JakArt@ 2001 - June 2001
JakArt@ 2001 - June 2001
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VARINDRA TARZI VITTACHI |
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EDUCATING
FOR A HUMAN FUTURE |
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Content: |
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The
work of the gathering will be the sharing of ideas by participants on the
nature of an optimal future for humankind and the sorts of educational
experiences most likely, in their collective opinion, to lead to such a future. The
overall purpose will be to stimulate the creation of more educational
experiences likely to lead to a brighter future for the world’s people.
The conference will be conducted in English.
In
addition, each team will outline a modest but potentially impactful
educational experiment to be refined at the conference for implementation
at their school, institute or university after their return.
The
conference organizers intend to provide mini-grants to support the most
promising of these experiments as well as technical assistance for all of
them. The
conference is named for the late Dr. Varindra Tarzie Vittachi (d. 1993),
award-winning journalist, author, and associate executive director of
UNICEF. Although Sri Lankan,
Dr. Vittachi spent considerable time in Indonesia and wrote a book in the
late-60’s on Indonesian politics Proposed outcomes include: (1) a booklet on the Jakarta Youth Vision for a Human Future
(multi-lingual), (2) a Jakarta Youth Declaration on Principles of Human
Education (multi-lingual), (3) an anthology of Best Educational Practices
as Experienced by Jakarta Conference Participants from Around the World,
(4) small local teams of students and young educators prepared to initiate
modest but meaningful educational reforms in their schools, universities
or communities back home, (5) a brief conference video (with multi-lingual
voice-overs), (6) a conference website with chatroom and related listserve
for post-conference interaction by participants, and (7) technical
assistance to support follow-up activities, with emphasis on local
educational micro-experiments. The
concept of bringing youth together from different lands, faiths, and
traditions in the interest of universal ideals is as old as the Olympic
Games and as new as the touring performance company Up with People.
The International Christian NGO World Vision, which sponsors
medical, social, and community-development programs in over 100 countries,
has a June-August youth program called World Vision Peace Ambassadors.
Some 50 youth, one each from 50 nations, spend twelve weeks
preparing for, visiting, and later debriefing from their trip to six
countries. Like Up with
People, they sing, dance, and do skits, with materials from many cultures.
But unlike Up with People, their repertoire includes personal
narratives about growing up in poverty or amidst war.
Moreover, they hold dialogues with political, community, and youth
leaders; do community service; and host media conferences.
The Peace Ambassadors’ mission is to exemplify and speak for
cross-cultural understanding, reconciliation, mutual enrichment, and world
peace. |
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The
V.T. Vittachi International Youth Conference on “Educating
for a Human Future” WHAT?
A
five-day international gathering of students and young educators to discuss
the principles and practices which characterize a truly human
education—one that can lead to an optimal future for humankind. WHERE? Jakarta, Indonesia – Hotel Atlet Century Park (Senayan district,
downtown). WHEN? June 25-29, 2001. FOR WHOM?
150
young people, ages 15 to 30, representing around 20 countries will be
chosen. Approximately half will be Indonesian young people, including young
teachers, from Greater Jakarta THE CONTEXT?
The Vittachi Youth Conference is named for the late
Varindra Tarzie Vittachi, an award-winning journalist, Associate Executive
Director of UNICEF, and a long-time head of the World Subud Association.
Throughout his career Mr. Vittachi sought to make the world a better place
for children. His last book before his death in 1993 is titled BETWEEN THE
GUNS: CHILDREN AS A ZONE OF PEACE. WHY? Young
people are the real experts on what does and does not work in education.
Because they have the biggest stake in the future, older people need to hear
their ideas about an ideal education. OUTCOMES? 3. Jakarta anthology of best educational practices from around the
world. 4. Student projects back home to demonstrate ideas discussed at the
Vittachi Conference. 5. Coordination and furthering of follow-up activities via the Internet. SPONSORS
AND PARTNERS?
