Road Warriors for Peace: Notes from The We Generation! Speaking Tour
Students in Kingston, Ontario turn themselves into a human knot. Greetings friends!
One of the activities Garry and I enjoy most during our We Generation! Speaking Tour workshops is called the Human Knot.
This is a great teambuilding activity; one that starts by asking students to stand in a circle. One at a time, each student steps into the circle and shares an issue or problem in the world that they care most about.
“My name is Jeff, and I care about global warming,” says one student as he steps into the middle.
Then, Jeff takes the hand of a person across the circle, who repeats the process.
“My name is Emily, and I care about racism.”
Hands are taken and held until each student has stated an issue and the group is one big messy knot. It’s quite a sight!
A couple of weeks ago, one group was making a lot of commotion during this activity. Students were frustrated that they had to be so uncomfortable and were waiting for Garry and I to make a point with the game so they could go back to their seats.
Before I had a chance to make this point, a student from the middle of the mob piped up. “This is what the world is like, guys,” he said to his peers. “Seriously, the world is this messed up and uncomfortable…we can’t ignore it, let’s just figure it out!”
The next step in the human knot is to solve the problem—to get untangled from the knot. All the problems that we face in our world today are connected; this means all the solutions are also connected.
Students stuck in a human knot slowly untangle the world’s problems.
That student was right: if we stop ignoring the problems, it will be much easier to see the solutions.
With clarity for the new year,
Erin and Garry
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