Professional Development for Teachers Day 2: Choice Theory

I am proud to be part of a school community where I have grown to consider myself a professional who can actively seek to make a difference.

A teacher is first and foremost a manager. Managing is first creating the conditions for students to be interested in learning or performing, and then providing the structures, strategies, and activities that will encourage quality learning and quality performance. Indeed effective teachers must be effective managers.

Reality Therapy is rooted in Choice Theory, which postulates that most human behavior is chosen and focused on satisfying universal human needs of survival, love, belonging, power, freedom, and fun. 

It is aimed at helping people to use their freedom to more effectively satisfy these needs.

Stephen Covey said that "between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices lie our growth and happiness."

Therefore, choice theory contends that every part of our behavior-thoughts, feelings, physiology and 'doings' is a choice. Glasser argues that we have total agency in the entirety of our 'total behavior', leading to a more responsible empowered, co-dependency, blame free, life. Glasser's theory is that nobody can 'make' us do or feel anything, as all we do is give or receive information, and it is our choice how we respond to it. 

Glasser came to the conclusion that all behavior is driven from the inside, regardless of external influences. We are all in control of our own choices, and every behavior is a choice. Glasser said that no one else can make anyone do or feel anything. He contends that every behavior is a choice. We are all responsible for our own choices. 

Indeed conflict arises when a person tries to make another person do what is in their Quality World. This is what Glasser calls 'external control', as opposed to 'internal control'. 

Glasser's 'seven deadly habits' of external control are nagging, bribing, complaining, punishing, threatening and criticizing. 

Choice Theory understands that humans have five basic needs-freedom, power, fun, love and belonging and security. For example, I was born with a high love and belonging need and a high power need. 

The Ten axioms of Choice Theory by William Glasser that might help break it down a little easier (summarized by Mia Doring, a writer, facilitator, violence against women activist and psychotherapist): 

1. The only person whose behavior we can control is our own.
2. All we can give another person is information.
3. All long-lasting psychological problems are relationship problems.
4. The problem relationship is always part of our present life.
5. What happened in the past has everything to do with what we are today, but we can only satisfy our basic needs right now and plan to satisfying them in the future.
6. We can only satisfy our needs by satisfying the pictures in our Quality World.
7. All we do is behave.
8. All behavior is Total Behavior and is made up of four components: acting, thinking, feeling and physiology.
9. All Total Behavior is chosen, but we only have direct control over the acting and thinking components. We can only control our feelings and physiology indirectly through how we choose to act and think.
10. All Total Behavior is designated by verbs and named by the part that is the most recognisable. (depressing, angering, aggressing, etc)

Glasser developed reality therapy in the 1960s. According to Wubbolding & Brickel (2017), choice theory is based on the idea that conscious behaviors are chosen in an effort to satisfy one of five internal basic human needs. As Wubbolding (2012) has written, "If choice theory is the track, reality therapy is the train that delivers the product" (p.5). 

External motivation is the most prevalent type of motivation used not only in the classroom, but also in the world at large. I do believe that external motivators actually prevent learning form taking place. What then of the "carrot"? Well, contrary to conventional wisdom, rewards are no more effective in motivating students than threats and punishment. 

When a student hears "if you do this, then you will get that," the message to the learner is "There must be something wrong with this if you have to give me that to get me to do it." According to Alfie Kohn, "when we offer a reward, we are killing off the interest in the very thing we are bribing them to do." 

Back in the traditional "Don't-smile-until-Thanksgiving" days of classroom management, the relationship between students and teachers was simple. The belief was that it was not important if students liked or trusted their teachers as long as they respected or even feared them. 

In 1992, William Glasser published one of his best-known books, The Quality School: Managing students Without Coercion. After a brief explanation of the model of intrinsic, or internal motivation that is based on Choice Theory, the rest of this book offers concrete, proven strategies we can use to appeal to students' internal motivation. 

As I sat at my living room table this morning, pounding my head with my fist trying to figure out what to do with this class, I had a sudden insight. I thought about the behaviors I had been observing in this class; refusing to work in pairs or group, getting up out of their seats for inappropriate reasons, looking out of the window, skipping class, doing no homework and little class work...

After yesterday's workshop, all these disruptive behaviors I was thinking about pointed in one direction: the freedom need, both freedom to and freedom from.

Remember, the basic needs that drive all of our behavior; there are five in all, one physiological need and four psychological. The need to survive, to love and belong, to gain power, to be free, and to have fun.

Indeed we need classrooms that are designed to meet the freedom need and teach course content. I believe that each individual student is responsible for his or her own learning. I provide the required assignments for each five-week increment. I provide models, specific criteria, and any resources necessary for every assignment. I tell them that I am available for one-on-one instruction as they worked through the assignments. They can do the assignments in class or take them home. But, in order to get credit for the course, these assignments must be completed.

Educators have to try their best to meet students need for security, belonging, freedom, power and fun. We need to work with students through 'lead teaching' rather than 'boss teaching'. We need to use noncoercive techniques to help students make responsible choices. 

We honor a student's need for Freedom and Autonomy when we design choice into assignments and projects, including choices in what materials are read and researched. 

We honor a student's need for Love and Belonging when we provide opportunities for talking about what is read with other students. 

We honor a student's need for Joy and Fun when we select reading materials that are enjoyable to read and when we provide an environment for reading that is welcoming and relaxing. 

Indeed teaching is probably the hardest job in the world. I agree with Glasser when he wrote that knowledge of Choice Theory allows educators to develop better relationships among students, by teaching them social skills. When choosing bad behavior Choice Theory prefers discipline and NOT PUNISHMENT. Students who believe that their teachers care about them perform better on tests. 

By getting to know more about the elements of the Choice Theory during our Professional Development Day, I hope that many teachers who were present in the room changed their previous beliefs based on the so-called old psychology of external control "My behavior is a response to the circumstances" in the conviction based on the new psychology of Choice Theory "My behavior is my choice in certain circumstances" (Hurt, 2009). 

The Choice Theory attitude: "It is my duty to supply you with all necessary information, and what will you do with them is your choice for which you suffer the consequences." 

We are responsible for our own behavior. But teachers who dictate procedures, order students to work, and berate them when they do not are increasingly ineffective with today's students. Teachers who function in this manner are called "boss teachers." 

Teachers who provide a stimulating learning environment, encourage students and help them as much as possible are most effective with today's learners. Teachers who function in this way are called "lead teachers." 

Our school curriculum must be organized to meet students' basic need for survival, belonging, power, fun, and freedom. 

We need to progressively help students learn to use SIR, a process of self-evaluation, improvement, and repetition, until quality is achieved.

• What did I learn?
• Did I do more or less than expected by the teacher?
• What are my strongest and weakest points as a student?
• What did I do to improve the weak points?
• What was most satisfying about the class? Most frustrating? Your responsibility for each?
• Has the course irritated you? Stimulated you? Has it made you uncomfortable about yourself, about learning? 
• What did you expect to learn? What did you actually learn? 

I think that the lead management versus boss management approach to behavior management, the emphasis on quality work, the Reality Therapy questioning methodology for conflict resolution, the seven connecting habit versus the seven disconnecting habits- all of these are worth a deeper look. 

💥 The seven connecting habits are listening, respecting, encouraging, supporting, accepting, trusting and always negotiating disagreements and the seven disconnecting habits are being critical, threatening, complaining, blaming, nagging, punishing and bribery.

Peer Temptation and Social Pressure

 As teenagers mature, they begin to physically and emotionally explore their sexuality. 