Among
sponsors and partners are the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace, Lewes,
England; the Jakarta Arts Festival, 2001; The Polk Family Charitable Fund,
Chicago; the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Rome; UNESCO Jakarta; the
Cita-Buana International School, Jakarta; the Jakarta International School;
the Subud International Cultural Association, Spain; Hui Jia Private School,
Beijing; and the World Wisdom Project, Honolulu. COST? Conference cost for participants in Greater
Jakarta is Rp 300.000, covering all lunches and breaks, the banquet Thursday
evening, and conference fees. (Cost
for local participants wishing to take all meals with out-of-town
participants is Rp 500.000.) NEXT
STEPS? For
more information on the Vittachi Youth Conference on EDUCATING FOR A HUMAN
FUTURE, contact or to register for the international conference, please
contact: Dr. Reynold Feldman, International Coordinator, E-mail: reynold22@hawaii.rr.com
or Fax. (+808) 5287297 Organizing Committee in Jakarta: Jak-Art
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for “Educating
for a Human Future” by
Reynold Feldman, Ph.D. Executive
Director, The
World Wisdom Project “Educating
for a Human Future” is conceived of as a five-day international conference
for approximately 125 youth and young adults, ages 15-30, and 25 younger
educators, up to age 40, from at least 30 countries and most of the
world’s major religious and secular traditions.
The dates have been set as June 25-29, 2001; the venue:
Hotel Atlet Century Park, in the Senayan District of downtown
Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. The
work of the gathering will be the sharing of ideas by participants on (1)
the nature of an optimal future for humankind and (2) the sorts of
educational experiences most likely, in their collective opinion, to lead to
(or be characteristic of) such a future.
The overall purpose will be to stimulate the creation of more
educational experiences likely to lead to a brighter future for the
world’s people. The
conference will be conducted in English.
The
Jakarta event is not intended to stand alone.
Secondary-school and university-based teams will be recruited at
least four months beforehand to begin developing ideas on several key
questions (see pp. 4-5, below). In
addition, each team will outline a modest but potentially impactful
educational experiment to be refined at the conference for implementation at
their school, institute or university after their return.
The conference organizers intend to provide mini-grants to support
the most promising of these experiments as well as technical assistance for
all of them. The
conference is named for the late Dr. Varindra Tarzie Vittachi (d. 1993),
award-winning journalist, author, and associate executive director of
UNICEF. Although Sri Lankan,
Dr. Vittachi spent considerable time in Indonesia and wrote a book in the
late-60’s on Indonesian politics. “Educating
for a Human Future” will take place in the context of the month-long
Jakarta Arts Festival, which includes education under its umbrella.
This concept paper is being used to recruit sponsorship from public
and private organizations including the Indonesian Ministry of Education and
Culture, the Jakarta International School, the Jakarta Offices of UNESCO and
UNICEF, ASEAN, the World Bank, the Council for International Educational
Exchange, World Learning Inc., the World Future Society, and Rotary
International, among others. It is also being shared with UNESCO Associated Schools,
Ismailiya Muslim Schools, Christian Brothers (Roman Catholic) Schools, the
Association of International Schools, and Ford-Foundation-funded
universities worldwide, to name a few, as well as NGOs interested in such
issues as world peace, interfaith understanding, international trade, and
environmental and educational improvement. Proposed
outcomes will include: (1) a
booklet on the Jakarta Youth Vision for a Human Future (multi-lingual), (2)
a Jakarta Youth Declaration on Principles of Human Education
(multi-lingual), (3) an anthology of Best Educational Practices as
Experienced by Jakarta Conference Participants from Around the World, (4)
small local teams of students and young educators prepared to initiate
modest but meaningful educational reforms in their schools, universities or
communities back home, (5) a brief conference video (with multi-lingual
voice-overs), (6) a conference website with chatroom and related listserve
for post-conference interaction by participants, and (7) technical
assistance to support follow-up activities, with emphasis on local
educational micro-experiments. The
concept of bringing youth together from different lands, faiths, and
traditions in the interest of universal ideals is as old as the Olympic
Games and as new as the touring performance company Up with People.
