Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Ubuntu

The African phrase Ubuntu in its essence means “I am because you are,” or stated another way “I am a human being through you.” It is a statement of interdependence and interconnectedness. It also calls us into of our highest human attributes such as sharing, empathy, respect and compassion.

Journey to Africa

By Ward Mailliard, Project Leader

“At Philani Child Health Project I was given the gift of touring the township of Khayelitsha and being exposed to poverty I had only witnessed as numbers and statistics, and my heart never felt heavier. I remember standing in the home of a family slowly dying of AIDS – but looking into their faces I saw hope, a hope in the form of an intense, enduring strength and will to persevere. I found myself turning away from their eyes in an effort to hide the feeling of helplessness and sorrow I felt for them. I wondered why I couldn’t locate that feeling of hope they had for themselves in myself. Has my society taught me that hope is unrealistic? Is my natural reaction to doubt the good and only see the bad? It was then that I realized that these people were the ones I wanted to define me. These were the kind of people who believed in compassion and a hope for the future. If the world would learn to see like this, our visions of our lives and ourselves would no longer be blurred by selfish desires and needs, but rather a belief in the strength of the community to help us succeed.”

The above was written by 11th grader Anneka Lettunich after returning from our recent journey to South Africa to interview Archbishop Desmond Tutu. (more…)

Washington, D.C. - 2008

The Values interview trip to Washington, D.C. in May of 2008 was on of the most exciting in the history of our program which goes back to 1989. For those who have interest we hope you will take time to visit the blog. Here the students told the story as it unfolded and it give some idea of the excitement and discovery that were a daily part of the experience. We take this unusual journey to the nations capital every other year. By good fortune, hard work and many friends.

Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba – an extraordinary teacher

Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba

We discovered the wonderful Emmanuel Ivorgba on the Project Happiness trip to India in 2007. All we really knew of Emmanuel during the months of preparation for our journey was that he was a spirited and gifted teacher in a school in Jos, Nigeria and he was bringing two students to join our trip to India to interview the Dalai Lama. He was an important yet very distant part of our year-long project of creating a student curriculum for the Dalai Lama’s book, “Ethics for the new Millennium.”

When we finally met Emmanuel in Delhi in March of 2007 we discovered to our delight much more than a gifted teacher. Everyone took and instant liking to Emmanuel. His kindness, good spirits, story telling skills and irrepressible intelligence and dedication to the cause were instantly obvious to everyone. In short we saw Emmanuel as a visionary willing to sacrifice for the sake of bringing needed change to the lives of the children of his area. It is well recorded in the news that Nigeria and its people have suffered a lot in recent years. Nigeria is an oil rich country, but many of its people exist in poverty and parts of Nigeria are dominated by illicit groups taking advantage of the poor conditions and lack of cohesive civil authority. In the midst of that is Emmanuel who has dedicated his life to restoring through education the human values that are a deep part of Nigerian culture.

4th Annual Chautauqua

July 20th-22nd, 2008

For the past four years Mount Madonna School has been hosting a gathering of educators who come together for two days in conversation about how to foster learning environments that will support the human spirit and generate the thinking and capacities needed for today’s challenges. This year Peter Block joined our founding team of Angeles Arrien and Vivian Wright to explore the theme of “Remembering and Understanding What we Already Know & Naming the Gifts that we May Have Forgotten.” In the dialogue with 65 participants from across the spectrum of education we examined the question of how to move from teacher as “expert” to teacher as “facilitator and learner” in the educational experience. In addition to the skillful facilitation by Angeles, Peter and Vivian there were two presentations.