You also don’t have to be East Asian to celebrate.  My family is Iranian-American and some of our favorite memories are of making fresh dumplings with neighbors in the deep winter for the New Year, attending Philadelphia’s Chinatown parade followed by a dim sum feast with transplants from four continents, and for our girls, wearing the traditional Chinese silk brocade dress, that comes in every color and size.

I was struck by President Obama’s 40-second Lunar New Year greeting (click here to watch), which he put in the context of his own fond memories: “growing up in Hawaii I remember all the excitement surrounding the Lunar New Year, from the parades and the fireworks to the smaller gatherings with family and friends.  It’s always been a time for celebration and for hope. ” He also uses this as an occasion to remind Americans that we gain strength from our diversity – a message that can resonate whatever your political leanings (unless, of course, you think that Mitt Romney’s French language abilities are a liability).

Did the President celebrate with his Kansan grandparents, who were vital to his upbringing and support system, or with his mother after her return from Indonesia, or more likely, with all of them, since Lunar New Year has been integrated into Hawaiian life, too?  These celebrations may have been formative to the American President who has been criticized for stating he is “an American citizen and a citizen of the world.”  Having a personal experience of something as joyous and free from an agenda as celebrating a new holiday with friends can widen the vision of the possibilities for our own lives, especially at a formative age: what second language we might learn, where we might study or do business, who our friends and loved ones can be, art that resonates, food and music we enjoy, and more.  It also helps us become more compassionate to the lives of others – near or far.

This year is particularly portentous as the Year of the Dragon, a symbol of power and excellence, courage, heroism and perseverance, nobility and divinity. With all the power a dragon has, he uses it benevolently.  This wisdom and restraint is a source of wealth and respect.

So, make dumplings; finally learn how to eat gracefully with chopsticks; learn a phrase in Mandarin or Vietnamese; reach out to a new immigrant family in your community; or get to know the couple that runs the ethnic shop nearby.  And imagine: how will you be a wise and kind dragon, radiant on the inside, spreading beauty and promise on the outside?

Volunteer.  Search local churches, service organizations, interfaith coalitions, and school groups for a volunteer activity you can plug into.  You can look up the official National Service Day website, plug in your zip code and find out what’s going on: http://mlkday.gov.  Talk about some of the service options you’ve found over dinner (or whenever your family can best have a conversation), so that this becomes an activity you all own, care about, and look forward to.

Read – more, new, different.  Spend time educating your family on the sacrifices made to begin realizing racial justice and equality in the United States (or elsewhere, like South Africa in the post-apartheid struggle).  For the youngest children, here’s a nice list of ten books from Kathleen Cross’s blog, which also model diverse images of beauty our children need to see.

This is the Dream by Diane Z. Shore and Jessica Alexander is perfect for about grade 2 and up – and by up, I mean really up – I showed it to my 16 year old, who also liked it.  The delightful poetic verse along striking illustrations by James Ransome make the harsh realities of institutionalized racism hit home hard.  Then, after a glimpse of courageous civil rights heroes, the picture of the world as we know it today (imperfect but better) depicts a contrast that’s particularly striking. My eight-year old daughter read it over and over again.  Another lovely and inspiring one is Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

There’s a lot to learn and appreciate on this theme.  Many books have been written of excellent quality.  Just go on either of these amazon book pages and scroll down to “customers who bought this item also bought” to find other titles of interest.  Then you can borrow from the library, buy on that site or go to your independent bookseller.

“Meet” more heroes. Beyond learning about Dr. King, I find it’s crucial to teach my children about a wide range of African-American visionaries, scientists, poets, philosophers, and inventors. In one speech Dr. King said, “We’re going to let our children know that the only philosophers that lived were not Plato and Aristotle, but W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke came through the universe.” And beyond Rosa Parks, what about Robert Hayden, Robert Smalls, Ruth Simmons or Wilma Rudolph?