The International Christian NGO World Vision, which sponsors medical,
social, and community-development programs in over 100 countries, has a
June-August youth program called World Vision Peace Ambassadors.
Some 50 youth, one each from 50 nations, spend twelve weeks preparing
for, visiting, and later debriefing from their trip to six countries.
Like Up with People, they sing, dance, and do skits, with materials
from many cultures. But unlike
Up with People, their repertoire includes personal narratives about growing
up in poverty or amidst war. Moreover,
they hold dialogues with political, community, and youth leaders; do
community service; and host media conferences.
The Peace Ambassadors’ mission is to exemplify and speak for
cross-cultural understanding, reconciliation, mutual enrichment, and world
peace. Another
root for this concept is the so-called romantic (versus classical) approach
to the education of young people. The
classical approach presupposes that children are blank sheets awaiting
teachers to program them with appropriate learning.
The Latin educare, which
gives rise to the English verb “educate,” has the literal meaning of
“to feed.” (Frequently the modern term is misderived from the Latin
third-conjugation verb, educere,
meaning “to draw forth,” “to educe.”)
A similar tradition is seen in East Asian societies, where children
are also considered empty until filled by adults.
The complex Chinese character meaning “to educate” contains the
ideogram for filial obedience (“old” over “child”) on the left and
the ideogram for “to follow” on the right.
By implication the teacher deserves the same kind of filial respect
and obedience as parents, pesons in authority, and other older people.
He or she passes down traditional knowledge to the student.
The student’s job is obediently to follow, that is, to adopt what
is received without questioning. By
contrast, the romantic approach to education, from Plato through Rousseau to
John Dewey and A. S. Neill, posits that children are not empty vessels
waiting to be filled by parents, teachers, and other agents of the
prevailing culture. Instead,
every child comes hardwired, as it were, with talents and interests of its
own. If this inner content is
not respected--let’s say, someone with a talent for singing is forced to
become an insurance salesperson--the result will be an unhappy person who is
at best a mediocre insurance salesperson.
Teachers must work with what is there. There
is truth to both approaches, which serve as a kind of yin
and yang for one another. Obviously,
babies do not arrive on the scene knowing their mother tongue, the customs
of their culture, the laws of the land, or how to drive a car.
All these things must be learned from older people who already know
them. On the other hand, babies
do arrive with dispositions, inclinations, and capacities.
Furthermore, by the time children have experienced ten or more years
of formal schooling, they will have gained a sense for how they learn, what
materials are easiest or hardest for them to assimilate, and what sorts of
teaching seems to work best for them. They
will also have acquired, to some extent at least, a feeling for what is
important for them to know and whether or not their formal learning programs
are helping them to learn these things. The
World Wisdom Project has regard for both the classical and the romantic
approaches to education. Wisdom resides both inside individuals and outside, in the
words and works of the world’s cultures.
Human beings learn from others--parents, teachers, peers, et. al.
But they also learn from themselves.
The assimilation of information and knowledge from the outside is
thus an interactive process between the material and the person who is
engaging it. During the 20th
Century educational psychologists have discovered that individuals learn in
different ways: Some are
visual, some aural, some kinesthetic (hands-on) learners.
Piaget and others have also shown that learning correlates with
predictable human developmental stages.
Young children, for example, seem incapable of understanding ironic
statements. That capacity
clicks in later. A
further issue relating to the history of the concept underlying this
conference--and project--is the anthropological distinction between beliefs
and practices which are universal to humankind (termed “emic” by U.S.
anthropologist Clifford Geertz) and those which are specific to certain
cultures (referred to as “etic”). Concern for cleanliness, for instance, is a universal among
human populations. However, the
frequency, thoroughness, and style of bathing vary between and among
cultures. By the same token,
all human cultures are concerned that their young be educated.
Individual and group survival depends on children developing a
knowledge base geared to their cultural and geographical surroundings.