It is important for teachers to study strategies that improve the safety of all students. 

There is an ongoing debate as to the curriculum guidelines for sex education and/or family life education in the United States of America. These types of program recognize the central role parents play in their children's education. Most programs require a parent signature for their children to participate. 

More federal dollars are appropriated to abstinence-only programs. Decisions as to what should be included in the curriculum is localized and most often decided by a combination of parent advocacy groups, school boards, and the local school district (McNergney & McNergney, 2004). 

Teenagers associate sex with the freedom and sophistication of being an adult (Johnson, Musical Hall, Gollnick, & Dupuis, 2005). They get mixed messages from their peers, parents, religious representatives, and the media. One minute sex is glamorous and the next, it is sinful. Girls link sex with acceptance and being loved, while the boys link it ti status and power (Johnson et al.). 

Good News! Statistics indicate that fewer teens are choosing to have sex early and those that do are being more responsible.

Poverty is also a factor in teenage pregnancy. Approximately 83% of teen mothers are from the poverty level socio-economically (Johnson et al.).

However, teens seem to be more responsible about their sexual lives. School programs and health clinics that offer counseling and services can be given credit for this shift. 

According to Webb, "sexual orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual, or affectional attraction toward another human being" (Webb et al, 2007, p. 265). 

Teenagers are faced with many important decisions regarding their sexuality as they mature into young adults. Sex education and family life education can help teens be informed and make better personal decisions for their future.

Several parents and educators believe that teaching abstinence to teenage students is the best approach to teaching sexual education. Is teaching abstinence the best method of sex education for teenagers? Why or why not? Share your answer from a moral and academic point of view 😃

Have a nice Day

Stop the Drop and Enroll

How can we designed a plan to minimize school drop-out rates and increase the student success rate for at-risk youth?

Most states and school districts define the term dropout as "a student that leaves school for any reason before graduation or completion of a program of study without transferring to another school or institution" (Webb, Metha, & Jordon, 2007, p. 253). 

For these students, the ramifications of their decision to leave school are momentous. For example, throughout their lifetime, students who decide to drop out of high school will earn an estimated $370,000 less than their friends that graduate (Webb et al.). 

The statistics indicate that as many as 17% of dropouts find themselves in poverty (Webb et al.), 60% of prison inmates are dropouts, and 79% of teen parents become dropouts, (Morrison, 2003). 

In order to combat this dismal future, it is essential for educators to identify those students that are most at risk for making the decision to drop out of school.

We need to design preventative and intervention strategies that may stop students from dropping out from school.

Because the dropout issue is so serious, punitive and/ or disincentive policies have also been implemented in some states. The most controversial of these policies are the no pass, no drive laws that do exactly what they state. Those students that drop out of school or are chronically truant are subject to having their drivers' licenses revoked.

Ultimately, it is caring teachers and parents that can have the most impact on students. 

Throughout the last twenty years, while the percentage varies slightly, about 5% of students drop out of high school each year (Johnson et al., 2005). Hispanics are twice as likely as African Americans to drop out of school and 4 times more likely than Caucasians (Webb et al., 2007). 

The goal for all these strategies is to keep at-risk students in school so they can have a chance at a positive and happy future. 

Professional Boundaries

Teachers must be aware of the Code of Conduct for Teachers and the Code of Ethics of the Education Profession. I have been teaching for 25 years and I still meet some teachers you are not aware of these codes.

Indeed teachers have a significant impact on students' lives, so they must not cross the line of professional boundaries and ignore the law pertaining to teacher contact with students. 

Teachers must be familiar with the Code of Ethics for Educators because the Code of Ethics for Educators gives important guidelines to teachers.

Teachers must not cross the line of professional boundaries and influence the lives of their students in a negative and unacceptable way.

Teachers must adopt a professional approach with all their students and they must respect specific professional boundaries for their own safety and the safety of their students.

The End of the Quintile

 Well it is Sunday. Opened my eyes and wondered what day it is. Then I remembered! 

How I ended the first quintile in school with a good laugh! And since I like to share my moments of laughter, this is what happened...😅😅 My answer to an email had the three of us rolling in the aisles. 

This is what can happen to teachers when they read an email at 7 a.m. in their classroom at the end of the school quintile and they decide to answer it very early in the morning. 

I am the kind of person who wakes up everyday at 5 a.m. YES, in the morning! Indeed it is very early! And Franz Kafka was right when he wrote in his book that "this getting up early makes a man quite idiotic"😅

My email would be the perfect joke for a stand up comedian! He or she will have the audience rolling in the aisles.

I arrived in my classroom at 7 a.m. and I opened my email box. I received an invitation for lunch and the different times were written in military time. I read 1400 for 1400 CFA. YES! It happened to me. 

Since 1400 was not written 14:00, I thought that our friends were asking us to chip in, which is totally okay for me! I know things can get expensive. We can have a party and ask our guests to bring additional food or cash.

I replied to the email confirming that I will bring 1400 CFA with me on the day of the party. 

My friend replied, "NO MONEY" "It's Time"... This is when I only realized that our friend was not asking for money, but he was asking us to come at 1400, meaning 2 p.m. 

Indeed why do we use an a.m. p.m. 12 hour time rather than the 24 hour military time? 

This what happens when you speak 5 languages.

I speak five languages and one of them is Arabic. I have only used the 12-hour clock in Arabic. Most countries use a 24-hour clock (which is known in the U.S. as military time) instead of the 12-hour clock. Since he has written 1400 without using the colon ":", I have read it 1400 CFA 😂

I write 14:00 using a colon. Therefore, I was confused when I had read 1400 without the colon. 

Indeed humor is culture specific, meaning that most jokes tend to be funny only among people who share experiences in that culture. But I hope that most us will consider this funny experience as a cosmopolitan one. 

Have a great Sunday 💓

What day is it, again?

Suddenly we found ourselves at home having to deal with a situation of isolation day after day within the same space. 

Every day is the same. I wake up each morning in the exact same place, and every moment that follows is as painfully predictable as the last :) 

Indeed, this 2020 pandemic has created its own clock. There are no hours or days in Coronatime. 

I am lucky to have Google Home :) so I find myself ambling about the apartment, asking Google the time of the day, the day of the week, the weather...

I do not mean to complain. I am lucky to be able to stay inside all day, working from home. I am fortunate to still have an income. But I can't help to feel particularly restless.

It has been very hard to wrap my head around the larger question of timelessness. I feel like time has come to a standstill. 

Me at the moment do not know once I can see my family members once more, or once I can go on a vacation. But I am very happy to know exactly when I will return to work! 

There is a Corona Time. Although a vaccine or correct remedy for COVID-19 remains to be not in sight, I have now to attempt to shake the sensation of being trapped within the current. 

The coronavirus pandemic is messing with our concept of time. What day is it, again? It has become a common refrain during the coronavirus pandemic, a reflection of both how all of the days seem to blur together and how lately, we find ourselves forgetting even the simplest of details.

Every day is interminable, yet the hours fly by: the peculiar paradox of pandemic times. On any given day during the pandemic, I have literally made a hundred decisions and that is why the day feels like a month. 

This pandemic has changed the way I see myself, that's for sure. I have noticed that there is no longer a something-to-do-next. The distinction between this time and that time begins to blur. During this lockdown, my perception of time takes on a different dimension. I feel locked into a sort of perpetual present which never changes and with no diversity in quality.

