Most often, newspaper and magazine readers take a quick scan or snippet at photos and their captions. With this YES! lesson plan, you and your students can luxuriate—and pause—to truly understand an image, its message, and why it’s interesting (or not).

Download this lesson plan as a PDF (130kb)

Step One: What do you notice? (before the facts)

Ask your students to make sense of the photograph by trusting their instincts of observation and inference. In doing so, the photograph offers possibilities and interpretations beyond a typical reading where the reader glances at the picture to reinforce their interpretation of the picture’s title or caption. Do not introduce any facts, captions, or other written words outside of the image. You may hear: fancy dresses, bright colors, hangers, ruffles.

Step Two: What are you wondering? (thinking about the facts)


After you’ve heard what your students are noticing, you’ll probably hear the peppering of questions (Where is this? Who will wear these? Are these prom dresses?). That’s curiosity or wonder—the intermixing of observations and questions. This is a good time to reveal the photo’s caption, accompanying quote, and facts about the actual situation. Watch how the conversation shifts from what they believe to be true to discerning the facts about the photo.

• Photo caption:

“Women may have to be covered up in public but what they wear in private is a different story!” Photo by Abdi Sami, from “Eighteen Days in Tehran” photo essay.

• Photo facts:

This photo is part of a slide show that photographer Abdi Sami created after a recent trip to Iran. He says about his trip: "Having watched the post-election turmoil in Iran on television, I wondered what it would be like to walk the streets and talk to young people. In Tehran, one witnesses contradictions in everyday life: the opposites of modern versus traditional, religious versus secular. [...] The youth are the future of Iran. Most of them were not born before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. They see their future not based on the values of the past, but based on how they envision their future."

Of Iran's 70 million people, well over half are under the age of 30.

The word hijab literally means curtain or cover in Arabic, and is often used to refer to the Islamic dress code of modesty, while also referring to the headscarves or covering worn by women to comply with the code. In religious states, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, covering up outside of the home is enforced by religious police.

• Other resources around the image:

PHOTO ESSAY: Eighteen Days in Tehran

READ: Excerpt from Rick Steves' Travel as a Political Act 

LEARN: How Not to Travel Like a Tourist

Step Three: What next? (jumping off the facts)

Learning more about a photo leads to bigger questions and an opportunity to discuss broader issues and perspectives.

• In what ways does our society have similar rules about "modest dress?" Are there items you are not permitted to wear in public or at school? Why?
  
• Just as you may have been surprised by what Muslim women may and may not wear, share a story where you learned something surprising and unexpected about a new place or culture.
• Rick Steves calls travel a "political act" because it inspires creative, new solutions to persistent problems facing our nation. Have you ever experienced this connection or "aha" moment where you've seen a different or better way of doing things?
  
• What do you know about the picture people in other countries have of Americans? How realistic is that image?
  

The above resources accompany the March 2010 YES! Education Connection Newsletter

READ NEWSLETTER: (Multiracial) America the Beautiful

“Remember that old way (the old school throw-away mindset) didn’t just happen by itself. It’s not like gravity that we just gotta live with. People created it. And we’re people too. So let’s create something new.”—Annie Leonard

• Watch the film

• Teaching with The Story of Stuff

Many people who have seen The Story of Stuff have asked what they can do to address the problems identified in the film. Each of us can promote sustainability and justice at multiple levels: as an individual, as a teacher or parent, a community member, a national citizen, and as a global citizen.

As Annie Leonard says in the film, “the good thing about such an all pervasive problem is that there are so many points of intervention.” That means that there are lots and lots of places to plug in, to get involved, and to make a difference. There is no single simple thing to do, because the set of problems we’re addressing just isn’t simple. But everyone can make a difference, and the bigger your action the bigger the difference you’ll make.

Here are some ideas, along with stories from YES! Magazine of people making these changes in their lives:

Power down!

"In the past three decades alone, one-third of the planet’s natural resources base have been consumed. Gone."

A great deal of the resources we use and the waste we create is in the energy we consume. Look for opportunities in your life to significantly reduce energy use: drive less, fly less, turn off lights, buy local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, vacation closer to home, buy used or borrow things before buying new, recycle. All these things save energy and save you money. And, if you can switch to alternative energy by supporting a company that sells green energy to the grid or by installing solar panels on your home, bravo!

Local Energy, Local Power Wind on the Great Plains could power the country. Tribes are working to bring energy production home. YES! Magazine #40, Winter 2007

Waste less.

"99 percent of the stuff we harvest, mine, process, transport… is trashed within 6 months."