Yet that knowledge base consists of both global components (the
implications of gravity, say) and local ones (the rules governing bowing in
Japan). An
international meeting on education offers participants from different
countries and cultures the opportunity to sort out, to some extent at least,
the universals from the particulars. When
the United Nations promulgated its Declaration of Universal Human Rights, it
did so on the basis that all human beings have certain basic rights by
virtue of their membership in the human race.
So, when young people come together to share their vision for the
future, it is likely to be a place where no one goes to sleep hungry,
without adequate shelter, or in fear for their life.
People there will be respected, in Martin Luther King’s words, for
the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
There, in the famous phrases from the Judeo-Christian Bible, human
beings will beat their swords into plowshares and will study war no more. Moreover, after students and young teachers describe to one
another the best learning experience they can remember, they should be able
to create in discussion a shared understanding of the factors making for
outstanding education. The
impetus for this project came from an international meeting of educators
held in Tlaxcala, Mexico, in June-July, 1999.
The meeting was called and sponsored by the Guerrand-Hermès
Foundation for Peace, of Lewes, England, which is also the founding funder
and sponsor of the present project. Specifically,
the Tlaxcala meeting brought together educators from four innovative schools
known to the Foundation: Alfragide,
an immigrant-and-refugee-oriented school in Lisbon, Portugal; Cita Buana, a
K-12 private school serving an international clientele in Jakarta,
Indonesia; Fundación Amor, a K-12 school-cum-community-development-center
serving a slum in Bogotá, Colombia; and Fundación Educativa Pestalozzi, a
school serving wealthy and poor children in Quito, Ecuador, by encouraging
them to find their own paths to learning.
A then doctoral student, now a Ph.D., Dr. Halimah Polk had studied
the four schools for her doctoral dissertation.
She found the following characteristics at all the schools:
• A loving and respectful environment
• Attention to the whole child--body, mind, emotions, and spirit
• Use of approaches to develop each individual’s authentic talent
• The power of sensitive, respectful teachers
• Openness to experimentation and innovation
• The presence of strong, positive leadership
• The relative smallness of the schools studied
• The lack of bureaucratic red tape
• The ability to respond to specific cultural needs (e.g., shyness
in
Indonesian children, passiveness in Ecuadorian children)
• The use of multi-cultural materials/approaches to foster
learning. In
their discussions, the Tlaxcala participants came to use the term “human
education” to refer to educational institutions based on such
characteristics. Educators, the
group concluded, should be like sensible farmers--providing conditions
(fertile soil, water, sunlight, protection from wind and erosion) for the
seeds to germinate and grow but never instructing the seeds on how to grow
or what to become. The seeds
each contain that information as their birthright.
Who are we educators to tell corn to become wheat or vice versa--or
to try to make seedlings grow faster by pulling on their tender stalks? One
immediate outcome was that a group of educators in Lewes, England, with
support from the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace, acquired a building
and, in fall, 2000, opened a new “human” school in accordance with the
principles enunciated at the Tlaxcala Meeting.
Despite the ravages of local flooding, the school has drawn a
significant first-year enrollment and is off to a good start.
The head of the school, moreover, is one of the Tlaxcala
participants. Another
outcome was an all-day workshop for about twenty educators, a number of them
attendees at Tlaxcala, in Portland, Oregon, USA.
This meeting took place in early July, 2000.
On this occasion the idea for the proposed conference in Jakarta and
related activities emerged. At
this point it is important to mention the relationship of the aforementioned
activities to the global interfaith organization known as Susila Budhi
Dharma, or Subud. Subud was founded in the 1930’s in Indonesia by the
Javanese religious leader Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo. The spiritual practice of Subud, now followed in more than 80
countries, is said by its followers, based on their experience, to help them
strengthen their faith, understand and follow a specific religious tradition
(generally their religion of origin), develop themselves as persons of good
character, and increase their capacity to understand people from backgrounds
different from their own. The
schools represented at Tlaxcala were all founded and are being run by Subud
members. Dr. Varindra Tarzie
Vittachi, moreover, was not only well-known professionally but was the
long-time chair of the World Subud Council.