Pray.  If you pray or meditate, include race unity in your thoughts and prayers.  Racism is a spiritual disease, and a simple meditation to keep in mind can be:   “… welcome all with the light of unity.” It is offered in this context:

“The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in making the perfect chord. If you meet those of different race and color from yourself, do not mistrust them and withdraw into your shell of conventionality, but rather be glad and show them kindness. Think of them as different colored roses growing in the beautiful garden of humanity, and rejoice to be among them.”

James Taylor’s song honoring Dr. King is like a prayer.  Listen and watch here.

Everyday @Home. An important lesson for any family that wishes to raise global citizens, free of prejudice, is to take the lesson home.  Don’t just leave it up to your school to offer all the lessons and experiences around Dr. King and racial justice (even if your school is doing a great job with this lesson).  Actions you take at home send a powerful signal that “this matters to us.”  And kids who grow up marking MLK Day with a parent or family member will cherish the holiday and what it stands for.  They’re the ones who will build the better world we all long for.

Do you have ideas for marking MLK Day? Please share here, or on Growing Up Global’s Facebook Page or Twitter.

Nazeer Bibi’s daughter had about a 92% chance of never being born.  Throughout her pregnancy, Nazeer worked in the fields with her husband. One day she felt pain and told her husband. He found an ox cart to take her to the nearest village for help, but on the way her pain and bleeding were so great that they stopped while local women gathered to help her. They held up cloths to protect her privacy but had no midwifery training. One woman pressed down on Nazeer’s belly with her foot which made her cry out and bleed all the more. Other locals arrived and told her husband that he must send for a trained midwife or Nazeer would die. He refused and told the male worker not to go near his wife.

Depiction of Nazeer Bibi, found at whiteribbonalliance.org

An hour later Nazeer died under the open sky. All had witnessed this woman lose her life needlessly. Nazeer’s baby also died.  Sadly, they didn’t defy the odds against them, as my child and I did.  But their case can’t be dismissed as an “accident” either.  In my case I’m fortunate to call my “accident” a “gift;” but in Nazeer’s and over 1,000 women every single day, her circumstances resulted in a tragic, needless loss.

I didn’t know Nazeer.  I read her story on the White Ribbon Alliance For Safe Motherhood’s website, which shares both the Stories of Mothers Lost, and fortunately, of Mothers Saved, like on this video at a maternal hospital in Tanzania.  White Ribbon Alliance members in 152 countries are taking the message and concrete solutions for safe motherhood to their own families, local communities, governments, and entire nations.  They are working tirelessly, urgently to prevent needless deaths like Nazeer’s.

As I’m wrapping up this post, I just realized that my eyes have been watering and my heart hurting throughout writing this piece.  These stories are real, and had I not won the lottery at birth, I realize it could have been me…or you.  I don’t want to forget this feeling I have in response to these humble, powerful women.  In a few minutes I need to get up from my computer, figure out what to make for dinner, pick up children from activities, and images of Nazeer and others will temporarily erase from my mind.  But I’m committed to doing better.  To translate this heartache I feel right now, I’ll stay in touch with the White Ribbon Alliance, sign up for the Million Moms Challenge, and learn more about the other partner organizations.  The global effort for mothers’ health can mean the difference between life and death for our sisters, and a commitment to a better world we want to build for every one of our children.

(This piece originally appeared at ABC.com’s Million Moms Challenge.  Sign up now for the Million Moms Challenge and Johnson & Johnson will donate $1 for the first 100,000 people who join the movement.)

