation. (2) Nature achieves its perfection without producing garbage or our excessive pollution, abusiveness, isolation and disorders. (3) We inherit the ability to do what nature does because our body, mind and spirit are part of nature. Helping our living planet helps to heal us. We can, we must, create moments that let Earth teach us what we need to know.

There are definite steps to achieving sustainable development. One is limiting population competition for land and resources. Another is taking advantage of available technologies, e.g., permaculture that maximizes productivity and reduces environmental impact. Both must be done with an enlightened attitude of mutual goodwill and by putting our higher interest above our vested interests. Another requirement for sustainable development is the continued development and extensive use of renewable energy resources.

Education for Change

Here, in India, where tradition is powerful, how can the benefits of such approaches be made clear to community leaders and elders? I think the answer is a definite yes. Unfortunately, Gandhi is not physically present to motivate us. Thankfully, our experience is that children are the key.

If we educate children, connect them to the global community, and give them tools to share their new perspectives with parents and elders, we have a chance of getting new technologies adopted.  Fortunately, these tools are inexpensive and readily available today in India; photography, media and the internet, among others.  Further, the educated elders, along with the children, can be extraordinarily effective ambassadors to other communities as they become examples.

In Mucherla, near Khammam in Andhra Pradesh, our children put on plays that dealt with parental drunkenness and wife beating. Our school garden had a major impact on changing diets toward healthy vegetables. Our support for girls’ education changed the way young women were treated. Children are brilliant, they have the ability to create an amazing world that we have only dreamed of and it can be golden for them. We have to give them the tools and the freedom to create responsibly. They have to know how incredibly amazing they are, and that the world does not have to be a dark and damaged place.

Tagore said “The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence”.  The fact is that education, both formal and non-formal, is a continuous lifelong adventure for each of us, regardless of our age or circumstance.

Equality and the Environment

Working for climate change and changing inequalities into opportunities is a key to progress. Environmental trends threaten global progress for everyone, particularly for the poor. Development progress for the poorest countries could be halted or even reversed unless bold steps are taken now to slow climate change, prevent further environmental damage, and reduce deep inequalities within and among nations.

The 2011 Human Development Report of the United Nations argues that environmental sustainability can be most fairly and effectively achieved by addressing health, education, income, and gender disparities, together with the need for global action on energy production and ecosystem protection. There must be broader efforts to foster equitable human development by reducing gender imbalances and expanding opportunities for those among each country’s marginalized communities. Achieving truly sustainable development will require bold action on internal inequalities and environmental hazards. The urgent global challenges of sustainability and equity must be addressed, together, at the global level in order to spur progress towards these interlinked goals.

A key is to build strong foundations that heal core dysfunctions and allow peace to happen. Sustainable, long-term development can only occur in a peaceful environment.  Without healing, peace is very illusive and transitory.  A grassroots approach is very powerful and humanizing, and we know it can be replicated with lots of caring individuals and hard work. Anything that does not work in a way that honours the individual seed as well as the whole tree will not work. Society is full of successful experiments. The right tools must be available to the right hands. If each of us make a commitment t to work together, both inside ourselves and out in the world, and inspire others to do the same, we will change our collective direction and create a better future.

One of the results of resolving trauma, be it personal or environmental,  is feeling more secure with primary attachments.  “Secure attachment provides the base for a healthy life with healthy relationships.”

A new book here in India is titled Empower Women,  An Awakening by Leena Chawla Rajan,  It opens with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

“The laws of physics tell us we can’t build a rocket that will travel faster than the speed of light, that gravity governs objects on Earth, and that perpetual motion machines are not possible. In chemistry, diffusion constants, reaction rates, and atomic properties set the limits of chemical reactions and types of molecules that can be synthesized. Biology dictates our absolute need for clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy, and biodiversity for our survival and health”.

These are laws of nature and we must learn to live within their boundaries. Capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, corporations, currency, markets, and regional borders are not forces of nature. We invented them and we can and must improve them.

Often, we try to alter nature to fit our priorities. Look at what happened at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in December 2009. We saw 192 nations gathered to deal with the atmosphere that belongs to no one - 192 national borders, 192 economic priorities, trying to shoehorn nature to fit our creations! We should be looking for ways to make our systems work with nature, not the other way around.

A glowing example of what can be done by enlightened leadership and grassroots participation is Curitiba, Brazil, a city of more than two million. The residents literally overhauled the city with a new transportation system, one thousand plazas, recycling, environmental education and numerous services available to everyone. It was the people’s vision that made Curitiba a place where people work, play, and enjoy their lives together.