Per capita waste production in the U.S. just keeps growing. There are hundreds of opportunities each day to nurture a Zero Waste culture in your home, school, workplace, church, community. This takes developing new habits which soon become second nature. Use both sides of the paper, carry your own mugs and shopping bags, get printer cartridges refilled instead of replaced, compost food scraps, avoid bottled water and other over packaged products, upgrade computers rather than buying new ones, repair and mend rather than replace … the list is endless! The more we visibly engage in re-use over wasting, the more we cultivate a new cultural norm, or actually, reclaim an old one!

	Seattle Adopts Zero-Waste Policy The Seattle City Council has committed the city to a zero-waste policy—and one small neighborhood's activism helped spur the change. Signs of Life, YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008
	Berkeley's Zero Waste Resolution In March, 2005, Berkeley adopted a Zero Waste resolution, under which the city will reduce solid waste 75 percent by 2010 and to zero by 2020. YES! Magazine #40, Winter 2007
	Appalachian Ecovillage A college founded by abolitionists builds on the dream of a school open to all, turning student family housing into a visionary model of sustainable living. YES! Magazine #34, Summer 2005

Talk to everyone about these issues.

At school, your neighbors, in line at the supermarket, on the bus… A student once asked Cesar Chavez how he organized. He said, “First, I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” “No,” said the student, “how do you organize?” Chavez answered, “First I talk to one person. Then I talk to another person.” You get the point. Talking about these issues raises awareness, builds community, and can inspire others to action.

Can We Talk? Conversation Cafés Show Us How, YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008

Make your voice heard.

Write letters to the editor and submit articles to local press. In the last years, and especially with Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the media has been forced to write about climate change. As individuals, we can influence the media to better represent other important issues as well. Letters to the editor are a great way to help newspaper readers make connections they might not make without your help. Also local papers are often willing to print book and film reviews, interviews and articles by community members. Let’s get the issues we care about in the news.

Speaking for Ourselves Young people in Oakland wanted to talk about real solutions to the poverty, racism, and powerlessness that they grew up with—but all the city’s hip-hop radio station offered was violence and mind-numbing entertainment. YES! Magazine #33, Spring 2005

Detox your body, detox your home, and detox the economy.

Many of today’s consumer products — from children's pajamas to lipstick — contain toxic chemical additives that simply aren’t necessary. Research online (for example, www.cosmeticsdatabase.com) before you buy to be sure you’re not inadvertently introducing toxics into your home and body. Then tell your friends about toxics in consumer products. Together, ask the businesses why they’re using toxic chemicals without any warning labels. And ask your elected officials why they are permitting this practice. The European Union has adopted strong policies that require toxics to be removed from many products. So, while our electronic gadgets and cosmetics have toxics in them, people in Europe can buy the same things toxics-free. Let’s demand the same thing here. Getting the toxics out of production at the source is the best way to ensure they don’t get into any home and body.

YES! But How? Practical tips on green living from the YES! team.

Unplug (the TV and internet) and plug in (the community).

The average person in the U.S. watches TV over four hours a day. Four hours per day filled with messages about stuff we should buy. That is four hours a day that could be spent with family, friends and in our community. Online activism is a good start, but spending time in face-to-face civic or community activities strengthens the community and many studies show that a stronger community is a source of social and logistical support, greater security and happiness. A strong community is also critical to having a strong, active democracy.

Small Ohio Town Discovers Power of Networking by Frances More Lappé, YES! Online Guest Column

Park your car and walk… and when necessary MARCH!

Car-centric land use policies and lifestyles lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel extraction, and conversion of agricultural and wildlands to roads and parking lots. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, your health, and your wallet. But sometimes we don’t have an option to leave the car home because of inadequate bike lanes or public transportation options. Then, we may need to march, to join with others to demand sustainable transportation options. Throughout U.S. history, peaceful non-violent marches have played a powerful role in raising awareness about issues, mobilizing people, and sending messages to decision makers.

On Critical Mass and the First Amendment What do bicycles have to do with the Boston Tea Party? By Reverend Billy, YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008

Change your light bulbs… and then, change your paradigm.

Changing light bulbs is quick and easy. Energy efficient light bulbs use 75% less energy and last 10 times longer than conventional ones. That’s a no-brainer. But changing light bulbs is just tinkering at the margins of a fundamentally flawed system unless we also change our paradigm. A paradigm is a collection of assumptions, concepts, beliefs, and values that together make up a community’s way of viewing reality. Our current paradigm dictates that more stuff is better, that infinite economic growth is desirable and possible, and that pollution is the price of progress. To really turn things around, we need to nurture a different paradigm based on the values of sustainability, justice, health, and community.

