What about an envelope?

We all know what an envelope is - something that (mostly) contains paper. But what about a container form ideas at school? Where do we find such an envelope for that? Too often ideas for students appear that show little overall connection. This can be true for PBL as much as anything else, so it all seems as someone wrote about history, 'just one damn thing after another.'

So I would like to recommend an idea. A book no less. A short one and a significant one: Jean Francois Rischard: 20 Global Problems and 20 Years to solve them. Published in 2002 the problems remain unresolved if not more acute - no surprises there then. So why not put them on a board and talk about them and design some PBL around them. You could even link with other children elsewhere looking at this. Rischard's point is that since institutions are so sluggish we should start telling children about the issues in the hope of building a new political consensus in future and maybe even some help today. The Shout! project linked children round the world to save rain forests and the gorillas that lived there by buying them up.

The issues in the book are divided into three:

1. Sharing our planet includes:

• deforestation
• water deficits -maritime safety and pollution

1. Sharing our humanity:

• the fight against poverty
• peackeeping; conflict prevention and the prevention of terrorism
• education for all
• global diseases
• the digital divide
• natural disaster prevention and mitigation

1. Sharing Our Rule Book -reinventing taxation

• bio technology rules
• global finances and how they should work
• illegal drugs
• intellectual property rights
• trade investment competition rules
• migration rules
• e commerce rules

So what about it then?