Globalization does not always encourage the highest standards for workers, communities, or ecosystems. Instead, corporations often go for the lowest standards of medical care, wages, and environmental regulations because it’s all about maximizing profit. The global economy means garbage and toxic effluents are shared with the world, dumped into the air, water, and land. We can, we must, change this and together do it now.

Summary

We need to put decisions and democracy back into the hands of people. We need democracy for people, not corporations. We want greater equity and deeper on going cooperation and commitment.  We demand social justice; and we want to recognize and protect our most fundamental needs - clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy, biological diversity, and communities that support our children with love and care.

We must align our beliefs and our involvement with each other into sustainable development that meets the needs of all of humanity while protecting and cooperating with the gifts of our environment, both natural and human. We are either part of the solution or part of the problem. In fact, we can see our world, not as a problem, but rather a vast and indisputable opportunity to use our deepest love, our greatest energies, our best thinking, our sense of oneness and rise above our own self-interests and narrow beliefs to incorporate all things, living and non living.

These are all grains of sand that will create the sandbar of a peaceful and sustainable world.

As Gandhji said:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts
Your thoughts become your words
Your words become your actions
Your actions become your habits
Your habits become your values
Your values become your destiny”

INSTITUTE OF GLOBAL EDUCATION
DR. RICHARD SCHNEIDER. CEO
NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2011

Dear Supporters, Friends and Interested Parties:

We are already nearing the end of February. Our students are busy taking internal exams and preparing for the big external (final) exams beginning in less than a month. The schedules have been revised due to the bandhs (strikes) in the state over statehood separation issues. The students have experienced many disruptions in schedules, and even graduation delays due to these bandhs.

David and Unagesh will receive the Master of Business Administration (MBA) this year. Dilip (Jacob) will receive his Master of Computer Application. Veeranagulu will receive his Master of Engineering in Advanced Manufacturing Design. Prem will complete Chartered Accountant which is equivalent to Certified Public Accountant. Venu will complete his Bachelor of Commerce in Computers. Ravi is on his way to Mumbai for a six month specialized course while completing his first year degree.

These are all remarkable achievements and great success stories for both the students and for IGE. It seems more difficult to keep interest and funding for these wonderful and successful students than it was when they were ten year olds in MGS. We never anticipated that these young people would go so far but realize that their further education was essential to assure that they overcame the social and economic barriers to their futures. They have succeeded. We have succeeded. Some recent graduates are already beginning to pay back to the Scholarship Fund and these graduates will soon be doing the same.

The rest of our students are doing very well. It was a joy to see them all together for our annual get together. Our youngest student, Gopi, graduates from Tenth Level with honours in a month, and will go on to the Intermediate Level (the equivalent of Junior College). He wants to be an optometrist. Several of the Master level graduates have joined together and completed all the legal work to create their own Granny’s Welfare Association to extend and support the work of IGE. We are seeing and experiencing the fruits of your years and years of love and support. It was a happy and deeply meaningful milestone to have David beside me as an equal doing half of our joint workshop on Embracing Peace Education at the Consortium in Shillong.

The students still need your financial support and your love and caring. We ask that you continue to walk beside them and IGE as we trek into the future together to assure the success of those who are still to fulfill their dreams and ours.

If you are in Canada please send your donations to:
Chair, IGE, PO Box 2385, Salmon Arm, BC, VIE4R3.

In the USA and Europe send your donations to:
3402 Cypress Lane, Athens AL 35613 USA.

You can also donate online using PayPal.

Please send your comments, opinions and suggestions to me at:
1706 N. Schofield, Portland OR 97217 USA.

I will be traveling the next few months and will return to India late summer. Let me hear from you.

Richard, aka Grandpa

Keynote address delivered by Dr. Richard Schneider as Convener of the International Consortium on Embracing Peace Education at Martin Luther University in Shillong (Northeast) India on November 6, 2010

This is the first day of the rest of our lives:
Let us create a blueprint for peace through education.

Your Excellency… Martin Luther Christian University hosts, distinguished and esteemed guests, participants from India and abroad, students, and peace workers, we invite you to join us on the exciting journey that we are about to undertake together.

As the Convener, with my Co-convener beside me, we warmly welcome you to the International Peace Education Consortium.

I want to personally thank each of you for coming to this beautiful place to participate in this one-of-a-kind event.

We, together, stand at a remarkable time in the human and planetary drama of our Earth and in our relationship to one another. We are seeing old ways and systems fall away but which have not yet been fully supplanted with adequate replacements.  We are on the cusp of an exciting adventure to embrace and address the peace and education possibilities of our time. We are co-creators here to discover how we can work together in the best way. It is a wonderful time to be alive as we have the future ahead and can mold and shape our new vision in the best way for our children and for ourselves if we have the will, values, determination and energy.

