MY COUNTRY, OP-ED

A SPARK can transform teacher, student andcommunity

AUGUST 3, 2015 | MATTHEW BRENNAN | LEAVE A COMMENT

Chade Meng-Tan, GoogleEdu’s Head of PersonalGrowth, explained how kindness can be spreadthrough a community by one’s simple actions and

Lowell High School students and staff visit MIT for the SPARK Youth event and His Holinessthe Dalai Lama’s visit in late October 2014.

By Matthew Brennan

Cambridge, MA- Secular values can be apowerful force for change in a community. That’s what I learned by attending The DalaiLama Center for Ethic and TransformativeValues Transformative Teachers program andthe SPARK Youth event at MIT in 2014.  I teachDigital Journalism and English as a SecondLanguage at one of the largest and most diverseschools, Lowell High School in Lowell, MA.   So,it’s a daunting thought to attempt change insuch a large atmosphere.  I learned from theteacher training to begin with myself and theclassroom.

positive thoughts.

(https://lhsdigitalnewspaper.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/dscf0050.jpg)

Thai-Chinese violinist, Adrian Anantawan,entertains students and faculty at the SPARKYouth event.

Top row of flags display character values from Lowell students

I decided to begin this discussion in my DigitalJournalism course, which is ripe withopportunity for talk about values and ethics.  My students and I began by looking at the valueswhich influenced our lives and in turn our community.  By brainstorming character values at themicro-level as a class and visualizing how we are shaped by a number of common values, wegained a better perspective of the community’s shared values.  Rather than focusing on thedifferences portrayed through media, which can shape apathetic attitudes and at timesoverwhelm common sense, the character value exercises provided a more accurate picture of theshared common values which bring hope to the world.  These values don’t always sell well in the24-hour news cycle and are often ignored by global media.

My students and I completed the character valuegroup activity together compiling andcomparing the values most influential in theiryoung lives.  Students discoursed about thevalues which they have experienced such ashonesty, compassion and responsibility amongothers.  I shared my values of persistence andgraciousness bestowed on me by my wife,mother and father.  They also reflected uponpeople in their lives who had demonstratedthese values.  Students exchanged stories aboutparents, grandparents, coaches and teachers whoexemplified the values.  My students were alsoinvited to put their values in action at theSPARK Youth event at MIT where theydisplayed character value flags, volunteered andlistened to his Holiness the Dalai Lama speak about stewardship in the world.

With great enthusiasm the studentsassisted students from other schoolsin preparing their own charactervalue flags and in so doingexemplified service to others.  Thesesmall banners, now displayed atMIT,  together represent a greatvisual reminder of globally sharedcharacter values.  As a teacher theseexercises forced me to think abouthow to embed character values intojournalism curricula and thenecessity to exemplify the valuesmyself.  Such character valueexercises provide substantiveopportunities for deeperunderstanding and application

who volunteered at the SPARK Youth event.

Comedian George Lopez entertained the studentsat the SPARK Youth event and discussed how oneperson’s values like good humor can make animpact on their community.

Lowell High School students prepare to help SPARKparticipants make their flags representing theircharacter values at the event.

across curricula and moreimportantly in our dailyinteractions.  I needed to exemplify them too in my personal and professional life.

In class as students practice digital journalismskills there are ample moments to discuss howtheir common values influence the choices ofjournalism stakeholders.  Editors, journalists andproducers face decisions of fairness every day, sowhy not have students contemplate thesedecisions at the school level.  As my studentsfound out, the concept of fairness in media isinfused with values such as responsibility,empathy, honesty and accuracy.  I shared myexperience professionally and personally withthese values for better or worse.

Ample moments exist to analyze such charactervalues as represented across media.  Amplemoments present themselves for reflection uponthe appropriate or inappropriate use of socialmedia and how the presence or absence ofcharacter values shape choices. And amplemoments occur to consider why these valuesare important to the human rights of acommunity locally and then globally.  It canbegin in the classroom as I learned from mytraining at The Dalai Lama Center.

By framing character values as an importantfocal point, a classroom community is obligedto consider how the actions or inaction ofa literary character may sway a community,how the reaction or apathy toward a historicalevent alters the world, or how scientificdecision or indecision may change lifeoutcomes of a community.  The SPARK Youthevent and the Transformative Teachersprogram reminds a community of learnersabout how the discussion begins at the microlevel in our communities-family, school or neighborhood- and may move locally, nationally andglobally.

Above Photos by Robert De Lossa