"Young Students as Unofficial Common Ground Seekers"

This is for all y'all good folks linked to here via my July '09 "attention philanthropy grant" @ World Changing; especially if you won't mind considering a half-baked idea.

(Also, please be advised that this YESSS site is now in the midst of some initial alpha testing, with beta testing planned for August '09; so we're likely to appear a bit messy here before the Autumn '09 School term begins = "A l'il help? Please! = :-)

Okay, here's the half-baked idea:

Imagine, if you will, that in just a few months from now the hottest topics and the coolest conversations circulating throughout our world=wide=web=0=sphere include clear messages from young Students positively influencing this December's UNFCCC gathering in Copenhagen:
http://unfccc.int/2860.php

Let's assume young people are capable of combining original thought and good will. Let's also assume we're capable of supporting them to help make sense out of the messes they're inheriting, including our emergent global climate, energy and economic crises. Let's also assume we're capable of supporting one another to get out of the way of young Students expressing themselves about what needs to be learned (and perhaps what needs to be re=learned or even un=learned).

I'm quite confident there's already whole bundles of good folks working to ensure Copenhagen '09 produces extraordinarily good and robust wake up calls with respect to the management and prevention of our emerging global crises. Nonetheless, I'm not feeling fully confident that sufficient support has yet emerged for those crucial stake holders known as today's youth (i. e., the front line representatives of future generations) to voice their views and values as simply and as clearly as is necessary for such robust wake up calls to become as effective as possible.

About 17 years ago, Severn Suzuki set a pretty good example: http://www.dimenovelfilms.com/paulspage.htm

Since Severn's sweet scolding, it's fair to say we adults still have some more serious waking up to do. So, now what can we do? How about, let's seriously entertain the following:

"Young Students as Unofficial Common Ground Seekers"

Let's design and implement support systems for interested young Students to engage in fun, purpose seeking activities; like seeking common ground among Copenhagen '09 convention participants, protesters and the security folks assigned to keep the protesters away from the participants. Seeking, finding and promoting appreciation for common ground just might help us get outta this mess.

Geoffrey Vickers did some amazingly good work developing the notion of "Appreciative Systems" and David Cooperrider and others have furthered Vickers' work in quite valuable ways that even a bright Fifth Grader could put to good use. By focusing more on what actually works (rather than what doesn't) and offering an overlapping 4 phase process (discover, dream, design & deliver), appreciative inquiry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appreciative_inquiry) may just be a decent component in a viable support system enabling "Young Students as Unofficial Common Ground Seekers" to make a positive difference prior to, during and after humanity's upcoming UNFCCC gathering in Copenhagen.

In terms of effectively employing our entire world=wide=web=0=sphere (and all the various media it can help integrate), the opening several seconds of Dana Klisanin's site (http://www.danaklisanin.com/) presents a cool question that just might help guide a cooler collaborative effort to pick up where Severn left off. Dana's one of the late Bela H. Banathy's students and Bela's one of my systems=scholar heroes.

This December 2009, during the UNFCCC gathering in Copenhagen, let's have the courage to support young Students from all around our Earth to voice their views and values. After all, their thoughts are likely to be less adulterated and thus more fresh (i. e., more original) merely by virtue of the fact they've spent less time as adults. And their wills are likely to be less corrupted and thus more free and clear (i. e., good) since they've more recently completed their kindergarten etiquette coursework.

So, that's it for now. Feel free to put this half-baked idea in your own oven to cook up something nutritious and delicious. Or if you'll permit another metaphor, let's keep this ball rolling and feel free to pick it up and run with it in whatever ways make sense and feel good to you. I'd feel quite delighted if anyone experiences this little effort I'm making here as a gift. If you do, kindly accept it, make it your own and then have some serious fun furthering its implementation and passing it along to other good folks.

Also, kindly consider this inquiring haiku:

Preposterous play?
Why's "high=performance" such fun?
What's human nature?

You can reach me via email @ paulyesss {at} gmail {dot} com

Ciao for now,

paul
founder, Young Ecosystems=Scholars Support Services