Blog Action Day 2012: The Power of We

This year's Blog Action Day topic is "The Power of We." (Of course, it really should be 'the power of us', but let's not quibble!). The point is how groups of people can get things done around the world. I would like to take this opportunity to discuss how we can get the process of education to flourish in the world.
In order to make education a truly democratic and egalitarian process, I believe we need to lose the distinctions between those who have an education and those who need one. When we come together to make learning happen in my classes, I am as much a part of the learning that happens as my 'students'. The reason I teach is so that I can feed my thirst for learning, and it's not just learning about how the new generations of students approach problems that I am talking about: It's learning new ideas, new ways to interact, new strategies for negotiating the world around me.
John Cleese once remarked (I believe the video is available on YouTube), "I'm very old and will soon be dead. And I would like to die knowing as much as possible." My heart echoes these sentiments.
In my teaching, I long to pass this passion for learning on to my 'students'. By the time they get into my class, many are rather jaded regarding the education process: it seems like such a waste of input and output to them. They listen to lectures (many illustrate the process known as 'death by powerpoint' in extreme fashion!), they regurgitate facts or applications of principles on quizzes and exams, and then it's on to the next course where the process is repeated.
Because many of my students say their other professors have a negative view of such online general sources of information as Wikipedia, I encourage my students to write articles for Wikipedia. Maybe some of my students will challenge their other professors to join the task of improving the quality of Wikipedia beyond its already high standards.
Because many of my students experience an almost total disconnect between classes and the rest of their lives, I encourage my students to find things to change (inside and outside class). I admonish them of the great Gandhian challenge to "be the change [they] hope to see in the world" and to be audacious in the projects they choose to involve themselves in. I give them up to 20% of their credit in some courses for projects they themselves design to change their worlds.
Because many of my students struggle to pay for their food and lodging after they have paid tuition and fees and bought their books at the institution where I work, I use the news forum of the online learning systems that support our classes to post announcements of food banks and free food events available on campus. I also encourage them to sponsor ad-hoc food events (potlucks, etc.) of their own to offset the high prices of campus-produced foods from Aramark. I encourage them to share their $4/day (!) parking passes with others, so that those who are not served by local transit can get a break from this added fee for education. I also work to develop open education resources through Open Learning locally and the initiatives of OERu globally. I dream of a day when education to the very top levels is as readily available to all as public libraries in many parts of the world.
This post has become much longer than I had hoped, but I get very passionate when I think about the value of 'we' in the area of education. I would like to see everyone have full opportunities to learn as much and as long as they desire from wherever they live. If you have ideas relevant to this desire, I would appreciate your comments on this post. Please participate, comment, write, and talk up this years Blog Action Day topic, "The Power of We" to everyone you can.

The Importance of Clean Water in Education

The title of this blog may take readers back a bit, but today is "Blog Action Day" in the blogosphere. The chosen topic for this day is the importance of clean drinking water.
In brief, the crisis this concentration of writing is supposed to address is as follows (taken from the Blog Action Day entry for 14 October 2010):

The problem of scarce clean water:
Nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean water, which causes a litany of struggles, diseases and even death.

• 40 Billion Hours: African women walk over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 18 kilograms to gather water, which is usually still not safe to drink.
• 38,000 Children a Week: Every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions.
• Wars Over Water: Many scholars attribute the conflict in Darfur at least in part to lack of access to water. A report commissioned by the UN found that in the 21st century, water scarcity will become one of the leading causes of conflict in Africa.
• A Human Right: In July, to address the water crisis, the United Nations declared access to clean water and sanitation a human right.... But we are far from implementing solutions to secure basic access to safe drinking water.

In lands of abundance (though there are many "third-world-regions" within even the most affluent countries), we know the importance of education in the development of civilized society (This blog has addressed this matter elsewhere--in fact almost 'every-elsewhere'!), but we don't often stress the need to keep people alive long enough to educate them. I think the figure, 38,000 children a week, is particularly important: This is the number of those who are deprived of an education, simply because they lack conditions that would allow them to live long enough to attend school. This situation must be addressed.
If these were our own children, we would address the situation. In fact, if these were our own children we would address the situation, even to the point of whatever violence it took to get the matter noticed. I am not at all advocating violence, but I can understand the plight of those (whose children are dying) who turn to such violence. The path to a proper global enlightenment (maybe we aren't as educated and civilized as we thought) seems clear, we must take ownership of the problem of unsafe drinking water--at least enough to allocate serious funds to solve the problem. I would imagine that if we put even a tenth of the money spent on fighting terrorists into the provision of safe wells and filtration systems for villages that currently have no source of water or only unsafe sources we could provide the world with a chance for its young people to grow up healthy. There are many organizations that have addressed the water issue in their most recent blogs (linked from the main page at Blog Action Day above), but we also need the actions of readers everywhere. The first step is to sign the Petition 
Further steps include blogging about the topic, writing/calling legislators in your country, watching for information about water in the media, and talking with your family and friends to help others understand the situation.
I want people to live long enough to receive the education I believe everyone is entitled to. I believe that addressing the problem of unsafe drinking water is a crucial step in the process.