We must yet reassess and correct some of our learned premises about each other and the world.  We still have some of the mantras of the past that are no longer relevant and do not fit today’s world views. Our consciousness exists in our inner being.

There is also the outer way where we project our thoughts and values through our institutions and programs. An alignment is accomplished through education by the examination and redefinition of our belief and value systems.

We must free ourselves from the restrictiveness of our past beliefs. We must remove the blinders that we have become accustomed to and that we are often not even aware of.

War, or any other violent behavior, is not genetically programmed into human nature. Warfare has changed so radically that we know war is a product of culture. Biology does not condemn humanity to aggression. The same species that invented war is equally capable of inventing peace.

What about all the differences that seem to exist?  There seem to be so many. There are differences among people, nations, and values. We must embrace the fact that differences are part of the very core of the solution if we will grasp the opportunity for growth. When we work with differences and find the relationship of the difference to the whole we can begin to understand another’s view without accepting it.

When I personally met the Dalai Lama in Costa Rica some years ago, he said to me “War is obsolete, you know. Of course, the mind can rationalize fighting back but the heart, the heart would never understand. Then you would be divided in yourself, the heart and mind, and the war would be inside of you.”

Mahatma Gandhi said: “Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.”  “If we are to have real peace, we must begin with the children.”   “Listen to your inner voice…and become the change you wish to see.”

What place does education have in this world view? Education is a very strong force in shaping values and in bringing together traditions and innovation. Education, to be effective and useful in today’s world, must be democratic, sustainable, holistic, and experiential.  Additionally, we must respect and draw on the resources of cultural and individuals, groups and organizations to discover each of their special talents and potential contributions.

Rabindranath Tagore said “Don’t limit a child to your own learning for he was born in another time”. He also said “The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence”. And finally “You can’t cross the sea by merely standing and staring at the water”.  It is action that is called for, creative and dynamic movement forward, and the implementation of our ideals into concrete action. We cannot afford to stand and stare at the water.

Rodrigo Carazo, former President of Costa Rica and co-founder of the United Nations University for Peace, and a long time dear and trusted friend, said “If you want peace you must educate for peace”.  Costa Rica is the only country in the world to abolish its army by public vote and then use the money to build schools. Even today Costa Rica stands as the model and example of what can be done for peace education.

Dr. Robert Muller, Rodrigo’s co-founder of the United nations University for Peace, spent 38 years in highest level positions at the United Nations, died just a few weeks ago at age 87. Dr. Muller said: “Peacemakers perform the most advanced cosmic function.  They are the ultimate instruments and fulfillment of the divine nature.  This is why in all religions they are considered the highest, the most beloved, the saints, the immortals.”

I especially like what he said to me some years ago as we were sitting together on his Bench of Dreams in Costa Rica, “Do not let grass grow on the path to happiness. Use that path as often as you can.” Robert became known as “The Prophet of Peace” as well as “The Father of Global Education”.

There is a somewhat dated saying which was true for a very long time: think globally, act locally. The fact is in today’s world we must turn this to mean that we must think and act both globally and locally at the same time.  The interconnectedness is everywhere. The fact is that what we do here and what we do when we return from where we came with our actions, choices and decisions will have an impact far beyond what we can reason. Albert Einstein said “The splitting of the atom has changed everything but our way of thinking. We need a whole new way of thinking if we are to survive.”    “A human being is part of the whole, called by us the ‘Universe’.  He experiences himself (herself). His thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest- a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. Our task is to be free from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty”.

In today’s world we simply must think globally and internationally and integrate these values as part of our daily life. We must all become global citizens in thought and action as our interdependence is evident in all we do. There are very few faraway places any more. Instant communication and travel have made the planet small. The interdependency of cultures, national identity and ideological belief systems must be reviewed and revised. For too long, we have allowed belief forms to divide and separate us in the most divisive of ways.

The reasoning that we have dominion over the Earth is both antiquated and wrong. As long as we must think we have dominion over the earth or each other, we will only have separation and division. This is one of our great weaknesses that must be corrected if we are to have sustainable and peaceful human relationships.

We must develop true partnerships with each other and with the Planet. We do not own the Planet any more than we own our children as our property. Both are on loan to us for the purpose of developing our consciousness in this workshop of life. These are gifts for our own growth and development as caring, giving and happy individuals determined to become part of a better world for all.