	Live Free - Do It Yourself The consumer life carries invisible chains. Let’s make spaces where we can be free. Step off the path. YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008
	Great Turning :: From Empire to Earth Community For high school and university students: this article introduces David Korten’s ideas about the Great Turning and Earth Community: "Earth Community… organizes by partnership, unleashes the human potential for creative co-operation, and shares resources and surpluses for the good of all." David Korten, YES! Magazine #38, Summer 2006

Recycle your trash… and, recycle your elected officials.

Recycling saves energy and reduces both waste and the pressure to harvest and mine new stuff. Unfortunately, many cities still don’t have adequate recycling systems in place. In that case you can usually find some recycling options in the phone book to start recycling while you’re pressuring your local government to support recycling city wide. Also, many products – for example, most electronics - are designed not to be recycled or contain toxics so recycling is hazardous. In these cases, we need to lobby government to prohibit toxics in consumer products and to enact Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws, as is happening in Europe. EPR is a policy which holds producers responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, so that electronics company who use toxics in their products, have to take them back. That is a great incentive for them to get the toxics out!

Europe Cleans Up Its E-Waste Act Here’s a quick guide to new European initiatives. YES! Magazine #37, Spring 2006

Buy green, buy fair, buy local, buy used, and most importantly, buy less.

Shopping is not the solution to the environmental problems we currently face because the real changes we need just aren’t for sale in even the greenest shop. But, when we do shop, we should ensure our dollars support businesses that protect the environment and worker rights. Look beyond vague claims on packages like “all natural” to find hard facts. Is it organic? Is it free of super-toxic PVC plastic? When you can, buy local products from local stores, which keeps more of our hard earned money in the community. Buying used items keeps them out of the trash and avoids the upstream waste created during extraction and production. But, buying less may be the best option of all. Less pollution. Less waste. Less time working to pay for the stuff. Sometimes, less really is more.

	Why Buying Local is Good for You Money spent locally has a huge multiplier effect for your local economy. Check out the numbers. YES! Magazine #40 Winter 2007
	Creating Real Prosperity Going local is good for everyone—including the world's poorest, says Frances More Lappé. YES! Magazine #40 Winter 2007
	Judy Wicks :: In Business for Life Judy Wicks and her White Dog Cafe go local and start the Fair Food Project. YES! Magazine #40 Winter 2007

The above resources on The Story of Stuff accompany the December 2009 YES! Education Connection Newsletter. This article was first published in February 2008.

READ NEWSLETTER: How to be a climate hero: small steps to living differently

Written by and for teachers, these lessons get to the heart of learning in and beyond the classroom. They are not about memorizing facts, figures, and data. They are about deeper understanding, engaging students’ thinking, and bridging ideas and theories with what’s going on in the world. They also draw on students’ experiences, making for a greater connection. Simply said, Rethinking Schools is about meaningful learning and change.

Explore Rethinking Schools' compelling and dynamic lessons that are featured in both their quarterly magazine and publications. Written in story form, the teacher-author walks you through a lesson with inspiring and supportive narrative. There is a range of essays for grades K-12. Here is a sample of what you will find:

• Knock, Knock: Turning Pain into Power
• Living Algebra, Living Wage
• Afghanistan’s Ghosts

Knock, Knock: Turning Pain into Power

by Linda Christensen (Spring 2009)

Illustration by Scott Bakal.

:: GO TO LESSON PLAN: Knock, Knock: Turning Pain into Power

Linda Christensen knew that Daniel Beaty’s three-part poem, “Knock, Knock,” would inspire her students when she watched him read it on HBO’s New Years show “Def Poetry Jam.” Christensen starts the lesson by asking students to “turn and talk” about what works and doesn’t work for them--a prompt for examining content to form. Her assignment to take a page from Beaty and write a letter poem to yourself, giving yourself the advice you need to hear, uncovers mind-blowing feelings from students. If you’d like to give your students an opportunity to write about what really matters to them, and turn pain into power, this is a lesson for you.

This is an excerpt from Linda Christensen's new book Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-imagining the Language Arts Classroom.

The Healing Power of Poetry
Writers help teens in jail learn to express difficult truths by putting pencil to paper.

Secrets of a Poet Spy
Award-winning poet Martin Espada talks about his Latino roots, the pen as an activist's tool, and why we have to imagine a more just world before making it happen.