Indeed during my confinement time feels so weird. When we are at work and engaging in some kind of routine or productive activity, we are experiencing what psychologists call flow. Flow is this relaxed, outward-directed attention, and it can be pleasant and calming. During our confinement, we are not doing what we normally do. We have been broken out of our routine and broken out of flow.

In times of fear and uncertainty and witnessing the devastation caused by the coronavirus crisis, daily routines feel like a luxury and we are eager to have them back.

COVID-19 showed our place on the planet and kept us grounded and humble. It did not differentiate between the rich and the poor. It created a borderless world. 

And the most important thing it increased empathy and compassion and elevated humanity globally: humility, humanity, and hope.

We must treat animals and their habitats with kindness. There is a clear connection between wildlife, humans, and coronavirus. 

To summarize, life is short so make it sweet. Emphasize humanity, humility, and hope. It is time to pause, reflect, and be mindful. 

Teach Don't Preach: Secular Education

A secular school is neutral on the question of religion: it does not teach that God either do or do not exist. Secular schools take no position on the question. 

French schools are secular. The 1905 French Law separating the Church and the State is now over a hundred years old. The laicité (or secularism) principle it defines, is unique in the world and is an integral part of France's contemporary political DNA. 

Article 2 both dictates that " the Republic neither recognizes nor employs nor subsidizes cults", and guarantees the freedom of each cult, as long as they do not violate public order. 

A secular school teaches children in an objective, critical, and pluralistic way about the different beliefs that different people have about God, and leaves it up to parents and religious institutions to teach specific religious beliefs outside of school hours. 

It is good for society for children to be educated together. Secular schools bring children together. They teach them the normal subjects that have a basis in scientific fact, like mathematics and languages and history and critical thinking. 

Secular schools help students understand other beliefs and respect other people. Secular schools respect human rights. Schools should not indoctrinate children with religious or non-religious beliefs that conflict with those of their parents. 

Secular schools teach ethics and social and emotional literacy skills, such as empathy. 

A new Charter of Secularism is to be posted in state schools to remind pupils, parents, and teachers that although in France everyone is free to practice any religion or none, within the country's state-run schools, there are limits to religious expression.

The charter outlines in 15 points the main principles of the 1905 law in France which enshrined the formal separation of state and religion. 

Secular education is a human right, based on international human right treaties to which European countries are party. Society should be based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Schools should be strictly neutral in matters of religion, favoring none and discriminating against none. 

Education is about communicating, thinking, reasoning, learning technical skills. History must be correct, not convenient. We cannot twist science and history to conform the tenets of some religious leaders or some politicians.

The Constitution in France states, "France is an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic, guaranteeing that all citizens regardless of their origin, race or religion are treated as equals before the law and respecting all religious beliefs." 

Secularism is not an opinion among others, but rather the freedom to have an opinion. 

Optimist or Pessimist

It has been said that an optimist sees a doughnut and a pessimist sees the hole :)

This saying humorously captures the difference between the sunny attitude of the optimist and the bleak outlook of the pessimist. 

Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire is a brilliant satire on what he saw as the naively optimistic philosophy of the Enlightenment. Candide is an open-minded young man whose Tutor, Pangloss, has instilled in him the belief, inspired by Leibniz, that'all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds'. 

Indeed Everything is not for the best, and Voltaire knew it! 

Voltaire's use of garden imagery evokes the dichotomy between reality and philosophical abstractions that we identify with. Voltaire advocates a meliorism, the belief that the world can be made better by human effort, that is guided by our humanism. 

Meliorism is militant with its naive and childlike faith motto: "Let us make a better world." Meliorism is the belief that the specific conditions which exist at one moment, be they comparatively bad or comparatively good, in any event may be bettered. Professor Brogan writes: "Meliorism is the doctrine that intrinsic betterness is the fundamental value category."

A person is free in the sense that he or she must daily choose anew between policies that lead to success and those that lead to disaster, social disintegration, and barbarism. 

But with apologies to Shakespeare, "If neither an optimist nor a pessimist be, who or what should we be?" Is there a word for a better way to think about the future?

The word is meliorism. Unlike optimism or pessimism, Meliorism does NOT allow us to wriggle out of our responsibilities. It will take the meliorists who have gotten tired of the silly debate over optimism and pessimism to roll up their sleeves and actually make our world a better place.

A meliorist is someone who believes the world can and should be better, and that people have the capacity to improve it. Every student training to be an active citizen is a meliorist. 

Do not be trappped in the false choice between optimism and pessimism because you can actually be a meliorist. Operating halfway between optimism and realism, meliorism is the belief that the world, no matter what shape it may be in, can always be improved by the concerted effort of mankind. 

Life was lived peaceably once and may be lived peaceably again!

I believe that all things, no matter how bad, can always be improved, given enough determination from people willing to improve them.

It starts with each of us committing to simply be kind and considerate to those around us every day. 

Meliorism, or philosophical hopefulness, combines pluralism and humanism. We are capable of creating better worlds and selves. Pluralism says that better futures are possible and humanism that possibilities are enough decided by human energies, and meliorism that better futures are made real by our effort.

I believe that education is a tool to reform society and create change of the better. 

But Voltaire wrote in Candide, "Cela est bien dit, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin." "That is well said, but we must cultivate our garden."

I believe that the world can be made a better place by people's actions. 

Devote your energies toward improving the world we live in, rather than searching for answers that can never be found. And that includes the question of whether the ending of Candide is ultimately fatalist or philosophically meliorist. 

Only meliorism can underlie the philosophy of action that allows for the possibility of reform and progress through human effort. Dewey writes that progress is not inevitable. It is up to men as individuals to bring it about. 

Both individuals and groups have a responsibility to be active participants in their local community.

Liberté

Lorsque l'on tente de réduire au silence les voix de ceux et celles qui nous informent, alors les chemins qui mènent vers la vérité et la vérité elle-même s'éloignent de nous un peu plus tout les jours mais sans pour autant disparaître. 

La liberté de la presse ne peut s'apprécier qu'au regard de l'appareil judiciaire qui en garantit l'harmonieux fonctionnement. 

Depuis 1993, le 2 mai est considéré comme la Journée Internationale de la Liberté de la Presse. 

Voltaire l'a si bien dit, "Soutenons la liberté de la presse, c'est la base de toutes les autres libertés, c'est par là qu'on s'éclaire mutuellement." 

Certes, liberté de penser et liberté d'exprimer sa pensée par l'écriture, la parole ou la pensée sont des aspects inséparables de la liberté. 

Si on vit dans un pays où il n'est pas permis de penser et d'écrire ses pensées, nul doute que ce pays doit nécessairement tomber dans la stupidité, la superstition et la barbarie. 

Le but de la liberté de la presse n'est pas d'insulter la societé, mais au contraire, il est de l'éclairer. Selon Voltaire, une mauvaise publication doit être ridiculisée par le public. Dans ces cas souvent, Voltaire use de la satire pour "dénoncer un comportement qui paraît comme une anomalie ou une aberration" (Porset). 

Par contre, la satire pour se trouver dans ses limites admissibles ne doit pas devenir diffamatoire, ce qui semble justifié, puisqu'on ne pourrait porter atteinte à l'honneur ou à la considération d'une personne sous prétexte de faire rire. 

L'irrévérence qui caractérise la satire ne doit en aucun cas devenir une injure qui porte atteinte à l'honneur ou à la considération d'une personne. Il est évident que la satire ne bénéficie pas d'une immunité mais simplement d'une tolérance plus large qui n'est toutefois pas illimitée. 