And Jakarta has been selected as the venue for the Vittachi Youth
Conference and the dates have been set in large measure because the
quadrennial Subud World Congress will take place in early July, 2001, in
Nusa Dua, Denpasar, Bali. The
Vittachi Conference organizers anticipate about one-fourth of the total
participants--half of those coming from abroad--will be young people or
teachers already flying to Indonesia to attend the Subud Congress. Yet
while the organizers to date are all education professionals who also happen
to be Subud members, the Vittachi Conference is not designed to be a
Subud-oriented meeting but rather a diverse, cross-cultural, interfaith
gathering of young adults, university students, and young teachers from
around the world. In fact, the
founder of Subud made it clear that Subud members are not to proselytize but
to go about the business of living as ordinary human beings who try their
best to apply what they know to their respective fields of endeavor.
In this case, a group of humanistic educators from different
countries are working together to develop an international conference that
they hope will lead to positive local educational results far beyond the
bounds of the Subud organization. The
approach chosen for this conference will be sharing wisdom among individuals
and teams, finding common themes and factors, and building on the
conclusions reached. The
conference will also provide an opportunity for (1) teams and individuals to
model excellent teaching-learning strategies--in many instances using an
aspect of their own culture as the teaching material--and (2) five or six
teams each in break-out groups to present their ideas for an educational
experiment to be undertaken back home and to receive constructive criticism
from the other people present. Later,
in a plenum session, the various (refined) plans for micro-experiments will
be outlined. Each chronological segment will now be briefly discussed in
sequence. 1.)
Pre-Conference Preparation Once
teams of two-to-three students plus a young teacher/professor have been
identified, they will be asked to spend time--first individually, then as
teams--answering these questions: Individuals--those
planning to attend the conference without being in a team--should also do
these exercises, although they won’t have a team with which to share their
responses. However, they will
be able to do so with other individuals in multi-national groups at the conference.
(a) My Vision of a Human Future:
When you hear the term “human future” in the sense of an optimal
future for humankind, what do you think of or visualize?
Write freely (without reflection during
the writing process) for at least 30 minutes but no longer than an hour.
Please be as concrete as possible.
Contrast how things are now in the world with the ideal future you
visualize. Feel free to talk
about governance, technology, human interaction, or any other aspect that
helps you paint a picture of your ideal future for humankind.
These essays will be read aloud in the team setting.
Afterward, team members will try to tease out and list the factors
that seem to be involved. Team
members will then discuss similarities and differences in their visions and
name the factors which seem to be present in all the essays.
(b) My Best Learning Experience:
Each of us has had learning experiences of differeing quality, from
poor to outstanding. Think back
across you life, in school and out. What
single experience stands out as by far the best learning experience you ever
had? Spend 30 minutes writing
freely about the experience. Describe
it like a reporter, answering the basic questions of what?, where?, when?,
how?, and who? Then, once you
have described the experience itself, read over what you have written and
try to write a response to this question:
What are the factors, in your opinion, that made this particular
learning experience so excellent? It
may help you to contrast this experience with another learning experience
that was bad. Again, team
members will share their written experiences by reading them out loud.
Afterward, the group will talk about similarities and differences
among the experiences. To
conclude, team members will discuss the conditions and factors that
constitute successful learning experiences.
(c) Criticism That Hurts and Criticism That Helps:
One of the hardest skills sets to acquire but one of the most useful
is the capacity to give and receive good, constructive criticism in ways
that are helpful rather than hurtful and that enable the recipient to refine
or improve his or her product or creation.
It is said in schools of management that there are conflict seekers,
conflict avoiders, and conflict managers.
Most people fall into the first or second category.
A relative few are skilled at managing versus fomenting or running
away from conflict. The same is
true for criticism. Knowing how
unpleasant it often is to be told that our product or creation is less than
it could or should be, we may choose to avoid offering our feedback to
others even when they request it. We
either make a diplomatic statement with no real content or say we like the
thing in question when we really don’t.