Living Algebra, Living Wage

by Jana Dean (Summer 2007)

Illustration by J.D. King

:: GO TO LESSON PLAN: Living Algebra, Living Wage

It seems too often that math is taught in a way that is disconnected from our lives. Jana Dean has two goals going into this lesson on linear relationships: One, for her students to engage their math skills to form their own opinions about minimum wage, and two, to motivate her students to stick with their algebra studies. The main assignment is to graph a day’s and then a month’s full-time wages for four service industry occupations, such as a retail clerk at Costco and a home nursing aide. This task and the many following conversations provide students with the framework to learn more than math and consider their own personal circumstances and the world around them.

Teaching Global Warming in Tumwater
What happens when you pause and listen to your student's fears and allow space for them to work through their feelings of powerlessness? In Tumwater, WA they created a new recycling system for the entire school.

How the Middle Class Got Stuck
Surging prices, stagnant wages, spiraling debt. This is what stuck feels like.

100 Years of Human Rights
Explore 100 years of human rights achievements and losses in the US: racial justice, immigrant rights, women's rights, worker rights, and more.

Afghanistan’s Ghosts

by Ian McFeat (Fall 2008)

Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada (left) and Zekiria Ebrahimi in the 2007 film The Kite Runner.

Photo: © 2008 Paramount Vantage/Phil Bray

:: GO TO LESSON PLAN: Afghanistan’s Ghosts

An increasing number of high school language arts classes across the country are adopting “The Kite Runner” in their curricula. It can be a tricky novel to teach given the history of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan. Ian McFeat feels it’s important to ground his students in the history of social conflicts that frame “The Kite Runner” before students read the novel.

In this essay, McFeat describes two activities that prepare students for reading “The Kite Runner.” The first has students choosing one photo that they find powerful from a website of photos taken of the aftermath of the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan  post- 9/11, then writing  a first person narrative about his or her feelings .  The second activity is a tea party where students encounter a diverse array of individuals from Afghanistan's past and present to help them better understand today's conflicts. From these activities, students not only come prepared to read “The Kite Runner,” but also begin thinking critically about U.S. foreign policy and how novels reflect the times and consciousness of our country. 

Afghanistan: A Portrait in Numbers

Women Empowered
The story of clandestine teacher Fahima, 39 in Kabul, Afghanistan

With All Our Strength
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

Rethinking School Publications

In addition to the quarterly magazine, Rethinking Schools offers a number of publications that support teachers in their teaching of community, justice, and equality.  You will find replicable, ready-to-use lesson plans and activities, essays, poetry, and reflections for kindergarten through college classrooms.

Rethinking Our Classrooms Teaching for Equity and Justice, Volume 1

Creative teaching ideas, compelling classroom narratives, and hands-on examples show how teachers can promote the values of community, justice, and equality while building academic skills.

Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World

This comprehensive book from Rethinking Schools helps teachers raise critical issues with students in grades 4 - 12 about the increasing globalization of the world's economies and infrastructures, and the many different impacts this trend has on our planet and those who live here.

Rethinking Mathematics

This unique collection of more than 30 articles shows teachers how to weave social-justice principles throughout the math curriculum, and how to integrate social-justice math into other curricular areas as well. Rethinking Mathematics presents teaching ideas, lesson plans and reflections by practicing classroom teachers and distinguished mathematics educators. This is real-world math - math that helps students analyze problems as they gain essential academic skill. 

Rethinking Schools publishes resources to defend and transform public education, and is most noted for their concrete examples of how educators can engage students in social issues from a perspective of equality, anti-racism, social justice, and sustainability. The non-profit organization promotes school policies and approaches to teaching that help educators respect the students and communities they serve. In over 20 years of publishing a quarterly magazine and books, and leading workshops, Rethinking Schools has reached millions of students, future teachers, current teachers, teacher educators, and parent and community activists.

Take advantage of this special offer for YES! Educators from Rethinking Schools: 25%  off all their publications, including subscriptions to Rethinking Schools magazine. Just use this discount code when ordering: 5BYES.

Rethinking Schools' editors will be attending, presenting, and displaying books at three upcoming social justice education conferences.  Click the links for more information:

• Oct 3. Northwest Teaching for Social Justice. Olympia, Washington
• Oct 10. Teachers For Social Justice. San Francisco, California
  
• Nov 21. Chicago Area Teaching For Social Justice Curriculum Fair. Chicago, Illinois
  

The above resources accompany the September 2009 YES! Education Connection Newsletter

READ NEWSLETTER: Tools for Teaching Beyond the Classroom

Mortenson’s gratitude to one village has since blossomed into promoting peace through education and literacy (especially for girls). At this time, he, with the help of the Central Asia Foundation and Pennies for Peace, has built over 75 schools throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin Penguin, 2007, 349 pages, $15.00 Go to your local bookstore or buy online. Also check out the young adult and children's version of the book.

