John Hunter’s TED Talk on the World
Peace Game is essentially a blueprint for the next evolutionary step in grade
school education. The concept of the game is simple, for it is how the world
works. However, Mr. Hunter has designed the curriculum in such a way, that the
children he teaches essentially teach themselves how to arrive at diplomatic
and mutually beneficial decisions for everyone.
I noticed a few things during this
talk. First, I realized that the point of view through which a majority of the
decision-makers in the world see is unnecessarily complex. John Hunter is a
grade school teacher in Virginia and he has essentially turned his classroom
(OF 4TH GRADERS) into a project incubator for how to fix the world!
If we as adults can claim to have higher brain function than a 4th
grader, what’s the explanation for group of nine-year-olds being able to
formulate a solution to global warming in a week?
It was as I asked that question
that the answer was revealed. 4th graders possess the closest thing
to an unmolested mind attainable. They haven’t been exposed to the corruption
of politics, racially motivated agendas or socio-economics. They just don’t
care. All they care about is coming up with a solution that will make them and
their friends happy.
This TED Talk also spurred me to
reconsider the definition of maturity. As we grow up, we’re taught as children
that as we get older, we are to mature mentally and emotionally just as we do
physically. However, for as many examples of mature, upstanding, respectable
members of society that have been heralded throughout history, there are twice
as many people who have shown a sickening lack of maturity that has led to the
disparagement, disenfranchisement, and/or death of billions of people around
the world.
I believe that one of the biggest
pieces of the puzzle as pertains to the state of affairs in the world, is to
really investigate the impact that social norms have on how we live. If we
threw as much money behind think tanks that probe at this kind of information,
as we did at bogus medical trials and unnecessary construction, I think
citizens would become more savvy as to the games being played during election
campaigns. This would also take power away from media outlets that would seek
to use fear mongering to further political agendas.
