How will you make the world a better place? #YourEdustory

I had a teacher you used to tell us to leave our classroom better than we found it. At the time, we all said, "that's not fair - the other classes left it that way." And she would always reply, "we're in this all together."

I had no idea what that meant. To our class, it seemed unfair that we would have to be responsible for making the classroom look even better. But, ten years later, when I had my own classroom, I found myself saying the same thing: "Leave this lab better than you found it!"

Why? Because we are all in this together. We are all connected. Our lives intersect constantly. We are a community.

When a community member builds a park, soon, children go out to play. And after that, play groups form, and park events develop, and members connect. And, that's how I met my very first friend. We are connected.

So, if we are all connected, how does one person make the world a better place?

One person does NOT make the world a better place.

But, a community DOES make the world a better place.

For starters, the mindset that you alone will be the one to to make this change is incorrect. You can come up with a brilliant idea to create the change, but without your followers and implementers, change will not come. So, to begin, we must begin to think of ourselves as a community. That alone will make the world a better place.

So, how will I make the world a better place?

I will not make the better place.

Instead, I will work each day to be a member of a community and to make others feel welcome in a community. When we belong somewhere, we can help.

So, we should not strive to see what we alone can do to make the world a better place, but what we can do as a group. We can all have great ideas, but if we are all leaders, we have no room for implementers and followers.

This video summarizes it for me.

I ask you - how will WE make the world a better place? I'm starting changing one negative thought at a time.