Q: What inspired you to commit to building a school in Pakistan?

Greg: I had a sister named Christa, who struggled with severe epilepsy from early childhood, but she never once complained and inspired all of us. She had always wanted to go to Dyersville, Iowa, to see the “Field Of Dreams” where the baseball movie was filmed. Her bags were packed and she was ready to go when my mother went down to wake her up on the morning of July 23rd, but she had died in her sleep.

To honor Christa’s memory, I decided to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, and one of the most difficult to climb. After 78 days on the mountain, I did not quite reach the summit, and was exhausted, emaciated, and emotionally spent. On the five day way back to civilization, I stumbled into a local village named Korphe, where the Balti ethnic villagers helped nurse me back to health.

When I went to see the local school, I saw 84 children sitting in the dirt doing their school lessons. Most were writing with sticks in the dirt, and they shared only seven slate boards. Yet, despite abject poverty, I felt their fierce desire to have an education, and saw their spirits soar. At that moment, I realized that I had not come to Pakistan to climb a mountain, but to help the children build a school to honor Christa.

Q: How did the funding for the schools come about?

Greg: It took a tremendous effort. When I returned home after K2 in late 1993, I needed to raise $12,000 to build a school, but had no clue how to do it.

I went to the local library and looked up the names and addresses of hundreds of wealthy people and celebrities. At the time I was computer illiterate, so I first hand-typed 580 letters asking them for help. Only one person, Tom Brokaw, the newscaster, replied with a $100 check. Then I wrote 16 grants, which were all turned down. Finally, I sold everything I owned, including my climbing gear, car, and cashed in my retirement policy. For the first two years, I was essentially homeless and gave up everything I had to get this off the ground.

By spring of 1994, I had only raised about $3,000, and was frustrated. My mother, Jerene, who was the principal at Westside Elementary School in River Falls, Wisconsin, invited me to spend a couple days with the 600 students there. A fourth grader named Jeffrey, and two teachers started a “Pennies for Pakistan” drive after I left, which I did not think much about. Within six weeks, the Westside children had raised 62,340 pennies! Their pennies eventually inspired adults to give, but it was really children who started all this.

Q: Since 9/11, your work has expanded into Afghanistan, how did that come about?

Greg: In 2001, I was in a remote village called Zuudkhan, of Charpusan Valley, in the extreme
north of Pakistan—next to Afghanistan where we were putting in a drinking water system. One day, several fierce looking, armed Kyrgyz (tribal group) horsemen came across an 18,400 difficult mountain pass and into our midst. They said they were looking for me and that their warlord commanders, Abdul Rashid Khan and Sardhar Khan, had sent them to ask me to build schools for them in remote Afghanistan. They then made me pledge I would honor a promise to help them. Two years later, I made it to their villages and in 2004, we completed the first school in the Wakhan corridor of extreme NE Afghanistan, and have nine schools in Afghanistan now.

Q: How many schools have you established in Pakistan and Afghanistan?

Greg: Sixty four schools in total, which have helped over 26,000 children, including 16,000 females. with education. There are fifty-five in Pakistan and eight in Afghanistan. A dozen more are under construction.

We could have many more schools if we worked in urban or easy to access areas, but most of our efforts are focused in remote, rural, difficult to access and under served regions, where children, and especially girls are deprived of education. In some areas, our nonprofit organization, Central Asia Institute, is the only foreign aid group there.

Q: Your mission, to counteract extremism and terrorism by opening schools throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban is awe inspiring. By replacing guns with pencils, rhetoric with reading, you are affecting dramatic change. What would you say are the biggest accomplishments that have resulted from all of this?

Greg: Education saves lives, empowers women and communities, and helps connect often exploited indigenous societies isolated by illiteracy, to the outside world.

For me, when I see the first girl in a village walking into a new school, it resembles when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon in 1969, and said “One small step for man, but one giant leap for mankind”.

To me, the first girl going to school is “one small step for that girl, but one giant leap for their community”.

It often takes several years of hard work and perseverance to convince conservative Islamic mullahs to initiate girls literacy and education in their communities.

The biggest accomplishment I see in communities where girls become literate is profound—their hygiene improves dramatically, they tell me they only plan to have 2-3 children vs. their mother having 8-10 children, the infant mortality of children with literate mothers drops as the mothers are eager to seek out health care, and even the “networth” for a dowry for an educated girl in a rural village doubles and triples (example: An illiterate girl is “worth” about 5 goats or $300. An educated girl is “worth” at least $600 - $1000 in bride price).

Q: What can others do to help in this cause?

