Sir Ken Robinson’s Wikipedia Biography Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He has worked with governments in Europe, Asia and the USA, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. ‘All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education’ (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers for training, education enterprise and culture. He was one of four international advisors to the Singapore Government for its strategy to become the creative hub of South East Asia.
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Roots of Empathy
From the Roots of Empathy Website
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Roots of Empathy has been called Canada’s olive branch to the world.
Roots of Empathy is a powerful idea whose time has come. An evidence-based charitable organization, its mission is to build caring, peaceful, and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults. Its vision is to change the world – child by child.
At the heart of the program are classroom visits by an infant and parent. Through guided observations of this loving relationship, children learn to identify and reflect on their own thoughts and feelings and those of others (empathy). Independent evaluations consistently show children who receive Roots of Empathy experience dramatic and lasting effects in terms of increased positive social behaviour (sharing, helping and including) and decreased aggression.
explore: Oasis of Peace
From www.viewchange.org website:
“Problems arise when people simply do not understand one another. At the community school in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam—named in both Hebrew and Arabic—children learn both languages at a very young age, thus cultivating a spirit of communication and mutual understanding. The village is a true rarity, as Jews and Palestinian Arabs live together in cooperation and respect.”Microsoft’s global initiative, Partners in Learning, Video
From the Microsoft’s Partners in Learning website:
Partners in Learning is a global initiative designed to actively increase access to technology and improve its use in learning. Our goal is to help schools gain better access to technology, foster innovative approaches to pedagogy and teacher professional development and provide education leaders with the tools to envision, implement and manage change.
Together with our partners around the world, we are focusing on three key areas that have the greatest potential to empower students and teachers and transform education:
China traffic jam stretches ‘nine days, 100km’
A seemingly simple traffic jams extends to a complex system of exploitation, environmental degradation, and cultural injustices.
1. Coal from Inner Mongolia,
2. automobile pollution in China,
3. an expressway from Tibet, where cultural injustice proliferates
Something needs to change, fast!
From the BBC website:
A massive traffic jam in China has slowed vehicles to a crawl for a ninth day near Beijing, local media say.
Vehicles, mostly lorries bound for Beijing, are backed up for about 100km (62 miles) because of heavy traffic, road works and break-downs.
The drivers have complained that locals are over-charging them for food and drink while they are stuck.
There has been a boom in road building in China in recent years but vehicle use has soared at the same time.
The stalled traffic stretches between Jining in Inner Mongolia and Huai’an in Hebei province, north-west of Beijing, said the Global Times.
The road works which are obstructing traffic are necessary to repair damage caused by an increase in cargo lorries using the highway, the state-run newspaper said.
They are not expected to be finished until mid-September.
The motorway, part of the Beijing-Tibet expressway, is heavily used by lorries carrying coal from Inner Mongolia.
On the Sunnyside of the Street
This short film is shot in the Netherlands by Nick Petten on a visit to see his Oma (‘grandmother’ in Dutch), also known as Carolina van den Broek. The exercise was to see how quickly I can produce a video and upload it to the interweb. Not the final product.
Label for packaged eggs in the Netherlands
I picked up a package of eggs for my Oma (‘grandmother’ in Dutch) today. First off, the egg carton was made of coconut husk. Then on the label there is a picture explanation of the farm where the eggs are coming from. I think it is an interesting use of graphic design to illustrate an ‘organic farm’ in the Netherlands. After doing some translation work on the label, these words are bolded: prettiger leven (pleasant life),natuurlijke behoeften (natural needs), beschutte bosrand (protected forest), zandbad (sandbath?(yikes)), verse mais en granen (fresh corn and grain), groed (well), eerlijk (fair).
Oma speaks about Peace on Earth
Corrie van den Broek (my Oma, ‘grandmother’ in Dutch) walking across the public square in the Netherlands
The Empathic Civilization Animation
Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society.
I love the use of the whiteboard to illustrate his message–and what a great message it is. I was especially fascinated by the mention of mirror neurons.
Psychologists have done numerous studies with newborn infants to shed light on the notion of mirror neurons. One way that they discovered the existence of mirror neurons was when psychologists stuck out their tongues at babies, the babies would instinctively stick out their tongues in response–because that is one of the easiest motor movements that a baby can make right from birth.
Mirror neurons form the basis of our ability to learn and are very important in the development of the infant. Before we learned through rationalization, critical thinking and rote memorization, we learned by mimicking other people around us.