Problems in the world and who is helping

Over the last couple of weeks we have looked at what we see as issues in the world. We  pretended to be the United Nations - brainstorming, sorting and prioritising issues we think the world has. Then we looked at the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development - a list of 17 goals the UN has for improving our world. Interestingly not many children had the first few goals on their lists. We discussed why this might be and came to the conclusion that most of us in NZ are lucky and don't have these needs. We looked at people around the world who exist on $2.50 a day or less - some talked about the minimum wage in NZ being almost as much for an hour as these people have for a whole week - pretty sobering to think about!

We have also begun to look at who is helping, and are starting to compile a list of organisations and people who help in the different areas - those who help people, the environment and animals.

This week we looked at plastics and pollution. We looked at Riley from Young Ocean Explorers and how many of her messages are raising awareness of and encouraging less plastic use and picking up rubbish. We looked at 12 year old Arlian Ecker from Australia 'Plastic Free Boy' and his mission to get people to cut down on using plastic. We looked at Buzz Feed's 'I tried to live trash free for 30 days', and also at peope doing 'Plastic attacks' at supermarkets. All of these people in different ways are trying to help decrease pollution and plastic use. Many of you already use re-useable bags in the supermarket, and our government is helping by bringing in a ban on single use plastic bags. We reflected on how our school is trying to help cut down on rubbish with paper recycling and composting.

We have also looked at people who use their talents to get a message across - eg Dr Suess writing 'the Lorax', People writing songs, poems, painting, making posters, making videos and movies etc.

One person we looked at was Prince Ea - his slam poetry is thought provoking. We watched this sobering video and discussed what his purpose was and how it made us feel.  

Over the next few weeks I want to get children exploring people and organisations who are helping (we have some great ones right here on the coast!) and deciding what they can do to help. I hope that they will all find something they can do to help make our world better, and to empower them to understand that they can make a difference. 

Many of our gifted children worry about the future and can get anxious when they hear about problems in the world - hopefully this will help them see that there are people who feel the same, others who are helping, and that they can make a difference too.