As we look around us today, there is much that we (and children) see that is cruel and heartless—in our own nation and in the world. Many believe that the only recourse we have is to toughen-up ourselves and our children so that we can endure this cruelty and indifference. Yet there is much that teachers can do to change this state of affairs.
In 2008, a former student on mine gave a keynote address at a teachers’ conference. It was on the topic of how teachers inspire students to bring about positive change in the world. Chris Yeon Duk Woo ended his speech with the following story.
One day a son came to his father frustrated and angry and complaining about the unfairness of his life. His father, a chef, invited his son to come to the kitchen and sit down. Then the father took three pots, filled them with water and put them on the stove to boil. The son watched, frustrated and irritated, as his father cut up a carrot and put it in the first pot, took an egg and put it in the second pot and poured some ground coffee into the third pot.
Finally, the father called his son up to the stove and asked; “Son what do you see here?”
Exasperated the son replied: “Is see three pots boiling on the stove. One has slices of carrot, another has an egg and the third one has coffee in it.”
The father responded: “No son, look more closely: Do you see how when the carrot was subjected to the boiling water it became soft, and when the egg was subjected to the hot water it became hard. But son, notice the coffee; the coffee has changed the water.”
He paused and then said to his son. “Now son, when confronted with difficulties and challenges in life do you want to be a person who becomes soft, or someone who becomes hard. Or do you want to become the kind of person who ‘changes the water?’”
Chris concluded his remarks with the statement: Ladies and gentlemen you are the ones who have the power to motivate students to change the world.
If you teachers commit to creating a generation of kids who refuse to accept a world that is cruel and heartless, but rather who are determined to make it less so, you will discover, as my wife Brie and I did in writing Young Enough to Change the World , that what young people can accomplish will inspire you—and others.
While this blog was written specifically for teachers, it's call to action can be taken by parents, coaches and anyone else who works with young people.