1. “Locate” it together:  Begin your adventure at the grocery store or local farmer’s market.  Let your little one choose:  which vegetable and which fruit would they like to eat today?  Then look for the label where it came from.  Maybe Costa Rica or California or Croatia?  Locate these places on a map at home, or right in the market on your smartphone.  Role play or imagine the sort of journey a fruit salad from various countries might have made, and create a fantastic story of their villages, the person picking them, and how they got here to make eating it exciting – and enticing.
2. Ditch the kids’ meal.  When you’re home, prepare one meal that everyone will eat. Arrange your schedules as much as possible so that parents are eating together with the kids.  Your example trying new foods and eating together is powerful.   At restaurants, avoid the kids’ menu, which often is composed of the least healthy options.  It’s fun and cost effective to choose a dish together with your child that you might share, and possibly order an appetizer or side dish you both like.
3. Take a global culinary journey.  Decide on several countries, or even a whole continent you’ll “visit” over several weeks or months through the choices of ethnic restaurants within driving distance (or new recipes at home).  For example, you can go from Chinese and Vietnamese food, to Thai, Malaysian, Mongolian, Indian and Iranian for a rich journey through Asia.  Once you start searching, food diversity might be closer than you’d expect.  Choose together which country to visit, find it on the map, learn a few words from that language, and possibly get friends involved.  At the restaurant, ask the waiter or owner to help you choose some favorites for “beginners.”  If they’re offered, try learning to eat with chopsticks while you’re waiting for the main dish to come out.
4. Share stories of the most exotic food you’ve ever eaten or heard of.  From about age ten or so, it’s fun to find out about foods you consider as really exotic—then what you’re trying to get them to taste may not seem so strange. My most bizarre food experience probably was eating a whole guinea pig in Peru (a regional specialty). It was lying on its back, with paws straight up, stiff in the air, smothered in a tasty tomato sauce. Among my daughters, this experience of eating cuyi was one of their favorite stories – and suddenly made their chicken and spinach seem palatable.
5. Make a difference!  About 925 million people globally suffer from chronic hunger.  No one should be guilted into eating because of starving children elsewhere, but age-appropriate doses of awareness will make wanting to make a difference come naturally – eventually.  A great place to start is the Million Moms Challenge.  Through its pre-screened partner organizations like GAIN, CARE, Global Giving and UNICEF, you can help children and their moms worldwide access life-saving nutrition and healthcare, and join a larger community of folks to make a difference.   Don’t forget the on-going needs of food pantries in your local community, too.  By engaging in solutions to food challenges anywhere, your family can start to feel like a “link” in a long chain of eaters near and far.

As I try to raise my own adventurous eater, I hope that her journey toward experiencing the exciting palate of global flavors accompanies that of adequate food – and maybe even some choices – for ALL the world’s children, on World Food Day and beyond.

Do you have a tip for raising an adventurous eater?

(This piece originally appeared on Million Moms Challenge.)

Wangari was born a typical little girl in a Kenyan village, who spent her days fetching firewood and water for her large family.  She was expected to grow up like her mother – one of four wives, illiterate and subservient to her husband.

Thanks to opportunities to pursue education she escaped the tragic fate of so many women in Africa; but severe hardship visited her after her three children were born.  While they were young, her husband abandoned the family, purportedly stating she was “too educated, too strong, too successful, too stubborn and too hard to control.”  When she criticized the judge ruling in favor of her husband during divorce proceedings, he sentenced her to a six-month jail term – the first of her many prison stays for speaking out.

Around this time she started encouraging tree planting among village women.  With diligent, patient stewardship this grew into a worldwide movement, and she became the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.  Her story demonstrates the amazing potential among those who might otherwise have been pitied as tragic statistics.  With some basic opportunities, stories of perseverance, courage, dignity and triumph can replace those of desperation and calamity.  We have it in us.

I wrote about Professor Maathai for the Million Moms Challenge and shared her telling the poignant story of the hummingbird HERE, where she shows how mighty even the frailest among us can be in the face of overwhelming obstacles; repeating to the nay-sayers:  “I am doing the best I can.”

Wangari Maathai tells the hummingbird story

If you leave a comment on the story here, you will be entered to win an exclusive Million Moms Challenge Gift Pack, which includes an all expenses paid trip to a conference on mothers hosted by the UN Foundation in DC (Jan/Feb 2012), an iPad2, a custom-made Million Moms Challenge pendant and $50 donation in your name to Global Giving.  (Contest runs through October 16, 2011.)

