It Starts Here

While deleting endless strings of letters on my way to the first blog post for Hyper-Connected, this TED talk came to me today in tweet.  It isn't about technology or cool new tools for the classroom or social media.  The topics that get me reading and sharing and thinking.  What I was all charged up to write about.  It was a whole lot simpler and about something that has shaped my own life for the past 18 years.  Being a good dad.  Being a good parent.  Maybe not even just being a good dad, though that would certainly make a difference in my kid's lives, but being the best dad I could be.  Making a commitment to parenthood in a way that isn't about showing the world what a great job you are doing. A more subtle commitment to the life of a child.  One at a time on an individual basis.  A moral imperative to act in a way that makes it clear to that very young human being that they are a priority in your life, and that their life is indeed important to you.  That they, by their very existence, are important to the world.  Seems like a no-brainer, but you need not look far to find neglected, abused, or simply overlooked  kids. 


Working in education gives one the opportunity to see the world from a unique perspective, through the eyes of children. Lots of them.  All different.  All from different places.  Facing untold challenges day in and day out.  Often, least of which is how to do long division or come up with what they think the "author's purpose" is.  Really, author's purpose???


So, I clicked on this link in a tweet from @Nunavut_Teacher, as many of us do several times a day, and was stopped in my tracks.  The story is overwhelmingly poignant in its own right, but the big picture message is the nail on the head.

This is where the work we all do as a community, local, regional, global, starts.


Watch it, share it.