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What are we doing in our education system that we can come out so

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ignorant? What are we doing here in the West and

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in the first world when we have so many children that

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have such a disparity of wealth and experience? What is

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education if we are just doing the same thing year

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after year? If we don't change what we do in

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our education system, we're going to be creating the exact same

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result. Welcome to Neuroeducation, where

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we're exploring the neuroscience of how to switch on the brain to

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supercharge learning. I'll be sharing with you innovative teaching techniques,

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effective parenting strategies, and educational advocacy. I'm

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your host, Angie Dee. Together, let's revolutionize children's

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learning. Hi

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everybody, thank you for tuning in to Neuroeducation Podcast

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with Angie Dee. I had an interesting experience in

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my final years of high school. I would say I

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had what you would call a pretty typical year 12 experience.

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I did move from Sydney to Brisbane, which was interesting. But

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I got to do some cheerleading in high school, got to date

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one of the footy boys, it was pretty exciting, he

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was a hottie. But something happened

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in the end of my year 12 journey

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that really shook my world forever.

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So I met a bunch of guys who I actually

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thought were from South America, but it turns out they were

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actually from Afghanistan. But one of them had asked me if

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I wanted to go along to an awards night and he had

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been nominated for international student of

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the year. And I said, oh my gosh, yes,

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I loved everything multicultural, anything about other

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cultures, languages, dance, anything multicultural, I'm

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in. So there I was on the awards night

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watching my friend who

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actually got the award. And lo and behold, when

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the award was read out, it had a spiel about

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his life. And so I found out,

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no, he wasn't from South America. He indeed was actually

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from Afghanistan and he was from a group in Afghanistan, an

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ethnic group called the Hazaras. And what I

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found out that he had been through so much in

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his life. more than I could possibly imagine in

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my entire life. He had been through a

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war where the Taliban had come, had taken his

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father for questioning. His father was never returned. He

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came from a village where so many women died because they didn't

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have any access to hospitals. There

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was no running water and he had lost

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so many members of his family to so many different tragedies.

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And he had come to Australia as a refugee because

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he didn't have any other choice. In

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his village in Afghanistan, the Taliban were making the rounds, taking

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the eldest son from every family. And

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they were back for their second round. And I think it

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was his uncle that actually helped him to come out

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to Australia. Now here I was as a grade 12 student

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at the end of grade 12, mind you, about to

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go out into the world. And I tell you, I had

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no idea about anything that was going on in Afghanistan. I

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had no idea about the war. I didn't know it had been through a social war.

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I didn't know that it had been through a civil war that Russia

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had tried to take over. And now the Taliban, I had no idea. And

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so I was dumbfounded that

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I could go through all of my education and be

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so ignorant about so many facets of the

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world. I was desperate.

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I was desperate to be able to make an impact for people like

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my friend, who had gone through so much, who

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had lost so many family members and literally

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been thrown across the other side of the world because the

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only other solution was death. And

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here I was in my privileged little life,

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doing some cheerleading, dating a little footy boy,

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actually dating a very strong, strong footy boy. But

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here I was with no idea what was going on in half of

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the world. So what are we doing in

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our education system that we can come out so ignorant? Like

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as a global citizen that I now consider myself to be, I have

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educated myself on the current situations in

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the world. I have done the research. I

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went on to volunteer with the Oak Tree Foundation, which

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is Australia's very first youth run aid

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organization. And what we did is we went into schools

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to teach them. what was happening and what we

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could advocate for for our government to make sure

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that we had greater impact for our local aid

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and for fair trade and making a positive impact in

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our global community. When

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you look at something like the eight millennium development

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goals created by the United Nations, you

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can see what a huge disparity we

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have of wealth in our world. A huge disparity. There

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was one story that I read on

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a human rights watch when I was doing the work with the

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Oak Tree Foundation and it had the story of a little

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girl from Tamil Nadu in India and

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this little girl said, I don't care about going

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to school, all I want to do is bring my

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sister home from the bonded labour man. Every

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morning at six she has to go to work and

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every night at nine she comes home and if she doesn't go to work he

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comes and he beats her. All I want to do is

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bring my sister home. I don't have 500 rupees

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and I will never have 500 rupees so I cannot bring

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my sister home. The sad fact is

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in this human rights watch it shared that well not

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only is only 500 rupees about 20 US dollars but

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that this girl is among millions that

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were working in bonded labor because they

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had no other choice as a family when you're

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living on less than a dollar a day than as millions of people do.

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If absolutely anything happens, if somebody gets sick or somebody needs

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medicine, the only way they can get money is by going to

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the local factory and signing bonded labor contract. These

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parents have never learned how to read and write, which is why they only getting

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a dollar or less than a dollar a day in their

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job. And they have to sign their children over in

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bonded labor, which has mean they're working off whatever the debt is

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for labor. Because they can't read and write. Half of these contracts have ridiculous

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interest rates. And some of these children are working for

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20, 30 years to pay off a debt of $20. I

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was horrified when I read that story. And I thought, what

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are we doing? What are we doing here in the West?

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And in, I would say, the first world. When

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we have so many children that have such

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a disparity of wealth and experience. And it sent me

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on and a quite interesting adventure to look at what

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are the daily things that we can do that make an impact to

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children in other countries. Recently, I

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have been running my own homeschool group. Uh,

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and what was so fun to research during

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that homeschooling was the process that

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our clothes go through. our coffee, our

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chocolate? What processes that go through from

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growing and production to getting it to where

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it is today for us to actually to eat, to consume

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or to wear? And looking at is

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it a fair trade process or are these people actually

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paid a decent wage? And not

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only is it a fascinating way for children to be able to engage

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and understand the world around them, what's happening in

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different countries, the reality of how people are living, how

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much money that they're being given and how much people are

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being paid for, how much of the money that

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we pay are actually getting back to these people. And

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so when we look at these kinds

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of things, I think it's important to look at We

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live in an incredibly privileged society and

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what is education if it's not a help to life?

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What is education if we are just doing the

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same thing year after year? If we don't

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change what we do in our education system we're

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going to be creating the exact same result. So

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as global citizens helping to create global

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citizens in our students, we want to be creating a

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mindset that says, okay, what's a

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problem that we have in this world? And how can

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we change that? Adolescents have some of

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the most outrageous hormones, but we know adolescents also

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have passion and belief in themselves that they can make change.

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So we can use these crazy

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outrageous hormones, this incredible belief in themselves, to

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be able to take the world's problems and to give

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it to children because you can look after story

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after story of children all around the world creating

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solutions to problems in their local and global communities.

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The young boy who created, it's called Harness the Wind, I

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think, on Netflix. Amazing system of

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electricity over in Africa. Children in Bali that

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are creating amazing solutions for all

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of the pollution that they have. But we here in

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the West and in first world countries, especially here

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in Australia, we can use our educational system to

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empower children to make positive changes for

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the world and for the future. So next

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time you're getting children to read something

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on a nursery rhyme, or you're getting children to read something

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about a novel or a narrative, you

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can think, what is a real world situation we can embed

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into this subject or scenario so that we

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open the children's eyes to the reality of the world and

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give them the motivation to make a positive impact. Thank

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you so much for listening to this episode. It would be in a massive

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favor if you could give us a review on Apple podcasts or

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Spotify and please subscribe on YouTube and

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you can look down below for more information and all

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of the links to find out more information. Join us