TOWARD NEW THINKING AND ACTION Frank

Scale. Our world and its history is all about scale. By scale I mean “any relative proportion, progressive or graded classification, degree or scope (Canadian School Dictionary, Fitzhenry and Whiteside)”. The economy of scale, the scale of democracy, the scale of the individual and the organization, who determines these scales and where one sits upon them? What happens if one does not abide by it? Can it be changed? Does it change of its own accord? Is it controllable, adaptable, malleable? If so, who controls it and how did they come by such power? Is such power on the local scale as or is it at the global? I initially saw power on the very local, that is personal, scale but as I observed more, investigated and learned more it became ever more global in scale and centralised into someone else’s hands and control. And so what are the features and effects? Exasperatingly, tackling these questions leads to ever more questions than there are answers. In the context of my continuing education the following (selected from among many) questions have been posed: “What do the terms, globalization and education mean and how does our preliminary understanding of these terms change as we read and think about the course books and other sources? ” And “What role can I, as an educator, play locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to promote a more fair and just world? ” Reading the writings of Ariel Dorfman (2005) has shown me that to describe on a personal level things that also apply at the national and global level can be a useful form of explanation of what we feel when we examine more closely those things that happen to ourselves and others. Though less technical perhaps, this essay discusses a profound personal journey towards the global from the local in my own thinking and beliefs regarding my chosen profession as a teacher of young adults. What earlier was a vague suspicion now is suddenly obvious. I have noticed it’s stealthy growth in my students and their parents, my classroom, my school and in the attitude of m