Greg: Be aware that education is a very effective, utilitarian way to bring profound change and stability in a society, and it only cost about $1 monthly to get a rural child educated in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

In 2000, the United Nations proposed a fifteen year Millennium plan to get all the world’s 115 million (age 5-9) and 45 million (age 10-15) children literate. The external donated cost would only be an estimated $6 to 8 billion annually (in addition to $22 billion given by the countries themselves) for 15 years. Last year, the U.S. spent a total of $94.2 billion in Iraq for the war on terror, which would have almost achieved the entire global literacy compliance in a year!

Q: Why is it so important to educate girls, as well as boys, especially in conservative
Islamic societies?

Greg: Several global studies show that if you educate a girl, it does three important things in society:

• significantly decrease the population explosion over a generation or two
• reduce infant mortality dramatically in a decade or two
• significantly improve the basic quality of health and life itself.

From my own observations, and remembering a childhood proverb from Africa, there is a saying that “if you educate a boy—you educated an individual, because he often leaves the community to find work, and may never return or send back money, but if you educate a girl—you educate a community, because when the girl becomes a mother, she will remain in the community and instill that value in her community.

Also, one consideration, very under-reported in the western media and specifically related to the war on terror, is that in Islam, before a man leaves his home to go on any jihad—he must get permission from his mother. An educated woman will much more be unlikely to support her son in terror activities and deny or delay his departure.

Education in general is a powerful tool to provide alternatives to the illiterate, impoverished areas that are the recruiting grounds for terror. Literate Mullahs control vast swaths of rural, illiterate Pakistan and Afghanistan and their edicts remain supreme. As soon as a society is literate, the Mullah is disempowered and cannot disseminate false information. I often tell people, “The Mullah is not afraid of the bullet, but fears the pen”.

Q: You’ve lived about half of your 50 years overseas, mostly in third world countries; does that alter how you feel as an American?

Greg: We are blessed as Americans in so many ways, and certainly live in the greatest country on earth. But since 9/11, we’ve been building more walls than bridges, and that is very dangerous, as we live in a global community, where our very survival is dependent on cooperation, compassion and to overcome our fears of reaching out to those different than us.

Q: You advocate for peace, and say that the only way to win the war on terror is with books, not bombs, but yet you served in the U.S. Army after High School in 1975. Why?

Greg: I am proud to be a U.S. military veteran, and would not discourage anyone from joining the military. However, the war on terror is ultimately a battle of “hearts and minds,” and will only be won if we provide alternatives to the young children who are indoctrinated into extremist ideology at a young age. Hundreds of our loyal supporters are in the military or U.S. veterans, who send dozens of emails, that mostly reiterate that without education, nothing will change in Afghanistan.

Mahatma Ghandi once said, “you cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.”

Q: Who are two of your heroes (male and female)?

Greg: Mother Theresa—I once was alone with her as she lay in her Daughter’s of Charity room before her en-tombment (in Calcutta). It was a life inspiring moment, as I reached out to touch her frail, tiny hand with my giant hand, and to realize that such a small woman had changed the world with compassion. That moment is forever is imprinted in me. It’ s all in Three Cups of Tea.

Prof. Smartya Sen, from Harvard and Cambridge, 1998 Economics Nobel Prize Winner, who is a leading advocate for girls education, and pioneered a new way to assess poverty indicators, along with the late Pakistani economist Dr. Meboub Haq, who redefined the $1 / day poverty indices. Both say that in order to really change the world, we must educate girls as well as boys.

Q: What exactly does “Three Cups of Tea” mean?

Greg: Although symbolic, to do business in Pakistan or Afghanistan, it takes three cups of tea first. In their culture, the first cup you are a stranger, and by the second tea gathering you become a friend, and with the third cup you become family, and they will protect you with their life and are ready to do business, but the process takes several years. Here, in America we have two minute football drills, thirty minute power lunches, and “shock and awe,” but that does not work in Pakistan or Afghanistan.

Q: What do you hope people gain from reading Three Cups of Tea?

Greg: That ultimately to achieve global peace and defeat terror we must do it with education and books, not edicts and bombs. I also hope it inspires our younger generation to know that anyone can make a difference and be pro-active. Martin Luther said that even if the world would end today, we will should still plant seeds and trees for tomorrow.

Even in America, we have extreme poverty, but I think the greatest poverty we face in our country is a poverty of compassion and that we live more in fear, than in hope. If you fight terrorism, it is based in fear, but if you promote peace, it is based in hope. Ignorance is the real enemy, whether it is in Afghanistan, Africa, or America, and it is ignorance that breeds hatred.