Un autre délit de presse pour lequel la satire est poursuivie est celui de la provocation à la haine, à la discrimination ou à la violence. 

La liberté est la responsabilité de chacun. La liberté impose des responsabilités pour être effective. 

Où est passé le journalisme critique d'Albert Camus?

Albert Camus n'a jamais transigé sur le choix de la liberté et le devoir de vérité, une position morale qui lui valut l'incompréhension de ses contemporains et l'épreuve de la solitude.

Camus avait déclaré, "N'acceptez jamais que la liberté de l'esprit de la personne, de la nation, soit mise en cause, même provisoirement, même une seconde." 

Camus veut aussi une presse claire au langage respectable. Il insiste sur la responsabilité du journaliste. Le journaliste doit avant tout servir les humbles. L'équité est inséparable de l'amour, des proches d'abord, de l'humanite ensuite. Le journalisme doit faire preuve de mesure. Oui, le journalisme se présente comme un service de la vérité. Un journaliste se doit de dénoncer les fake news.

Camus: "Oui, il y a crise de l'homme, si la mort ou la torture d'un être humain dans notre monde, peuvent être contemplées avec indifférence, avec un intérêt amical, une curiosité expérimentale ou sans provoquer de réaction." 

Le journaliste citoyen doit rechercher et rapporter des faits. Il doit clarifier les enjeux sociaux et politiques. Le journaliste citoyen s'interdit la prose lyrique. 

Romanticism

Romanticism, the emphasis on the individual, a rejection of artificiality in favor of passion and emotion, a love of nature, a respect for the commonplace, a freeing of the imagination, I LOVE THIS PERIOD! 

Romantics believed that profound lessons could be learned from observing nature.

I believe like them that there is no greater beauty than that found in nature, and I see higher truths reflected in natural scenes.

No matter how great rulers believe themselves to be, their lives and deeds will be lost to history. Only nature, and not human achievement, truly endures. 

Some romantics writers liked to stay anonymous. They thought that anonymity can feel good. 

Indeed blending into a crowd on a bustling city street or losing yourself in a mass of fellow sports fans at a sold out game can be exhilarating. 

But there is difference between being invisible and being ignored. 

Orwell wrote, "When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, 'I am going to produce a work of art.' I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing." 

Orwell did not want to ignore the local Burmese. He learned that imperialism is absurd because it destroys the freedom of the oppressors as well as that of the oppressed. 

The political and military leaders use deceptive language to obscure the hideous realities of war in order to further their aims. They use depersonalizing terms to make people on the opposing side seem like embodiments of evil rather than fellow human beings. 

Where do we find Peace?

In Nature! Nature will never prove us wrong for having loved it. Nature leads us throughout our lives. It impresses us with its quiet and beauty and feeds our minds with lofty thoughts. 

Nothing, not evil tongues nor selfish people nor mundane activities, can change our faith in nature. 

We batter them with KINDNESS.

Robin Williams said, "Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always." 

KINDNESS shows great self-discipline and strong self-esteem. Being kind is not always easy when we are dealing with rude people. Kindness is a sign of a person who has done a lot of personal work and has come to a great self-understanding and wisdom. 

The concept of unconditional positive regard is important in schools. It means treating every human as equal instead of saying someone is good only if they behave a certain way, or if they fit in certain boxes. It means rewarding children for the smallest things, like being kind to fellow pupils, and not punishing bad behavior. If a pupil throws over a table and swears at the teacher, the teacher would still be very nice with the pupil. That child would be looked after, taken out of the room for a calming period and then welcomed back into the classroom.

Teachers must be kind. Always. Students do not learn from teachers they don't like, do they? Teachers must be the first person that says something positive to them every day. 

Empathy is something teachers can build like a muscle. Empathy is in short supply. Isolation and tribalism are rampant. Most of the people struggle to understand people who are not like them. 

I have been teaching for 24 years and during all these years I have always tried to promote the joy of deep learning and to provide a positive, non-judgmental accepting, risk-free environment in my classroom that encourages students to be problem-solvers, critical thinkers and decision-makers. 

I have set up proactive measures and I can anticipate situations that may arise with students as I have developed deep and meaningful connections with each student. 

I have always believed in the power of kindness and empathy. 

I have read on the newspaper a script for educators that helps young students see their bodies as trees, their breath as wind, and their kindness and warmth as reflections of the sun. I love this script! It says, "Our body is like a tree. It grows and it is strong. Our breath is like the wind. It flows in and out. And the sun is like the part of us that is warm and kind." 

Indeed with the sun up high in the sky, brightening and warming the whole world, you too can warm the world, with your kindness!

Mindfulness, present moment awareness, leads to self-esteem, self-concept, and well-being.

Young children are developmentally egocentric. Empathy develops over time. Kindness requires some thought about the needs and feelings of others. 

Kindness must be the new normal. 

Education must become the lens to help children see the inter-connectedness of all humans and nature to help build us a more thriving world and planet.

I am a huge believer in the power of kindness. I have found out that as a teacher, I think it is important to be transparent about your successes and failures, to share your whole story, not just your polished success stories. Putting authenticity out into the world and putting kindness out into the world inspire it in others. 

We can build a school culture that values acts of kindness, peace, and empathy. I am ready to do away with other homework for the entire month of December or March or April, replacing it instead with acts of kindness. Students are urged to be the reason someone else smiles during the whole month of December :)

A be kind movement is essential to our society. One kind Act can change someone's life. Many such acts create a movement. 

Changing the world through Kindness...one itsy bit at a time

We all have the power to make a difference. 

John Meehan said," Kindness is an integral part of our human nature. We must strive to return it to the forefront of our human experience." 

Pandemics: Zoonotic Diseases

It is easy to blame a bat, but is our wanton destruction of nature and the traditional habitats of species responsible for the pandemic gripping the world right now?

The more we destroy nature, the more likely we are to see fearsome diseases like COVID-19 emerging. The coincidence of the new diseases with the destruction of biodiversity is highly significant. 

Animals that can host pathogens dangerous to humans such as rodents, birds, and bats, are proportionately more common in human-occupied spaces than in remote areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered by a coronavirus of animal origin has awakened the world to the threat that zoonotic diseases pose to humans.

In order to move from wild animal hosts to humans (or other animals), the pathogen must come into contact with humans, and it must adapt to living and reproducing in a new species. These boundaries are the result of human activity motivated by socioeconomic factors, such as when people move into a wild area to develop land for farming or housing. 

Among the uncertainty enveloping the world today, what remains clear is that zoonotic disease outbreaks will continue to occur. 

Zoonotic diseases (zoonoses) are animal diseases and infections that transmit to humans: for example; SARS, Ebola, H1N1 (swine flu), brucellosis, and rabies. 

COVID-19 is just one example of the rising trend of diseases, from Ebola to MERS to West Nile and Rift Valley fevers, caused by viruses that have jumped from animal hosts into the human population. 

The rising trend in zoonotic diseases is driven by the degradation of our natural environment; through land degradation, wildlife exploitation, resource extraction, climate change, and other stresses. Scientists blame the increase in the spillover of pathogens from animals on two trends: rapid globalization and humanity's cavalier interaction with nature. Indeed, rapid deforestation and the global wildlife trade are terrible for our Mother Nature. 

Globalization can turn outbreaks into PANDEMICS. Fifty years ago, it would have been much harder for COVID-19 to spread from Wuhan to the rest of the world. 

Humans have altered more than half of Earth's habitable land to meet the needs of our burgeoning population. We must restore degraded habitat and protect undisturbed natural areas in order to have a better public health and a better environment. Otherwise disease outbreaks and pandemics are likely to emerge regularly. 

