In our increasingly complex world, kindness and compassion alone are not enough to ensure that the ethical ways we choose are realistic. Good intentions must be complemented with discernment. Discernment is the capacity to assess, and respond to, different and changing factors to maximize benefits and minimize harm. It is essential for responsible decision making that is based on an understanding of the wider systems within which we live. Through the learning experiences in Chapter 7, students learn to grapple with issues of complexity so they can better understand the world around them, and better engage with, and within it. Systems thinking serves as the basis for ethical discernment. The capacity to be a systems thinker also supports the experience of gratitude and connection with others which serves to motivate acts of kindness and compassion.
In SEE Learning® we use the terms interdependence and systems thinking interchangeably. Chapter 7 of the curriculum fosters the competency of appreciating interdependence by focusing on systems and systems thinking.These are not entirely new topics, having been introduced throughout the curriculum. In Chapter 1, students drew an interdependence web, showing how many things are connected to a single item or event. In Chapters 3 and 4, they explored how emotions arise from causes and are contextual, and what it takes for an emotional spark to escalate into a raging fire, thus affecting everything around it. In Chapters 5 and 6, students explored identity, forgiveness, and compassion for others. Thus, systems thinking has been built into the entire curriculum, but in this chapter it is approached directly and explicitly.