At the other extreme, we may be very blunt and hurtful in our
criticism so that the recipient isn’t able to hear and profit by what we
say even if there is more than a kernel of truth in it.
Given this reality, reflect on times when your work has been
criticized and try to identify a positive and a negative instance, that is,
a time when the criticism was offered in a way you found more helpful than
hurtful versus another time when the criticism was more hurtful than
helpful. Write freely for 30 minutes about these two contrasting
experiences. Then, after
reading through what you wrote, note the factors that make for good and bad
criticism. Again, team members
will come together to discuss the differences between good and bad, usable
and hurtful, criticism.
(d) A Great Project for Our School, Class, Institute, Department,
Community, etc.: The
quality movement at production facilities around the world is based on the
premise that line workers know most about making their product.
If you wish to improve the production process, the argument goes, ask
them for their suggestions. By
the same token, secondary and tertiary (post-secondary) students are the
people to ask if one wishes to improve the learning-teaching process. Because they are not the formal experts, however, they are
usually the last to be queried for their opinion. Teachers and administrators are the individuals called on.
This conference reverses the usual practice.
Experts, except as facilitators, will be conspicuous by their
absence. During the
pre-conference period, student-young faculty teams will also consider
prospective educational experiments for their school.
Building from prior discussions on a human future and on best
learning experiences, individual team members will come up with a modest
(small, low-cost) educational innovation for trial at their school or
college or, if appropriate, in the broader community (for example, at public
libraries, senior homes, places of work, in several schools, etc.).
After sharing these ideas in their team, team members will brainstorm
for a single idea, possibly combining or adapting several of the individual
ideas put forward, as their team project.
With assistance from their young teacher, the team will introduce the
proposal--if it is to be realized in their school or university setting--to
members of their learning community for feedback.
If the team cannot decide between several project ideas for their
experiment, they can present both for feedback and refinement at the Jakarta
Conference.
(e) An Example of a Good Teaching Practice We’d Like to Share:
Each team (and individual) should prepare a ten- or fifteen-minute
demonstration of an excellent teaching practice.
It might involve introducing those present to each other, presenting
a new concept (something to do with their language or culture, say),
demonstrating an ice-breaking technique to get class participants involved
in a discussion, offering practice in listening, speaking, memorizing,
disagreeing, or non-hurtful criticism, etc.
Time at the conference will be made available for four or five teams
to meet together to give their presentations and to discuss afterward (in
helpful, non-hurtful ways) their reactions to the techniques demonstrated
and how they might be adapted or refined for use in their own cultures. 2.)
Conference Activities see: The latest version for Tentative Program
Dr.
Reynold Feldman, president of Blue Sky Associates: Catalysts for Educational
Change and executive director of The World Wisdom Project, is a 61-year-old
retired American university professor and administrator.
After preparation at the Peddie School, Hightstown, New Jersey, USA,
he received three degrees in English Language and Literature (B.A. in 1960,
M.A. in 1962, and Ph.D. in 1966) from Yale University.
He went on to teach English at Queens College of the City University
of New York, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the University of Maryland
(Europe), Northeastern Illinois University, and Metropolitan State
University (in Minnesota). On
the administrative side he served as coordinator of Liberal Studies and
assistant director of the experimental college (New College) at the
University of Hawaii, intercultural activities officer at the East-West
Center (Hawaii), director and dean of the Center for Program Development at
Northeastern Illinois University, vice president for academic affairs at
Metropolitan State University, and assistant to the chancellor for
International Programs in the Minnesota State University System, with
special responsibility to help develop a binational community college in
Akita, Japan. Since
retiring from higher education in 1961, he has worked as an evaluator or
program consultant for the Blandin, Bush, and McKnight Foundations--all in
Minnesota--and as a consultant to nonprofit organizations, including schools
and colleges, in North and South America.