The next virus pandemic is not far away, unless humans change the way they live.

Coronaviruses are thought to have been circulating in bats for centuries but have only recently become a leading source of zoonotic disesases, alongside other illnesses that originated in animals such as HIV, Ebola and Zika.

If preventive veterinary medicine had been applied in China and other countries to better monitor live animal markets and wild domestic animal factory farms, this COVID-19 pandemic would have been much less likely to occur.

There is a growing worldwide clarion call for a ban on wet markets and meat consumption, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

What is a wet market? A wet market typically has multiple open-air stalls, spread over a large area, where vegetables, fruits, meat and fresh seafood are sold. Some of these sell and slaughter live animals, including poultry and fish, on-site, while some even engage in illegal dealings of wild animals. A wet market is dubbed so because, in such a market, water and ice are used to keep the food and meat fresh.

Any country with wet markets and animal-based food practices needs to be aware that the next novel zoonotic-based outbreak might occur again. 

We overexploit animals and nature. Why are we fighting COVID-19 without fighting the cause?

Considering the current pandemic and the potential for further zoonotic disease spill-over from the danger of having wet markets, isn't it time to put an end to these kind of markets? 

The novel coronavirus is transmitted by droplets from coughs and sneezes, so the best way to prevent getting it is by practicing social distancing and by wearing masks. 

If there is one lesson from COVID-19, it is that we can no longer manage environmental and economic pressures separately.

Illiterate But Full of Wisdom

I remember I was 12 years old when I took this picture of my mother. 

My mother is illiterate. She is a woman who lived in a sovereign state, as well as in occupation and exile. She has never been to school. She cannot hold her pen and write. But she is able to challenge patriarchy. When she got divorced, she was 34 years old and she decided to never remarry again. 

She has never been to school but she has gathered her wisdom from day-to-day experiences. She has always told me that if I really want to be wise (not just well educated), I need to pay attention to the world around me. 

Is my mother  an invisible feminist? :) Would she say that as a woman she is systemically placed in a disadvantaged position? My mother will not call herself a feminist but she has always tried to improve the positions and lives of other women. Most of the women in the oasis believe that they should be submissive toward men and strive only to become good housewives. My Mother did not think like them.

My mother has always argued that Islam guaranteed women rights of which they had been deprived because of customs and traditions imposed in the name of religion. She told me that through the correct understanding and practice of Islam, women could regain basic rights, and their families and societies would also benefit. 

She is persuaded that her society is backward because women were backward, and women were backward because of lack of education and because of social constraints. 

One day we were listening to the radio. We heard a fundamentalist saying  that he was against women who go to school and work. Today, conservative forces in Arab countries threaten women's expression in ways that many women have had round-the-clock protection by guards. 

She was against this fundamentalist's ideas. She asked me to never stop learning. She asked me to work hard in school and to get a diploma and to work. She did not want me to become like her; a woman who cannot read and write and cannot take care of herself.

I was made aware early in my life that little girls were in danger. My mother never let me go alone anywhere, and allowed me to go playing with cousins of only three families. The admonitions grew more seriously when I was an adolescent. A young girl was seen as an endangered species to be protected from future predators. A little girl was never considered as an autonomous being whose life could turn out to be something other than what was considered to be the social norm: a little girl was a daughter, a school girl (if she is very lucky), and a future wife.

Rape was never discussed socially but my mother and my aunts thought about it all the time and they made sure that their daughters were not playing in the gardens or the streets with boys. The division of the world between a masculine universe and a feminine universe was very well established in our oasis.

My mother viewed the world in rather simplistic ways. She understood that I was growing to be different from her and it must have increased her sense of loneliness. When I was young, I was finding her views and her authority unbearable. My mother and my aunts left the house only on rare occasions such as family celebrations in the houses of relatives and close friends. Given the many prohibitions imposed on women, their movements were restricted. Women exhausted their lives with the huge cooking pots, carrying water, washing their clothes, taking care of their children....

Such an environment had a stifling grip on me, which intensified as I approached maturity. My journey through life was filled with intellectual struggles. We couldn't travel and experience field trips. We couldn't attend birthday parties. My commitment to life weakened as I remained secluded from the outside world. My world was school, home, then back to school. Summer times were all spent in my grandparents oasis. 

My mother never went to school so she continued to consider male sponsorship and female subordination the rule. She believes that the power of men to make all the decisions in society is completely natural. Ideas are effective as long as people accept them and do not revolt against them. 

I remember my mother used to hum softly with her sad, tender voice. I would sit on her lap listening actively. At fourteen my mother was married to my father who was seventeen. She moved from her father's house and her happy life there, to the house of her husband. It is the customs then for a young bride to live with her in-laws. The sons worked in their father's business. The men alone had the right to dispose of the family fortune. The men were responsible for the whole family, as was the rule in the oasis those days. 

One of the strongest of my depressing memories of my mother began in my grandmother's room in the oasis. My grandfather came and told her that she was divorced. She was only 34 and she was visiting her parents during the summer school holiday. She never came back to her house and she had to send her children alone to their father who was living in another country. My spirit was broken and I spent the rest of my summer holiday with my eyes full of tears. When we returned to my father's house, I discovered great changes. The house had been repainted and the furniture redone. 

I remember my uncle in the oasis had never refused anything to his mother. One day he rose promptly full of anger against his wife and he told her, "I will declare you divorced three times if you ever wear this dress and you go out to attend this wedding. I will never anger my mother because of you." 

There are so many men like my uncle in our world! Men, being the patriarch of households, who avail themselves of the Quranically allowed four wives, constantly shuffling them through divorce and remarriage. And of course men are very well aware that God had laid one condition to polygamy: NO FAVOURITISM which is in itself impossible! A man cannot love four women the same way; therefore, Islam is against polygamy!

I remember my maternal uncle found it hard to maintain a state of peace in his house, for fights amongst his two wives became a routine. I remember, one day, I heard the sound of fearful screeching coming from my uncle's room. That was the signal that a fight was about to start. My cousins and I would shoot upstairs to the rooftop which had the double benefit of giving us a bird's-eye-view of what was about to unfold. Most of the time, my uncle's wives preferred to fight out of doors where nothing impeded their movements. They fought, kicking and screaming, while their children, scampering to the rescue would take their positions behind their respective mothers, and lustily give their support! Dirty word upon dirty word shot to high heaven. For at this point, my uncle would pounce on his women, hacking wildly, roaring threats of divorced. Of course, the horrified women would immediately draw apart in a temporary truce :) For the mere thought of the divorce would drew the two wives instinctively together to form a unified front in the face of the menace.

My mother was proud of the women freedom fighters who carried guns against colonialism and its army. She recounted about how women who were  equal to men in the struggle for independence had shared decision-making both at the political and at the military levels. 

But then what happened after the independence? Women should be bound by tradition, while men had access to modernity. I understood that all these men used traditions to serve their purposes. Nationalism, socialism, and traditions were used as tools for the elaboration of anti-women state policy. 

The Family Code in Algeria canonised women's inferiority and subjection to the authority of a man who had legal tutelage over her. Islam demands of each believer to be fair to his woman, and yet polygamy and repudiation are legal in all Arab worlds. Women have everything to gain by truly being internationalist! We must exchange information and support one another. We must create such solidarity in order to be able to regain control and change many laws against women. 

Some things leave an impact deep inside that will never go away. I shall speak of something that touched me profoundly. 