Please join the Million Moms Challenge to show your support for maternal and child health!

Homa S. Tavangar is the author of Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World.

Children from Chicago participate in Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots Peace Day festivities (photo from WBEZ.org by Jennifer Kim)

On the global level, President Obama, in his Peace Day speech to the UN General Assembly repeated throughout his talk: “Peace is hard.  Peace is hard.”  It is especially hard when we try to get it through the tough heads of world leaders.  But it seems do-able when starting with our kids, who see the world with a baggage-free lens, complete with optimism, open-mindedness, fresh ideas, and without limits.

Start with some simple steps in honor of Peace Day (i.e., any day), and see what sticks after that to create some lasting practices and raise young peacemakers:

1. Sing and dance and make music!  I’m inspired by Playing for Change’s videos, like “Imagine” and “Stand By Me,” where musicians from around the world collaborate, even if they’ve never met, to create one harmonious, beautiful, seamless song.  Children’s artists like Red Grammer and Dan Zanes also convey hopeful messages for young peacemakers.  The dreams of so many for a better world are on display through these inspiring efforts.
2. Talk about what you just saw on the Playing for Change songs.  For example, what does “Imagine” mean in the context of the song?  Why is it important to “imagine” and why are so many people singing about it?  What can you learn about the lives of the people that might be shown for just a few seconds at a time through the song?
3. Find it on a map.  With the singers coming from Accra, Bahia, Katmandu, New York, and more, find their hometowns on Google Earth or spin a globe.  From there you can learn anything from what languages they might speak in those places to their history of war and peace, to more about the local instruments you see them playing.  Or look up the artists from a few of the locations and listen to more of their music to expand your musical horizons.
4. Join a peace movement.  It takes some time to tap in to a great initiative for peace.  So if you missed this year’s festivities, start planning from now for next year.  For example, look up Jane Goodall’s student-based Roots & Shoots organization.  Is there a chapter of the group at your local school?  If not, start one!  Is there a local United Nations Association organization in your town?  You could also start a chapter.  Or how about tapping in to a local chapter of an organization that hosts exchange students, like AFS, YFU, or EF Foundation – these are often composed of people who’ve been committed to peace efforts for years and are living it.
5. Be nice!  Finally, the simplest thing of all – just be nice.  Before losing your temper, take a deep breath and try calibrating your anger.  “World peace starts at home” is so true.  By deliberately creating peace at home, you begin a process of living out the change you wish to see.

For more ideas, see Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World, available from your favorite bookseller and amazon.com.

However, like many Americans, I can’t get shake the memory of 9/11 – not only do I remember it every day, twice a day, when the digital clock reads 9:11, but it’s changed me.  I changed careers because of 9/11.  From a business consultant to a writer and educator focused on global citizenship.  After 9/11 I set out to find tools that connected parenting and education to globalization, and discovered what was out there was geared to academic study not everyday life; and I found resources like “How to Talk to Your Children about Terrorism.”  But I didn’t want to talk to them about terrorism.  I wanted them to embrace the world, not fear it.  To find joy in the diversity that cultures, ideas, spices, and languages bring.  Not recoil from strange sounds a different looking person might utter, or the piquant scents from a classmate’s lunchbox.

What I discovered turned out to be so simple, yet so profound the light bulb seems to go off multiple times a day around this idea:  Love.  With enduring guidance like:  “Love is a light that never dwelleth in a heart possessed by fear.”