After founding Blue Sky Associates in 1991 to foster positive change
in higher education, he coordinated a number of Blue Sky retreats and
several conferences. The major
project created by Blue Sky Associates to date is The World Wisdom Project
(WWP), the goal of which is to mobilize the world’s wisdom for the
betterment of humanity. The
Vittachi Youth Conference is a good example of the kind of work WWP is
attempting to do. Its last
conference took place in May,
2000, on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Called a Community Wisdom Gathering, it attracted 300 participants
and has mobilized an ongoing dialogue among members of the 9,000-person
island community. (For a
conference report, see worldwisdomproject.org.) In addition to a number of scholarly articles and several academic monographs, Feldman has published two books on wisdom: A World Treasury of Folk Wisdom (co-authored, Harper Collins, 1992) and Wisdom: Daily Reflections for a New Era (Saint Mary’s Press, 2000). |
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Tentative Conference Program Monday, June 25, from 7 pm: (a) Introductory Events: The first evening, after brief welcoming speeches, there will be a formal introduction of the teams and individuals as a group (by country). Then a brief video about Varindra Vittachi, introduced with a brief talk by his widow or daughter, will be shown. Finally, Dr. Fuad Hasan, retired Indonesian Minister of Education and Culture, will give athe keynote presentation for about 25 minutes on his vision of "educationg for a human future." This will be followed by 20 minutes of questions and answers. Tuesday, June 26: (b) Morning--Group Suggestions on How to Share Effectively: After a brief welcome and introduction to the day¹s activities, the plenum will break up into smaller groups to share feedback to Dr. Hasan's keynote address. Then, the topic will shift to how to listen actively and disagree or take exception effectively and respectfully. Reporters from each break-out session will present the main conclusions on the subject from their group. After general discussion from the floor, the plenum facilitator, one of the conference staff, will list out some principles of effective interaction at meetings and conferences, for consideration by those present. If there is general agreement, these principles will be duplicated and given to all conference participants and staff as guidelines for the rest of the meetings. They will also become part of the conference proceedings and, if quality warrants, may be disseminated later as one of the conference products. Tuesday, June 26: (c) Afternoon [after lunch and free time/siesta period]--Initial Consideration of the Conferees¹ Visions for a Human Future. After an introduction of the process in the plenum session, conferees will again go into multi-team break-out sessions. As in the morning session, individuals not affiliated with teams will be assigned to break-out groups of their own. Although there are benefits for the same teams to remain together throughout the conference, the initial planning preference would be for different teams to come together in each break-out session so that the greatest number of individuals can get to know each other by working together during the conference. Conference packets will contain 100-150-word summaries of the various individual visions. Each break-out group will attempt to list what they consider to be the most important characteristics of a ³human future² as well as select what they deem the most appealing vision of such a future presented to their group. Tuesday, June 26: (d) Free Evening for Participation in Jakarta Arts Festival (Wayang performance) or Other Supervised Activities. With the exception of the first (Monday) and last (Thursday) evenings, the intermediary (Tuesday and Wednesday) evenings will be free for conference participants to attend Jakarta Arts Festival performances/activities or to undertake other activities, with adult supervision. Because of the uncertainties involved and the mixed age group, from high school students through 40-year-old teachers or professors, participants will be asked to sign an agreement that they will not go off on their own at night unsupervised during the conference period or risk being sent home before the conference concludes. Wednesday, June 27: (e) Morning: Plenum Reports on Visions for a Human Future. Break-out group reporters will present the list of characteristics of a human future their group came up with. A staff facilitator in the plenum session will list out all non-duplicating characteristics and will ask all conference participants to write down the numbers of what they individually consider the three (3) most important characteristics. While votes are being tabulated and a prioritzed list of characteristics is drawn up based on those receiving the highest number of votes, reporters will return to the podium to present (in overhead-projection format) their respective groups¹ selection of the outstanding vision of a human future. After the prioritized list of characteristics is