Once when I was spending my summer holiday with my mother in the oasis, I asked her about her best friend. My mother sighed and answered me in a sad voice saying that her friend had experienced great sorrow causing her to fall ill. The reason of this great sorrow was that her husband had married another woman because she had given birth to five girls. Her husband wanted a boy! How come a man began to dislike his wife because all his children were girls! I told my mother that this cruel husband is criminal under the rule of law, decency, humanity and kindness. Why isn't the man blamed as the woman is blamed? Why doesn't the woman ask for a divorce and marry another man so that she can bear boys? 

My mother was shocked by my speech! She couldn't understand that we have archaic practices that shout for reform. I told my mother that the liberated woman is a person who believes that she is as human as a man. Since they are equally human they must have equal human rights. Women must free themselves from the inherited traditional attitudes which contain no human meaning and which disfigure her humanity. The liberated woman believes that as a human being she has the right to be responsible for herself and her society. 

The liberated woman insists that her mistakes are no more evil than those of men, that there is no a male mistake that is forgiven and a female mistake that is not. 

We want to create a society....... :) My mother ignored my philosophizing and gave me my third cup of fresh green mint tea! My grandmother burnt a handful of of incense to scare away the evil spirits from the house. The evil eye !! :) 

My grandfather was in another room talking and drinking tea with my uncles and cousins. I was in the other room with the women drinking tea and his voice traveled the distance between us. He was telling them how the new generation like me who read books and talked in French was worrying him. I listened carefully, trying to get the gist of what he was saying; his voice would lower and then become clearer: "The women are our responsibility. We must respect them and not hurt them." My grandfather was against honor killing. 

We can still hear today men performing honor killing. They murder a woman or girl and they justify their actions by claiming that the victim has brought dishonor upon the family name or prestige. When a woman, according to men, had gone wrong, she must disappear, no longer be seen, so that the shame does not touch her family. The relatives would lead the wrong-doer into a field where they would beat her, and then bury her. 

Honor killing is against Islam!

There must be a joint responsibility between women who were lucky to go to school and those who were not. An educated woman has to help the others, otherwise how can we change society. The educated don't pay attention to the illiterate. Religion helps to organize your life at home but schools must remain secular. Religion must not be interpreted incorrectly. The Prophet wanted education for women. Arab civilization and Islam were built on the co-operation and equality of the two sexes. Women and men must stand up for equal legitimate rights. 

Women are citizens who are particularly aware of economic, social and national problems. To deprive women of their civil rights is a harmful obstacle in the path of the development and evolution of the nation, a lacuna in the country's democratic process. 

Solidarité Africaine?

Les Africains sont toujours prêts à incriminer la communauté internationale; mais, il y a quelque chose que je ne comprends pas...

A trop incriminer la communauté internationale sur les carences de son action, les Africains ont fini par considérer que l'Afrique ne fait pas partie de cette communauté! Pourtant l'Afrique fait bien partie de la communauté internationale? 

Mais par contre...Où est passé la solidarité intra-africaine?

La plupart des Africains sur les réseaux sociaux critiquent la force française Barkhane au Sahel. Pourtant la force française fait de son mieux pour sécuriser la région.  

Mais où sont passé les forces spéciales égyptiennes, algériennes, éthiopiennes ou kenyanes???? Pourquoi l'Afrique ne crée pas sa propre force militaire pour lutter contre le terrorisme? Où est passé la solidarité intra-africaine?

Pourtant une Afrique unie autour des principes de solidarité intra-africaine sera un avenir glorieux pour la jeunesse Africaine. 

Mais comment rêver d'une solidarité intra-africaine quand on voit que la plupart de nos dirigeants africains pillent leurs propre continent à leurs profits personnels. 

On voit la pluparts de nos dirigeants africains se payer des trains de vie fastueux alors qu'ils n'assurent même pas l'éssentiel à leurs populations. A quand la fin de la grande corruption de nombreux chefs d'état africains? 

La 4 ème édition de la journée africaine de la lutte contre la corruption s'est célébrée le 11 juillet 2020 sur le Continent Africain, sous le thème COMBATTRE LA CORRUPTION grâce à des systèmes judiciaires efficaces et efficients. Un système judiciaire responsable et transparent, pilier essentiel et incontournable de la bonne gouvernance. 

La lutte contre la corruption n'est pas un accident! Nous ne devons pas seulement souhaiter que ça change mais au contraire, nous devons nous impliquer pour que ca change.

On constate sur notre continent africain le blanchiment des produits de la corruption, l'enrichissement illicite, la déclaration des biens et avoirs, la confiscation et la saisie des produits et moyens de la corruption...

En Afrique, la corruption sape les bases de la démocratie! L'Union Africaine avait désigné 2018 comme l'année pour gagner la lutte contre la corruption: visiblement, c'est raté!

La population africaine est lassées des bakchichs quotidiens comme des pots-de-vin et détournements de fonds au plus haut niveau. 

La corruption entraîne l'apparition de grandes inégalités et donc la privation relative de droits économiques sociaux et culturels pour la part de la population exclue.

La corruption provoque l'endettement irresponsable de pays qui ne peuvent ensuite rembourser et se trouvent pris dans le cycle infernal du surendettement. 

Les Africains sont-ils condamnés à être corrompus?

Le terme "dash", le fameux pot-de-vin nigérian, vient par example d'un mot d'origine hollandaise, "dasje", qui désigne une petite pièce de tissu autrefois utilisée pour troquer des esclaves contre des armes à feu et des babioles du temps de la traite.

Alors peut-on penser que la corruption serait l'expression d'un déclin des valeurs morales des coutumes africaines, qui auraient été perverties par la colonisation? 

La corruption est un impérieux combat qui ne pourra se conduire que sur le long-terme. Le temps de mettre en place les administrations necessaires et, surtout, de changer les mentalités. 

Car non, la corruption en Afrique n'est pas une fatalité!

Plus que la peste hier et le paludisme aujourd'hui, la corruption tue. En détournant à leur profit l'argent public, en méprisant , au-delà de toute décence, l'intérêt général, de nombreuses élites du Tiers-Monde sont tenues pour responsables de la misère dans laquelle croupissent au moins deux milliards d'êtres humains. 

Par honte ou par hypocrisie, nul ne se hasardait à parler de corruption! Il aura fallu attendre la chute du mur de Berlin, le mur de la honte et des mensonges; pour s'apercevoir que la corruption est inhérente à l'activite humaine et qu'il s'agit d'un phenomène universel, établi ici chez nous en Afrique, en système. 

L'histoire retiendra que Thomas Sankara a été l'un des Chefs d'Etats africains à avoir véritablement lutté contre la corruption sans couvrir les coupables, même lorsque ces derniers étaient proches de son entourage. 

La misère et la pauvreté du monde ne pourront être vaincues qu'à travers un minimum de moralisation de la vie publique dans le monde, et à partir d'une coalition mondiale. Une REVOLUTION !!! Peut-on véritablement tuer Machiavel? 

Machiavel est plutôt connu pour avoir réfléchi à la ruse et à la manipulation en politique. Il a été lui aussi fortement préoccupé par la question de la corruption. Qu'aurait conseillé Machiavel à l'Afrique? Selon lui, si le comportement humain est l'une des causes de la corruption, le remède est collectif. Machiavel explique la corruption en des termes analogues à ceux utilisés aujourd'hui: il l'envisage sous l'angle individuel dans une perspective de pouvoir et de profit.