This has many practical implications, starting with taking a stance on our family values.  Treating world citizenship as a family value can help avoid the crisis mentality parents experienced after 9/11, when, on top of our own fears and insecurities, we suddenly needed to talk to our kids about the world. As with other difficult topics (like sexuality), one talk is not enough. Instead, we initiate a lifelong process of forming our deepest value systems: Parents offer guidance and a foundation; kids apply this knowledge along the way and incorporate it into their own actions and worldview. If the issues are ignored until a crisis comes along, then the moral compass likely will be confused. If the issues are addressed openly, today’s children—tomorrow’s leaders—will acquire a sense of confidence in approaching the difficult, often uncomfortable questions facing the world.  If families adopt a proactive mindset, then we’re not just reacting to world events that force a discussion, but we will open ourselves to connect genuinely with the people, circumstances, and challenges facing other human beings, and maybe even become part of the solutions.

Not all families will have a direct link to disparate places and cultures in the world, or can get their kids on a plane to learn about other places and peoples firsthand, but you can expose them to the myriad cultures around the world, starting with the resources in your own communities. As you open your minds and your lives to other ways of doing things, you’ll probably get to know yourselves and where you came from better; and possibly deepen the bonds within your own families along the way. Raising children to have a global mind-set could be the biggest step you and your family take toward building a more peaceful world—and it all starts at home, with love.

To break down this big idea, consider these doable steps:

1. Start at the dinner table:  Invite a family to dinner for the first time, especially if they come from a different culture or faith than you.  Perhaps your children are friends, or you work at the same office, or you volunteered together at the library.
2. Host for a longer period:  Consider hosting an exchange student in your home.  The connection you’ll make to them and their culture will last throughout your lives.  My family recently did this and it had a profound impact.
3. Learn about Interfaith Initiatives:  Across the U.S. thousands have been inspired to unite for 9/11 and beyond.  See the listing of events here and get in touch with your local interfaith network to support understanding throughout the year.
4. Support education programs that counteract extremist recruiting of the vulnerable.   See programs like Beyond the 11^th, founded by two women widowed on 9/11/01, and GlobalGiving, with a menu of pre-screened projects, to support courageous initiatives in Afghanistan and beyond.
5. Help your local school use existing technology to learn about the world and humanize connections made online.  Primary Source’s teacher education, Global Nomads Group videoconferences across continents, World Savvy and iEarn’s student engagement projects, and ePals pen pals and safe social networking all offer excellent starting points.

I’m glad the decade anniversary of 9/11 helps us remember; our efforts beyond will demonstrate how we really honor the memory.

(Parts of this essay were excerpted from Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World (Random House/Ballantine Books, 2009).)

Our last hearty American breakfast everyone pitched in to make was filled with surprises.  Lucie and her parents had thoughtfully selected and packaged gifts for each of the five of us, and it turns out the rest of my family had each selected or made personal mementos for her, too.  That sunny, late-June morning felt more like Christmas, but punctuated by heavy hearts and lots of tears.  And that’s where the biggest surprise came.  Saying good-bye brought out heartfelt emotions, where the closeness we had grown to feel for our new daughter and even our greater appreciation for the rest of our family felt so palpable.  In the midst of our collective, emotional good-bye, I realized that our giving had given so much to us: the life-long bond of a new member of the family, and many lessons – or gifts – we’ll carry throughout our lives.  Here are a few lessons I take from my year as a host mom:

1. It’s Never the Perfect Time – So Just Do It.  When a friend called to tell us about the need for hosting a nice girl from abroad who could attend our local high school, the last thing I expected given my own busy professional schedule and full plate of activities for everyone in the family was to add another child (my kids were in 12^th, 10^th, and 2^nd grades this past academic year).  Yet somehow when my husband and I discussed it between ourselves and then with our children, we thought ‘why not’ – we have many gifts, let’s share some.  As long as the student knew that we couldn’t entertain her like a tourist, and she attended our local public school, we thought we’d be ok.  And we were!
2. Global understanding grows best when it’s personal and ‘local’.  Just short of moving abroad ourselves, hosting proved to be an unparalleled cultural education.  So many of our assumptions about her food, habits, or attitudes weren’t quite right, yet so many of our values – especially among the parents – were similar.  Given the need for our children’s generation to gain global competence for the jobs of the 21^st Century, these personal experiences right from home will give them confidence in socializing, working, solving problems, and finding new ways to communicate with diverse colleagues and friends.
3. Kids in many countries think the English word for “smile” is “CHEESE”! During unexpected moments, like posing for a picture, Lucie shared casual insights that you can’t learn from a book or a movie.  Sharing our day-in, day-out lives opened windows for refreshing surprises – the kind that you have to experience for yourself.
4. Hosting an exchange student helps kids cultivate more meaningful, life-long relationships Unlike hanging out with a friend only when they’re in the mood, living under the same roof means riding to school at 6:45 a.m. when no one wants to be cheerful, eating dinner together after an exhausting day, and everything in between – in stark contrast to today’s texting and IM’ing among ‘friends’ whose experiences often remain superficial.  Adapting to living with someone raised by different parents can teach our kids much about their tolerance for different habits, and become better communicators and more cooperative, assertive, flexible, resilient, patient, grateful, compassionate and forgiving adults (and college students!).
5. Life can be seen with a new lens.  Lucie took 17,732 photos from our year together (I’m not kidding – she counted and posted the number on Facebook, and yes, we are Facebook friends!), often at angles that we wouldn’t have considered.  After hearing this astounding number of snapshots, it struck me that her active camera offered a lens on the value of our family and the way we live our lives.  And yes, it also caused my daughters to smile more, argue less (a bit less), and maybe even grow from that process of reflection that a new family member and a new “lens” brings.

Of course, there are so many more reasons, and each host family experience will bring different lessons, or gifts, but it certainly is a step worth considering, especially in these highly connected, globally-changing times we live in, where face-to-face still wins over virtual friendship. If you’d like to learn more about hosting, EF Foundation has a great support network and track record for matching up U.S. families with pre-screened youth from around the world.

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Homa Sabet Tavangar, Author of Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World and is a spokesperson for EF Foundation for Foreign Study.

My newsfeed is dotted with causes I care about. Global Giving’s post encouraged a baby shower for the birth of a new nation, South Sudan, Momsrising discussed how to protect children and families in the US budget battle, and UNICEF’s update, accompanied by a graphic dust storm photo said:

Somali refugees walk through a dust storm at a camp near the town of Dadaab. A worsening drought crisis threatens 10 million people in the Horn of Africa. The drought has resulted in famine in parts of southern Somalia and widespread malnutrition in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. UNICEF and partners are working to treat acute malnutrition and provide other critical assistance.

I had heard bits about the worsening famine, but sweating from our high temperatures at home, this news struck me hard. I could escape the heat and humidity with air conditioning, high speed internet, and cool treats. But for families in the Horn of Africa, their suffering seemed to be heaped on more suffering — violence, lawlessness, growing fundamentalism and terrorism on top of drought, all fueling the intense famine. In my work life, I help schools, families and diverse organizations gain a global perspective and make connections with the larger world — and our connections with that troubled region seemed closer this record-breaking summer.

When I picked up my youngest daughter, I told her about my concerns that day.

Me: “Today I read about the famine and drought in the Horn of Africa — do you know what a famine is? A drought? Let’s look up Horn of Africa on the globe and computer when we get home. … I want to do something to help those children. Do you think we should skip the water ice?”

Daughter #3: “Yes, I heard about the famine and drought in the car yesterday on NPR. Weren’t you paying attention? No, let’s not skip our treat; how would that help them?”

She had a point, and we proceeded to a nearby shop. When we got there we found police directing traffic and the strip mall closed, due to a heat-induced power outage. So we continued to another neighborhood, where the line for water ice snaked around the building and by the time it was our turn, our favorite flavors were sold out. We compromised with other choices and took about an hour longer than the simple errand should have, but it struck me that these little inconveniences contained lessons worth exploring.