presented, there will be discussion from the floor followed by a second ballot, with participants being asked to vote for their top three from among the highest twelve characteristics selected in the first ballot. Both lists will become part of the conference proceedings, with the final list likely to become a product for post-conference dissemination. Wednesday, June 27: (f) Afternoon: Sharing Best Learning Experiences and Analyzing What Made Them So Good. For this segment, mixed groups of five individuals (high school and university students, recent students and young teachers from different countries) will have ten minutes each to describe their best learning experience and their analysis of the factors that made the experience so good. Group reporters will list the non-duplicating factors presented in their group. Each small group will also select the most interesting experience presented to their group for possible sharing at the plenum. In the second part of the segment, a list of non-duplicating factors will be developed from these lists by staff while perhaps a half dozen of the small groups¹ top experiences are shared with the plenum. When the list of factors is numbered and ready, participants will vote on their top three factors. As in the morning session, tabulation and discussion of the results will follow. (During tabulation, additional group-selected best educational experiences might be shared with all present.) Because of time constraints it may be necessary to do a second vote after the meeting has concluded. Results from the second ballot will become part of the conference proceedings and will likely be disseminated post conference under ³The Jakarta Youth Conference Declaration of Principles for Best Educational Practice² or similar title. Wednesday, June 27: (g) Evening Free, as Before. Thursday, June 28: (h) Morning: Sharing Team Plans for Educational Experiments. Groups of three or four teams will meet all morning to share and receive constructive feedback on plans for modest educational experiments back home. Individual participants will be assigned to different groups as participant observers. Conference packets will include abstracts of all proposed experiments. Thursday, June 28: (i) Afternoon: Free for Shopping, Going to the Pool, Resting, and/or Preparing for the Evening¹s Culture Show. Thursday, June 28: (j) Evening: Banquet, Culture Show, and Keroncong Evening. Anuradha Vittachi, if present, will give a brief talk on her concept of "The Inner Teacher." Prior to coming, individuals and, where feasible, teams will be asked to prepare a cultural sharing of some kind--songs, dances, demonstration and explanation of a ritual, recitation of a poem with English translation, etc. A small number of distinguished guests will be invited to this event. The evening will conclude with dancing to a traditional Indonesian keroncong orchestra, with pointers on how to dance keroncong from the Indonesian participants. Friday, June 29: (k) Morning: Concluding Plenum Session. A PowerPoint presentation will be made of the results of conference deliberations, both to celebrate accomplishments and suggest future possibilities. The floor will be open for comments and suggestions, especially those pertaining to post-conference activities. Some time will be assigned to completing the conference evaluation. The conference will be concluded before noon with brief closing remarks from a designated speaker, followed by a Ritual of Farewell, possibly a Greeting Circle in the tradition of Indigenous peoples. Friday, June 29: (l) Afternoon: Field trip to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah theme park for those able to stay. |
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Honolulu, April 12, 2001
On behalf of Blue Sky Associates, the World Wisdom Project, and the Jakarta
Arts Festival 2001 (JakArts 2001), I am pleased to invite you to participate
in the Varindra T. Vittachi International Youth Conference on “Educating
for a Human Future.”
FOR
INDONESIAN STUDENTS/YOUTH/TEACHERS IN INDONESIA
[Pls. type or print in BLOCK letters.] 1. FAMILY NAME : ............................................……………………………..
2. PERSONAL NAMES :
......................................…..…………………….. (3)
.......................................................................................................................................... 14.
CAN YOU PAY THE US$50 (Rp. 500.000) CONFERENCE FEE, WHICH
COVERS ALL MEALS AND CONFERENCE REGISTRATION?
Yes
( ) No ( ) All ( ) Or [Indicate
amount in US$ or Rp.] _____________ UNDERSTAND ENGLISH? Poor (
) Fair ( ) Good ( )
Excellent ( ) ............................................................................................................................................................... DEADLINES:
If you wish to be considered for financial aid, please return your completed
application by May 15, 2001. Otherwise, completed applications are due
by May 30, 2001. Applications received June 1, 2001 or later will be
considered on a space-available basis. Thank you.
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