La corruption, l'évasion fiscale et le poids de la dette ont littéralement anéanti les populations des trois pays africains; Sierra Léone, Libéria et Guinée-Conakry. 

Pour Machiavel, il est indubitable que "tous les hommes sont méchants, et qu'ils sont prêts à mettre en oeuvre leur méchanceté toutes les fois qu'ils en ont l'occasion." D'après Machiavel, l'homme est doté d'une nature corrompue.

Toutefois, l'homme possède un libre arbitre par laquelle il peut identifier et guérir ce qui est à la source de la corruption. Et comme je l'ai dit plus haut: le remède à la corruption est collectif.

Nous, les africains, devons examiner les causes profondes du bourbier dans lequel l'Afrique patauge. 

Dans son ouvrage intitulé How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1982), Walter Rodney illustre, sans l'ombre d'un doute, que la plupart des maux dont souffre actuellement l'Afrique sont en réalité hérités de l'époque coloniale. La vérité, c'est que le colonialisme était une machine à sous. En réalité, ce que les maîtres coloniaux présentaient comme étant le développement de l'Afrique était l'expression cynique de l'exploitation injustifiable des resources matérielles et humaines de l'Afrique. 

Pour sortir le continent africain de ce bourbier socioéconomique, les africains doivent prendre leur destin en mains. 

Même après l'indépendance en Afrique, la plupart des dirigeants africains continuent de se comporter comme des écoliers au service de leurs anciens maîtres coloniaux. Ces peuples qui les ont élus ont vu trois choses se développer: 

1. La sacralisation du pouvoir politique
2. La corruption
3. La mauvaise gouvernance

Certes, l'Afrique n'a pas le monopole de l'enrichissement illicite, de la corruption, de la mal gouvernance ou des biens mal acquis. Toutefois, ils sont nombreux sur notre continent africains. Tant les gouvernants qui y sont souvent impliqués utilisent diverses méthodes pour commettre leurs forfaits ou tenir en respect toutes les personnes qui tentent d'y voir un peu plus clair ou de les dénoncer.

"Bouffer" recouvre toute la variété des pratiques du complexe de la corruption. Peu importe comment chacun de débrouille, pôts de vins ou prélèvements directs pour l'un, utilisation privative de fonds spéciaux ou trafic d'influence pour l'autre, par example. 

A nouveau, c'est dans un syncrétisme historique entre pratiques précoloniales, héritage colonial, et changements post-coloniaux que s'est constitué cette logique culturelle de la corruption. 

On dira volontiers en songhay-zarma, "ir ma faaba ceeci" ("cherchons de l'aide"), ce qui signifie avoir recours à une relation utile pour une médiation quelconque, laquelle peut clairement impliquer dessous de table, commission ou cadeau. Le douanier bouffe et le ministre bouffe!

Les régimes post-coloniaux ont propulsé au pouvoir des élites nationales devenues du jour au lendemain toutes puissantes, chaussant les bottes des anciens dominateurs européens, flattés par les deux camps de la guerre froide, sans contre-poids aucun à leurs tentations despotiques et prédatrices. 

D'où ce sentiment général d'impuissance face à une mécanique infernale! 

Ainsi fonctionnent les Etats voyoux d'Afrique. Des vieillards rompus à la roublardise et à la duplicité, gouverner, c'est en effet manger, boire, danser et copuler à longueur d'années, dans la plus totale imprévoyance!

Certains possèdent des appartements luxueux dans les quartiers huppés d'Europe, d'autres détiennent de nombreux biens souvent mal acquis sur les territoires Européens, leurs comptes bancaires logés dans des institutions Européennes, lorsque d'innombrables liasses de devises étrangères ne sont pas purement et simplement entassées dans des sacs dans leurs maisons. 

L'Afrique a vécu beaucoup d'illusions et désillusions après l'indépendance. En 1967, une première guerre civile affecta la province du Biafra au Nigéria. Dans les années 1970, j'avais 4 ans, de nombreux pays sombrèrent sous la férule de redoutables prédateurs: Bokassa (Centre afrique), Idi Amin Dada (Ouganda), Mobutu (Congo), Mengistu (Èthiopie), Ratsiraka (Madagascar)....et la liste est longue...

La famine frappe également le Sahel puis l'Èthiopie. Les horreurs du génocide rwandais et de la guerre du Kivu (plusieurs millions de morts).

Nous sommes toujours là, nous Africains a dénoncer les maux qui affectent notre beau continent: corruption, absence de civisme et d'Ètat de droit, détournement à grande échelle de l'aide venue d'ailleurs, pillage des resources naturelles par les internationaux assistés des chefs locaux...et la liste est longue...

La vision d'une Afrique qui serait en marge de l'histoire est encore bien présente! Au contraire, on continue à montrer des clichés de safaris ou de tribus dites authentiques qui n'auraient jamais été corrompues par la civilisation, reproduisant en cela les pires clichés de l'ère coloniale. 

L'Afrique engluée dans la corruption, la guerre et la mauvaise gouvernance serait-elle un continent sans espoir? 

La corruption n'existe pas seulement en Afrique. Le Japon s'est-il développé depuis la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale sans corruption? Et l'Europe a-t-elle connu son essor économique depuis le XIXe siècle sans oligarchies, sans une redistribution clientéliste de l'argent public. Idem pour les Etats-Unis? Le discours sur la bonne gouvernance est à bien des égards insupportable: nous Africains, on veut exporter un modèle normatif qui n'existe même pas chez les autres. 

Pourtant je ne suis pas une grande partisane de l'afro-pessimisme mais j'ai de la peine aussi avec cette vision romantique d'une Afrique idéale qui serait une extraordinaire source de création. 

Mais il y a de l'espoir! Je vois beaucoup de jeunes Africains qui ont la volonté de changer les choses. Cette jeunesse m'impressionne! Je vois des jeunes africains épris d'égalité et qui sont prêts à souffrir pour l'obtenir, car toute contestation est critiquée et souvent taxée d'antipatriotique, voire réprimée. 

L'Afrique n'est pas vouée à la corruption! 

Les Africains doivent partir en guerre contre les stéréotypes qui emprisonnent notre continent dans des logiques politiques toxiques. L'Afrique n'est pas plus que les autres vouée au pire. Le Kenyan, John Githongo, a payé au prix fort son acharnement à dénoncer la corruption de son propre camp. Il est la preuve vivante qu'une autre Afrique est possible. 

On ne peut pas envahir un autre pays que le sien, lui donner des frontières parfaitement arbitraires, décider de le gouverner avec le minumum de ressources, et s'imaginer que tout ira bien. C'est exactement ca l'Afrique! L'Afrique colonisée! L'Afrique aprés son Indépendance! 

Mais moi je pense que l'Afrique est un continent plein d'espoir. Je vois un continent à l'énorme potentiel. C'est de l'Afrique que viennent la majorité des soldats de la paix des Nations Unies. Les pays d'Afrique accueillent le plus grand nombre de réfugiés et se montrent les plus généreux. 

En faisant preuve d'unité, les Africains peuvent venir à bout des problèmes de gouvernance et faire respecter la démocratie, les droits de l'Homme et l'Etat de droit. 

Terrorism has no Religion

There is only one kind of terrorist! A terrorist! Terrorism has no Religion. 

We must teach Peace. Peace Education as part of school curriculum can change the environment within which a person lives and the whole world through schools!

Schools are a seed bed towards better development of a human being. Peace Education can be taught everywhere and at any time. 

Peace Education can even change the problem of bullying in schools. Peace Education can change this behavior and promote a culture of peace among students to help each other to help each other to perform well in their studies.

