#006 - Is Our Current Education System Breeding Ignorance in Our Youth?🌐🧠✨
In this episode of the Neuroeducation Podcast, host Angie explores the question of what we are doing in our education system that leads to ignorance and a disparity of wealth and experience among children. She discusses the need for change in our education system and how it can supercharge learning. Angie also shares a personal experience from her high school years that had a profound impact on her worldview. Tune in to discover the importance of embracing multiculturalism and the power of education to revolutionize children's learning.
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:05 - Personal High School Experience
00:01:36 - Encounter with an Afghan Refugee
00:03:55 - Ignorance About Global Issues
00:04:49 - Becoming a Global Citizen
00:05:53 - Disparity of Wealth and Child Labor
00:08:03 - Daily Impact on Global Child Welfare
00:08:24 - Fair Trade and Consumer Awareness
00:09:19 - Education as a Tool for Change
00:10:22 - Inspiring Youth to Solve Global Problems
00:11:06 - Real-World Applications in Education
Transcript
What are we doing in our education system that we can come out so
Speaker:ignorant? What are we doing here in the West and
Speaker:in the first world when we have so many children that
Speaker:have such a disparity of wealth and experience? What is
Speaker:education if we are just doing the same thing year
Speaker:after year? If we don't change what we do in
Speaker:our education system, we're going to be creating the exact same
Speaker:result. Welcome to Neuroeducation, where
Speaker:we're exploring the neuroscience of how to switch on the brain to
Speaker:supercharge learning. I'll be sharing with you innovative teaching techniques,
Speaker:effective parenting strategies, and educational advocacy. I'm
Speaker:your host, Angie Dee. Together, let's revolutionize children's
Speaker:learning. Hi
Speaker:everybody, thank you for tuning in to Neuroeducation Podcast
Speaker:with Angie Dee. I had an interesting experience in
Speaker:my final years of high school. I would say I
Speaker:had what you would call a pretty typical year 12 experience.
Speaker:I did move from Sydney to Brisbane, which was interesting. But
Speaker:I got to do some cheerleading in high school, got to date
Speaker:one of the footy boys, it was pretty exciting, he
Speaker:was a hottie. But something happened
Speaker:in the end of my year 12 journey
Speaker:that really shook my world forever.
Speaker:So I met a bunch of guys who I actually
Speaker:thought were from South America, but it turns out they were
Speaker:actually from Afghanistan. But one of them had asked me if
Speaker:I wanted to go along to an awards night and he had
Speaker:been nominated for international student of
Speaker:the year. And I said, oh my gosh, yes,
Speaker:I loved everything multicultural, anything about other
Speaker:cultures, languages, dance, anything multicultural, I'm
Speaker:in. So there I was on the awards night
Speaker:watching my friend who
Speaker:actually got the award. And lo and behold, when
Speaker:the award was read out, it had a spiel about
Speaker:his life. And so I found out,
Speaker:no, he wasn't from South America. He indeed was actually
Speaker:from Afghanistan and he was from a group in Afghanistan, an
Speaker:ethnic group called the Hazaras. And what I
Speaker:found out that he had been through so much in
Speaker:his life. more than I could possibly imagine in
Speaker:my entire life. He had been through a
Speaker:war where the Taliban had come, had taken his
Speaker:father for questioning. His father was never returned. He
Speaker:came from a village where so many women died because they didn't
Speaker:have any access to hospitals. There
Speaker:was no running water and he had lost
Speaker:so many members of his family to so many different tragedies.
Speaker:And he had come to Australia as a refugee because
Speaker:he didn't have any other choice. In
Speaker:his village in Afghanistan, the Taliban were making the rounds, taking
Speaker:the eldest son from every family. And
Speaker:they were back for their second round. And I think it
Speaker:was his uncle that actually helped him to come out
Speaker:to Australia. Now here I was as a grade 12 student
Speaker:at the end of grade 12, mind you, about to
Speaker:go out into the world. And I tell you, I had
Speaker:no idea about anything that was going on in Afghanistan. I
Speaker:had no idea about the war. I didn't know it had been through a social war.
Speaker:I didn't know that it had been through a civil war that Russia
Speaker:had tried to take over. And now the Taliban, I had no idea. And
Speaker:so I was dumbfounded that
Speaker:I could go through all of my education and be
Speaker:so ignorant about so many facets of the
Speaker:world. I was desperate.