We can overcome that ignorance with compassion, courage and encourage all children (and adults) with to promote peace, and have hope through education.

This is an abridged version of an interview with Greg Mortenson. Read the complete interview. Published by permission from Central Asia Institute. All rights reserved. No part of this interview may be reproduced or reprinted without permission. Interested? More about the book at www.threeCupsoftea.com :: Central Asia Institute: www.ikat.org :: Pennies For Peace: www.penniesforpeace.org

The above resource accompanies the December 2008 YES! Education Connection Newsletter

READ NEWSLETTER: Sustainable Happiness

WATCH: a video of the Asturias Academy.

I interned under Fran Korten, Executive Director of YES! Magazine, in the summer of 2004, and continue to turn to her for mentorship and guidance. During my senior year of college, seeking to discern my next steps, I asked Fran for advice. Fran encouraged me to live and work on the grassroots level with people from the Global South. "There are lessons you need to learn that you won’t be able to get any other way," she said.

Fran’s advice helped guide me to my present position at the Asturias Academy, an innovative nonprofit school in Guatemala serving some of the country’s most marginalized children. Like my time at YES!, I am working under excellent leadership, and I am daily presented with opportunities to serve and grow.

Guatemala’s educational needs are complex. Fewer than three in ten Guatemalan children finish the sixth grade, and Guatemala is only ranked above Nicaragua and Haiti in terms of literacy rates in Latin America.[1] The country’s public schools are overcrowded, under-funded, and using archaic teaching methods. Private schools, the supposed alternative, are too expensive for Guatemala’s poor majority.

The country’s education deficit is rooted in a highly stratified social structure, which itself is a legacy of Spanish Conquest and Colonialism. Class interests are so divergent in Guatemala that elites privately procure goods such as education and security and refuse to invest in them on the public level.[2] The result is extremely low government social spending. In fact, Guatemala ranks first in the entire world in the “Freedom from Government” category of the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom.[3]

The Miguel Angel Asturias Academy for which I work offers a model for reforming Guatemala’s education system. Scholarships and low general tuition rates make the Academy accessible to even the poorest families. The curriculum combines strong academic fundamentals with training in leadership and human rights issues. The Academy’s Popular Education pedagogy strives to elicit the pupil’s curiosity and gestate an awareness of the reality in which the student lives. A recent alliance with a vocational school has also opened the door to job training for older students at the Academy.

As the Academy’s Development and Volunteer Coordinator, my job has been to develop a reliable and growing stream of resources for the project, thus bringing the Academy closer to its goal of replicating into other communities in Guatemala. To this end, I have built the Academy’s fundraising infrastructure and raised sufficient funds to cover the 2008 school year and purchase a full computer lab. I have also organized a three week U.S. speaking tour for the project’s director and myself, and built a sustainable volunteer program. The 23 volunteers that I have managed have taught courses such as Theatre, Art, and English, and worked with me on administrative projects such as the construction of a website.

I see the Academy as a subtle, profound, nonviolent revolution. Instead of sexism, I witness male and female students learning together in math and cooking classes. Instead of racism, I see indigenous and non-indigenous children playing together. The line between the very poor students and those better off is made indistinguishable by their shared school experience and common uniform. Justice and peace are proclaimed throughout the curriculum, and students are trained to live those values as they engage the many social problems facing their communities.

Fran was right that this experience was going to teach me lessons that I needed to learn. I have come to appreciate the importance of local knowledge in change-making, and have forged relationships that are deeply value to me. The experience has affirmed for me my commitment to promoting human development, and also made me cynical to outsider-initiated international development projects. A good first step for us as foreigners wanting to help is to “be with” instead of “do for.” Bit by bit, the community will reveal to us the nuanced cultural landscape in which we are operating and which we will never fully know. A good second step is to identify local people doing good work and ask them how we can support their efforts. Living and working in Guatemala and sincerely connecting with the country’s people has been a challenging, beautiful opportunity for which I am grateful.

With a degree in International Development and minors in Spanish and World Religions, Ryan Richards has sought continued transformation through international experience. Years of asking “How can I help?” brought him to intern at YES! Magazine in 2004 and later, to his present position as Development and Volunteer Coordinator at the Asturias Academy in Guatemala. Ryan plans to enroll in a masters program in social entrepreneurship in the fall and eventually establish Donor Smart, an organization that will support local change agents by reducing the barriers that come between good grassroots projects and potential donors.

Sources:
[1] Guatemala: Overview United States Agency for International Development and Human Development Reports, United Nations Development Program
[2] What the Rich Don’t Tell the Poor. Roman Krznaric, awaiting publication, 2008.
[3] Index of Economic Freedom. Heritage Foundation, 2008.

