Chapter 7

<p>In our increasingly complex world, care and compassion alone are insufficient to ensure effective ethical engagement in the world. Rather, good intentions must be complemented with responsible decision-making based on an understanding of the wider systems within which we live. Students must be prepared to grapple with issues of complexity so that they can better understand the world around them, and better engage with and within it. </p><p> </p><p>Chapter 7 of the curriculum focuses on systems and systems thinking. These are not entirely new topics and is built into the entire curriculum, but in this chapter it is approached directly and explicitly. The SEE Learning® curriculum defines systems thinking as: “The ability to understand how persons, objects, and events exist interdependently with other persons, objects, and events in complex networks of causality.” While this may sound complicated, even small children have an innate capacity for systems thinking. Although they may not use the term “system,” they have an innate understanding that their family or home environment is a complex unit with specific dynamics. Not everyone in a family or classroom likes the same things or acts the same way, and changing one thing in these systems can affect everyone. What is necessary in education is to take this innate capacity for systems thinking and cultivate it further through practice and application.</p>