Our car-ride conversation went something like this: While we live in comparatively great comfort, look at the disruption in our lives when it’s so hot, even just by a few degrees. Places we want to go are closed. More police are on the street. Things become inconvenient. Some of the things we like are not available. It’s uncomfortable to be outside. This makes me think about what those families are going through in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, where there might be no reprieve from drought and heat until October. What can we do to help?
Together we came up with a few action steps:

• We wanted to make an immediate contribution to food for kids, so we texted “FOOD” to UNICEF (864233) where $10 will be added to my mobile phone bill. The link here lists many others that offer reliable relief.
• For that initial $10 donation we decided to buy one large water ice and split it, so that saved about $4, Sophia donated $2 from her own money and I’ll pay the rest.
• We looked up some of the photos from the crisis to envision what is actually going on. Then we watched National Geographic: Africa Desert Odyssey episode on Netflix instant stream. This shows a different region, but it gives a glimpse into pastoral life with extremely limited water supplies — without the violence and intense misery, so I feel more comfortable showing an 8-year old.
• We turned the air conditioner down in the house, to save energy and to feel a bit warmer, in solidarity with the families we had just learned about.
• My daughter started planning a lemonade stand with friends. Instead of charging per cup sold, they ask for a donation to the famine relief effort. Like Alex’s Lemonade Stand, neighborhood efforts can benefit favorite causes.
• We also talked about the larger issue – our connection with the family of humanity. In Growing Up Global I describe a metaphor that I grew up with, how humanity is like a single human body. Children get it: Even if a tiny splinter enters the tip of your pinky, the pain can disrupt playing or learning for the whole person. Likewise, difficulties experienced by others even in places we’ve never heard of can disrupt peace and prosperity for everyone. Metaphors from the familiar help build understanding about abstract or distant concepts.

Our small steps alone will not solve the crisis, but actions like these help build compassion, connection, greater understanding of the world’s challenges from a young age, and even cultivate creative problem solvers. Collective action builds momentum and benefits the U.S., too. When we support humanitarian efforts in places like Somalia, the allure of terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda affiliate might be diminished, and when we hear of elderly nearby that don’t have air conditioning or a newly unemployed or homeless American family we will be more willing and ready to think of ways to help, have empathy for their plight, and perhaps be a champion of justice — this is good for the whole human family.

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Homa Sabet Tavangar is the author of Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World, hailed a “Best New Parenting Book” by Scholastic Parent + Child, and a Best Education Book of the Decade.  She is the mother of three girls, ranging in age from 8 to 18.

Earlier this month I had the great honor of joining several hundred people committed to innovation in education in various forms, for the TEDxNYED conference.  The speaker roster, folks behind the scenes and participants I met (like Nathan Dudley of the NY Harbor School) truly inspired me, with their sincerity, diversity of initiatives, experience, passion, knowledge and commitment to what’s best for our children and our collective future on the planet.  I’ve been really grateful for the outpouring of support for my talk, which came more from the heart than my inner strategy/policy wonk.  There’s much more on the practical, education side I wish I’d said, but I realize that can come later.  In the meantime, I hoped to touch more hearts to gain a vision of and commitment to the possibilities of transformation when we see ourselves as citizens of the world. 

Please take a look at the other talks from the day, too.  Though we each only got 15-minute slots, the talks can give a glimpse into lifetimes of dedication to education innovation, and give hope to where this most important work might be headed.  See (with links to each talk when you click their name): Alan November, Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Lucy Gray, Dennis Littky, Gary Stager, Will Richardson, Rinat Aruh, Steve Bergen,  Luyen Chou, Patrick Carman, Global Writes, Samona Tait, Brian Crosby, Stacey Murphy, and music by Morley – a new favorite artist, whose music comes from a deep place informed by her activism.  I also want to give a big THANK YOU to organizers, especially @basilkolani and @specialkrb who seamlessly cultivated the people and space where connections and ideas flourished.  I’m not exaggerating to say that after just one day together I feel a very special connection to most of them that will last a lot longer than the #2 pencil (watch the talks to find out what i mean by that!).