Speaker:I was desperate to be able to make an impact for people like
Speaker:my friend, who had gone through so much, who
Speaker:had lost so many family members and literally
Speaker:been thrown across the other side of the world because the
Speaker:only other solution was death. And
Speaker:here I was in my privileged little life,
Speaker:doing some cheerleading, dating a little footy boy,
Speaker:actually dating a very strong, strong footy boy. But
Speaker:here I was with no idea what was going on in half of
Speaker:the world. So what are we doing in
Speaker:our education system that we can come out so ignorant? Like
Speaker:as a global citizen that I now consider myself to be, I have
Speaker:educated myself on the current situations in
Speaker:the world. I have done the research. I
Speaker:went on to volunteer with the Oak Tree Foundation, which
Speaker:is Australia's very first youth run aid
Speaker:organization. And what we did is we went into schools
Speaker:to teach them. what was happening and what we
Speaker:could advocate for for our government to make sure
Speaker:that we had greater impact for our local aid
Speaker:and for fair trade and making a positive impact in
Speaker:our global community. When
Speaker:you look at something like the eight millennium development
Speaker:goals created by the United Nations, you
Speaker:can see what a huge disparity we
Speaker:have of wealth in our world. A huge disparity. There
Speaker:was one story that I read on
Speaker:a human rights watch when I was doing the work with the
Speaker:Oak Tree Foundation and it had the story of a little
Speaker:girl from Tamil Nadu in India and
Speaker:this little girl said, I don't care about going
Speaker:to school, all I want to do is bring my
Speaker:sister home from the bonded labour man. Every
Speaker:morning at six she has to go to work and
Speaker:every night at nine she comes home and if she doesn't go to work he
Speaker:comes and he beats her. All I want to do is
Speaker:bring my sister home. I don't have 500 rupees
Speaker:and I will never have 500 rupees so I cannot bring
Speaker:my sister home. The sad fact is
Speaker:in this human rights watch it shared that well not
Speaker:only is only 500 rupees about 20 US dollars but
Speaker:that this girl is among millions that
Speaker:were working in bonded labor because they
Speaker:had no other choice as a family when you're
Speaker:living on less than a dollar a day than as millions of people do.
Speaker:If absolutely anything happens, if somebody gets sick or somebody needs
Speaker:medicine, the only way they can get money is by going to
Speaker:the local factory and signing bonded labor contract. These
Speaker:parents have never learned how to read and write, which is why they only getting
Speaker:a dollar or less than a dollar a day in their
Speaker:job. And they have to sign their children over in
Speaker:bonded labor, which has mean they're working off whatever the debt is
Speaker:for labor. Because they can't read and write. Half of these contracts have ridiculous
Speaker:interest rates. And some of these children are working for
Speaker:20, 30 years to pay off a debt of $20. I
Speaker:was horrified when I read that story. And I thought, what
Speaker:are we doing? What are we doing here in the West?
Speaker:And in, I would say, the first world. When
Speaker:we have so many children that have such
Speaker:a disparity of wealth and experience. And it sent me
Speaker:on and a quite interesting adventure to look at what
Speaker:are the daily things that we can do that make an impact to
Speaker:children in other countries. Recently, I
Speaker:have been running my own homeschool group. Uh,
Speaker:and what was so fun to research during
Speaker:that homeschooling was the process that
Speaker:our clothes go through. our coffee, our
Speaker:chocolate? What processes that go through from
Speaker:growing and production to getting it to where
Speaker:it is today for us to actually to eat, to consume
Speaker:or to wear? And looking at is
Speaker:it a fair trade process or are these people actually
Speaker:paid a decent wage? And not
Speaker:only is it a fascinating way for children to be able to engage
Speaker:and understand the world around them, what's happening in
Speaker:different countries, the reality of how people are living, how
Speaker:much money that they're being given and how much people are
Speaker:being paid for, how much of the money that
Speaker:we pay are actually getting back to these people. And
Speaker:so when we look at these kinds
Speaker:of things, I think it's important to look at We
Speaker:live in an incredibly privileged society and
Speaker:what is education if it's not a help to life?
Speaker:What is education if we are just doing the
Speaker:same thing year after year? If we don't
Speaker:change what we do in our education system we're
Speaker:going to be creating the exact same result. So
Speaker:as global citizens helping to create global
Speaker:citizens in our students, we want to be creating a
Speaker:mindset that says, okay, what's a
Speaker:problem that we have in this world? And how can
Speaker:we change that? Adolescents have some of
Speaker:the most outrageous hormones, but we know adolescents also
Speaker:have passion and belief in themselves that they can make change.
Speaker:So we can use these crazy
Speaker:outrageous hormones, this incredible belief in themselves, to
Speaker:be able to take the world's problems and to give
Speaker:it to children because you can look after story
Speaker:after story of children all around the world creating
Speaker:solutions to problems in their local and global communities.
Speaker:The young boy who created, it's called Harness the Wind, I
Speaker:think, on Netflix. Amazing system of
Speaker:electricity over in Africa. Children in Bali that
Speaker:are creating amazing solutions for all
Speaker:of the pollution that they have. But we here in
Speaker:the West and in first world countries, especially here
Speaker:in Australia, we can use our educational system to
Speaker:empower children to make positive changes for
Speaker:the world and for the future. So next
Speaker:time you're getting children to read something
Speaker:on a nursery rhyme, or you're getting children to read something
Speaker:about a novel or a narrative, you
Speaker:can think, what is a real world situation we can embed
Speaker:into this subject or scenario so that we
Speaker:open the children's eyes to the reality of the world and
Speaker:give them the motivation to make a positive impact. Thank
Speaker:you so much for listening to this episode. It would be in a massive
Speaker:favor if you could give us a review on Apple podcasts or
Speaker:Spotify and please subscribe on YouTube and
Speaker:you can look down below for more information and all
Speaker:of the links to find out more information. Join us