The above storyaccompanies the March 2008 YES! Education Connection Newsletter

READ NEWSLETTER: How to Teach Climate Change Solutions

A small strawberry patch, nestled below pine trees on Bainbridge Island, WA, embodies a story of collaboration, community, and hope for a better world. The strawberries are planted on the cozy grounds of Voyager Montessori Elementary School, just up the road from the YES! Magazine office. Teachers at Voyager were inspired by a YES! workshop on the Earth Charter to develop year long school curriculum that would empower their students to learn and take action for sustainability and social justice.

Rene Kok, head of school, realized the principles of the Earth Charter fit perfectly with the foundational values of Voyager Montessori. The four pillars of the Earth Charter are: 1) respect and care for the community of life; 2) ecological integrity; 3) social and economic justice; and 4) peace, democracy, and nonviolence. The values of Voyager are rooted in self-empowerment, compassion, respect, and stewardship of the land.

The year long project began in the fall by asking the students how they thought they could make the world a better place. An eclectic stream of ideas flowed from the circle of students, including “Don't do yucky stuff” and “more dogs, no hurting animals,” eventually transforming into a conversation focused on taking better care of the environment.

	Teaching students the importance of composting. Photo by Kim Corrigan.

Kok proposed an idea to illuminate sustainability: remove all garbage cans from the school, and for 24 hours have the students collect and carry all their garbage in re-sealable bags, to be measured the following day. The response from the students was immediate: “Are the teachers going to do it?” “Clam chowder might squirm around in your pockets.” Lastly, one student suggested wisely, “If no one wants to do this, just bring all recycling.”

This garbage consciousness project led students to begin mastering the art of composting. Simultaneously, parents and teachers began inquiring into the history of the land on which Voyager is built. They discovered that in 1933 Teruso Jimmy Oyama, a Japanese strawberry farmer, purchased the land. Teruso and his family tended strawberries on the land until World War II, when they were removed during the Japanese internments. Members of Voyager decided they would honor the family by replanting strawberries where they once grew, and record the story of their unjust removal from the land. The small strawberry patch was planted from the same type of seeds, and grows in the same furrows that the Oyama family once used. A panel of photographs and a brief written history of the family are also displayed inside the school.

	Kametaro Oyama and son, 1924. Photo courtesy of Voyager Montessori.

The students continued building their ecosystem by planting blueberries, which are natural to the land and climate, and installing bee boxes for mason bees to pollinate their plants. They also wanted to do more to help their human community and decided to hold a book and coat drive for Helpline House, a hub for community service on Bainbridge, providing support to those in need, including food, clothing, job training, and domestic violence treatment. The students held an arts and craft sale to support their own school. They harvested local flowers to create lavender sachets, made note cards from recycled paper, and made wrapping paper from a teacher's old packing materials.

The most powerful outcome of these projects was the lessons and values these students learned in the process. They learned that what you need is all around you – local flowers and old packing materials were just as good as expensive bouquets or art paper from a retail store. Instilled in the students was a deep sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment - so deep that a collective gasp was uttered when a parent visiting the school threw paper that could be recycled into the garbage can. They were also empowered to take action, to not be overwhelmed by the seeming immensity of problems, or by their own youth or inexperience. One student, dismayed by the war raging in Iraq, decided he could make a statement just as John Lennon did during the Vietnam war – refrain from cutting his hair until the war ended (and saving his parents the costs of going to a barber).

Making mason bee boxes. Photo by Kim Corrigan.

Kok admits that doing these projects took a huge commitment from Voyager's teachers. But allowing the time and space helped the students develop genuine self confidence and a healthy sense of pride because they participated in projects from start to finish – from imagination to reality. Kok is also incredibly grateful for the land that Voyager has. Initially seen as a liability and something to be grudgingly maintained, the land became Voyager's great asset and basis for the Earth Charter curriculum. Kok realizes that not all schools are so fortunate, but genuinely hopes and believes that any school can use the Earth Charter in some way with the resources they have.

>Like Kok, YES! Magazine also hopes and believes that stories like Voyager's can be inspiring and motivating to other students and teachers. The teachers at Voyager were ultimately most grateful to YES! Magazine for being a witness to their work – that we care about them and the positive change they are making. We want to keep telling and sharing these stories with people interested in creating a better world. The students at Voyager, wanted to make sure we can share these stories as well, so much so that they raised enough pennies and dimes to fund two free one year subscriptions for teachers. With their efforts, and the efforts of students and teachers everywhere we can indeed help create a more just, sustainable and compassionate world.