Paula Mirk, the director of Education at the Institute for Global Ethics, was the keynote speaker Thursday on the opening day of the first Global Think Tank sponsored by Girls Preparatory School. Ms. Mirk presented the more than 40 attendees from national and local schools with the question, “What does it mean to be a global citizen?”
Her ensuing conversation with the audience revealed her belief that “ethics can be a linchpin” to students’ finding a connection between personal experience and the curriculum that they study. The institute’s work, she said, is to encourage the use of a “language of ethics” that answers the question “What’s right?” instead of “What’s in it for me?” or “Who’s winning?”
Concepts related to global ethics, she explained, include an “obedience to the unenforceable,” judgment, reason, and critical thinking. The bulk of the institute’s work is getting people to “articulate the reasoning behind their decision-making” and identify values shared by cultures across the globe. The institute’s 500 trainers have worked within schools and community groups worldwide to discover that those shared values usually include respect, responsibility, loyalty, integrity, freedom, and compassion.
Concluding that people are “on a permanent learning curve” in regard to acting ethically, she said she loved working with students, the next generation who will “make it a habit to think and act ethically” if taught “how to think” as well as “what to think.”
Group sessions later in the day covered topics such as “Ethics and Social Justice,” “Connecting Globally through Technology,” “Integrating Global Awareness into the Classroom” and “Green and Global Go Hand in Hand.”
The keynote speaker for Friday is former Tennessee Senator Bill Brock, the founder of Bridges Learning Systems and a consultant specializing in education and trade issues.