We must promote Peace in the most fundamental manner by our confirmation of the inviolability of human dignity. 

It is not enough to talk about Peace. One Must believe in it. And It is not enough to believe in it. ONE MUST WORK AT IT. 

Our world is made stronger when we celebrate our differences, and respect, and love what makes each person and each country unique. That every action we take comes from our heart.

May the suffering, stories and resilience of survivors unite us in ACTION to free the world of terrorism. 

Hendrix said, "When the power of Love overcomes the love of power the world will know PEACE.

Single Voices Global Choices

You want to make a difference! 

To make a difference, we, teachers, must be willing and able to create a conducive social environment for learning and students have to be open to the experience of learning in this environment.

Project Based Teaching focuses on engaging students with real-world problems. This is an interdisciplinary approach because real-world challenges are rarely solved using information or skills from a single subject area. projects require students to engage in inquiry, solution building, and product construction to help address the real-world issue or challenged presented.

The beauty of collaboration is not only the ability to tap into various perspectives and ideas but also to share responsibility for our students' learning. The more people invested in a students' education, the better the chance that student has to be successful.

Exposing teachers to new teaching concepts is very important. Teachers need to bring the world into their classrooms. The need for students to be able to empathize with others, value diverse perspectives and cultures, understand how events around the world are interconnected, and solve problems that transcend borders has never been greater. 

ACROSTIC

S-social-emotional learning

I-internationalization

N-neurodidactics

G-gamification

L-learning

E-experiences

V-voice

O-online learning

I-inquiry

C-choice

E-empowerment

S-self-organized learning environments

G-global learners and view

L-language

O-opportunities

B-blended learning

A-agents

L-literacy

C-competency-based learning

H-holistic learning approach

O-open learning

I-identity

C-cogenerative dialogues 

E-experiments

S-student-centered teaching

We need to help our students become global citizens who act with passion and compassion. 

I believe that real-life issues and events capture our students' interest in a way that textbook writing rarely can, because my students can relate to what is happening in their community, their country, and the world. 

August: 12/08 International Youth Day

September: 

• 5/09 International Day of Charity
• 8/09 International Literacy Day
• 10/09 World Suicide Day
• 21/09 International Day of Peace

October: Buy Nothing New Month

• 10/10 World Mental Health Day
• 16/10 World Food Day
• 17/10 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

November

• 16/11 International Day for Tolerance
• 19/11 World Toilet Day

December/January

• 1/12 World AIDS Day
• 3/12 International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• 10/12 Human Rights day
• 18/12 International Migrants Day

February: 21/02 International Mother Language Day

March / April

• 21/03 World Poetry Day
• 21/03 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• 22/03 World Day for Water
• 7/04 World Health Day
• 21/04 World Creativity and Innovation Day
• 22/04 Earth Day

International Days are an excellent way to educate our students on issues of concern, to address global problems and to celebrate and reinforce the achievements of humanity. 

Dunya

Dunya feels she was thrown away to become a worker at a young age. Her present life is cold, lonely, and sad. 

She was born in small hut on a dead-end street. She grew up with the fear of being struck down by the plague or learning that parts of her hut had been destroyed. 

Dunya had to share with her four siblings a dirty, flea-ridden room. The room was infested with rats and mice which came every night as unwanted visitors searching for food. Dunya's parents lived also in this tiny hut in a village called Wakaho. The hut was made of sticks and mud, with dirt and moss clung to the grooves of the corrugated iron roof. 

Dunya's soft, brown complexion radiated kindness but she was a lone wolf. She preferred her own company and she did not like socializing. She was a humble girl and she was able to face danger without flinching. 

She heard her father talking to her mother so she stopped washing the pots and she paid a close attention to what was being said. Her father was always talking in parables. 

"Listen, Mama of Dunya, a man wants a horse that will cost him a month's wage, so he decides to steal a horse instead. As he begins to ride off with the horse, it throws him, and the fall breaks his leg. Now he has neither the horse nor a job."

Dunya's Mother paused a moment and replied, "There is a plan in life's situations; life is neither all good nor all bad. This man might return to a just life. We should forgive and rejoice when a sinner returns to a just life, right?"

Dad laughed and said, "You are an angel! But angels are immortal beings who serve intermediaries between Heaven and Earth. You are not immortal, but you are still my angel on earth." 

Dunya loved her parents, but she also knew that death is not something we only face at the end of our lives. She was afraid to lose her parents. She would not be able to look after her four siblings. Even though she believed that the soul lives eternally, in a place where Death cannot exist, she couldn't contemplate her parents' deaths. Her parents always told her that the best people see death as rest for the body and deliverance of the soul into heaven, but as a ten-year-old girl, she couldn't face the idea of death. 

Dunya subscribed to the idea that life is fleeting and that she should therefore focus on enjoyment of the present. But living for the moment had only pitfalls too. Dunya was going to be sent tomorrow to another home to be a servant for the rest of her life. Her parents said that they had no other alternative. They explained to Dunya that they live in desperate poverty and cannot afford to care for their six children. She was going to be a servant for life at the age of ten!

Her parents knew that one of the major threats to a normal childhood is child labour. But as the father says everyday, "Beggars can't be choosers." 

Dunya is going to be sent to work as domestic in exchange for housing and food. She is going to live a slave-like existence full of domestic chores. 

Dunya's brothers will never face the same destiny because sons are seen as a bigger asset for the parents, whereas daughters will become part of their husbands' families. Dunya is going to be sold as a domestic servant. 

The next morning, a man came to take Dunya.

A new day starts. Dunya finds herself sleeping in a new house kilometres away from her family. Dunya can't see her hands in the darkness of her new shack made from palm bark and zinc on a new landscape. But she feels them because of the pain from wounds on her thumbs caused by the knife she uses to trim garlic plants all day. 

Dunya is woken up at four in the morning by the members of the new family. She does not go to school. In the rush to get to work, Dunya does not have the time to eat breakfast. 

Dunya has to face bad weather, mosquito bites and cuts and scrapes from having to pull the plants out from deep in the mud. Little by little Dunya has lost her self-esteem. She feels separate from the her parents, her siblings, and the rest of the society. For Dunya, life seems like a tunnel with no exit.

Dunya's parents are from a rural area with no education and see no alternative but to send Dunya to live in another family as a servant. Dunya needs to work to help feed her family. 

Dunya toiled without a break from four in the morning until midnight, and was also charged with cooking, laundry, cleaning the floors, washing dishes, and caring for the children of the new family. Dunya has no days off and was only allowed to eat once a day. 

The members of the new family frequently berated her and beat her with a shoe when she broke something or when one of the children cried.

Many girls like Dunya in our sad world encounter physical and verbal violence, isolation, and seven-day-a-week labor that begins at dawn and continues until late at night. And none of these girls attend school.

Poverty is one of the main reasons of child labour. Life consequently becomes a day to day struggle for survival of the poor. As a result, Dunya starts work instead of attending school. Dunya's parents believed that girls should share family responsibilities by assisting their parents with household chores or occupations such as farming at an early age. 

Gender is also a crucial factor as girls are mainly expected to look after their siblings and take care of the house. And Dunya always took care of her own siblings at home. 

The change starts within each one of us, and ends only when all children are free to be children. 

Indeed poverty is the major precipitating factor, but education, rigid social and cultural roles, economic greed, family size, geography, and global economics all contribute. 

We must stop child labour. We must protect children.

It is up to us ALL to end child labour.