The German poet and novelist Wolfgang Van Goethe once said “Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world”. We spend our days waiting for the ideal path to appear in front of us, but we forget that paths are made by walking, not waiting. A Buddhist proverb says: “If we are facing in the right direction all we have to do is keep on walking”.

Democracy needs education, and education needs democracy.  If we want a healthy democracy, we must have citizen involvement; and to get it we need to start with our children.  A community certainly uses resources, organizes and regulates itself, maintains balances among competing interests, and must co-exist with the rest of the community.  If democracy is the natural state of all living things, then democracy in the classroom- not unrestricted freedom, but freedom with responsibility- is the only healthy way to educate.

We must support the improvement of the justice system especially at the local and state level.  We must encourage the democratic process wherever it is found and strengthen it where it is weak. We must aggressively tackle the issue of corruption and deceit at every level and smooth the playing field for every segment of society.   In our daily lives, we can think and feel peace within ourselves. We can treat each other with kindness and consideration, and we can live according to our own highest ideals and values.

What is our intent for the next three days?  First, we come together as colleagues and friends to share our positive experiences and to generate new ideas and forms.

We are here to collectively examine existing models for peace in our time. We are here to explore with each other how to extend these models into operational frameworks across culture, language, and beliefs.  Models without action are simply like air without moisture, a meal without food.Secondly, we come together to build new models and think through how to implement and distribute those new models into working forms. Buckmeister Fuller, one of the great futurist thinkers in the last century, observed that we don’t create real change by fighting existing structures, but by building new structures that are more attractive and functional. Then the old structures die of simple neglect.

We must create a new system which will have a bold new mission – helping families and communities raise and educate healthy, capable young people. It will be a locus of child advocacy and its loyalty would be the well-being of children, families, communities, and the planet, rather than to administration, curriculum or political correctness. The systems would be an integral part of the community, not a separate entity.

Throughout, we need to re-envision who our learners are. In times of drastic change – which will be with us the rest of our lives – “students” will be everyone. We must all gain, enhance and maintain new skills and cooperative, peaceful efforts if we are to succeed in living the lives and creating the future we hope for. We must discard the notion that education is a one way street from teacher or professor to student.  This will not be an easy task, even though it will be essential to create the new thinking required of each of us.

Third, for those who wish to go further, we will launch a permanent democratic forum that will create its own energy and direction through an active working body of dedicated individuals and organizations that will be recognized through IGE’s ECOSOC status at the United Nations.

With this forum we can create and develop strategies and cooperative projects in close consultation and partnerships with each other.

We are at a stage of human history where vision, compassion, communication and creativity are far more important than traditional literacy. Re-envisioning what learning is about and redesigning our school systems will provide the single most powerful avenue available to help us navigate an uncertain future. We then help create the kind of future our children and grandchildren deserve.

There are many practical things we can do in our daily lives and with each other to further our intentions of peace. We must re-evaluate and overcome the dangers and consequences of aggressive and intolerant nationalism.  This does not mean giving up our culture. In fact, giving up the negatives and concentrating on the positives in nationalism strengthens our very cultural identification and values. We must search for and strengthen social harmony and stand up against discrimination of every kind. Discrimination in all its forms must go.

Dr. Robert Muller said: “The word foreigner should be abolished from the languages of the world.  We are all Earth inhabitants, not foreigners.  Young people sometimes call foreigners ‘internationals’.  That is already a progress.”

We stand on the cusp of a new worldview which is already underway. This view must be formed, taught and learned by all of us; parents, teachers, families, and the community. We simply cannot wait any longer. Our planet cries out in environmental desperation, our hearts cry out for the sick, destitute and hungry, the tortured and lost, the refugees, and for ourselves.

We become part of the solution or we remain part of the problem. Now we must determine, each of us, individually and collectively, to educate ourselves and others for the world we want and deserve.

A new sense of moral and spiritual values needs to be at the center of our transformation.  Right now we are at drift in a sea of conflicting opinions and valueless choices, and we are about to drown in that sea unless we awaken to a new sense of value and responsibility.

The task before us, you and me, is awesome in scope and complexity.  We are up to the task if we believe that we are. It is not just for survival but rather for the restoration and improvement of a peaceful humanity and the planet. Education can chart the way from the past, to the present and into the future. Together we will build a better world with an educated and committed citizenry in concert with our living earth.  Work is already underway, here and elsewhere, so let us go forward hand in hand, heart to heart.  We ask you become full participating partners in this common effort.

Let us take this pledge and give it to our children as a gift:  “I am a Peace Builder; I pledge to build peace.  I pledge to give up put-downs, to right wrongs, to seek wise people, to help those in need, and to heal differences.  I pledge to build peace at home, at school and in my community, every single day.”