The Naughties Club Newsletter

Our Goal

The first ten years of the 21st century are referred to as "the Naughties". The term suggests innocence and creative subversion. Being one of "the Naughties" is to extend all existing boundaries in an innovative and playful way.

The Naughties Club was established in March 2005. It is an international non-profit organization that aims to form a friendship network among its members from all corners of the world.

The Naughties Club's goal is to help its members worldwide to:

1. Pursue an innovative, flexible and fun worldview.
2. Promote an international friendship network that crosses all kinds of geo-political and cultural barriers.
3. Prepare for an amazing age of global communications and cultural diversity.

Members of The Naughties Club are those who are born between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009. All those who belong to the first decade of the 21st century are invited to become its members. [Top]

Recent Stars

• Kevin K. will be two years old on December 13, 2005. He is learning to be a bilingual kid and has done quite well so far. When Kevin was one year old, his parents took him on a trip to Taiwan, where his mother was born, and then to Thailand, where his father was born. Kevin did not get a chance to spend some time on the famous Phuket Island because of the Asian tsunami disaster. However, luckily all his father's families in Thailand were OK, which was the best thing. Kevin traveled very well, although he did have a serious case of jet lag. For a whole week after his trip to Asia, he kept waking up at 3:30 in the early morning and driving his parents crazy. But soon after that he started to walk and made his parents very happy. Kevin currently lives in California, U.S.A. [Top]

Do You Know?

An article, titled "Going Global" and written by Klay Lamprell, was published by the Melbourne's Child magazine in August 2005. According to this article, the International Baccalaureate (IB), a method of learning core subjects (such as English, creative arts, mathematics, science, technology, society and environment, health and physical education, and languages other than English) from an international perspective, is gaining momentum in Australia.

The IB started in 1968 in Switzerland. It is formulated as a "school-leaving diploma" that inspires a curiosity as well as respect for all cultures. The diploma is also designed to meet high academic standards. Because it aims to cover all kinds of global issues thoroughly, it can be accepted by any university in any country in the world.

According to the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), which is based in Geneva, the IB concept has now spread to 119 countries in the world. The IB method includes three programs -- one for primary years (3 to 12 years of age), one for middle years (11 to 16 years of age), and one for senior high school students who are preparing for tertiary education. Throughout Australia, there are 70 public and private schools that offer at least one of these three programs. Another 60 schools or so are preparing for authorization to offer an IB program.

The IB concept is all about developing "a sense of global responsibility", which is not only relevant but also essential to students in today's increasingly globalized world. In the words of Greg Valentine, the IBO's representative in Australia: "We have to foster citizens of the world… And we can do that through education, by preparing children for life beyond their local boundaries…and by giving them the skills, knowledge and confidence to make a difference in the world."

The IB concept is also about asking questions and finding answers. Instead of passively receiving whatever ideas given to them, students are encouraged to examine and question all the information they receive, and to get involved in the process of finding a solution to the question. The advantage of this approach is that students of all levels and interests can benefit. Every individual can ask all the questions to which he or she wants to find answers. It teaches them not only to learn, but also to think.

According to Colleen Moore, the IB coordinator in Australia's Auburn South Primary School, a typical IB program for primary school students can be like this: "For example, children just starting school might learn of children starting school in other parts of the world. Year One might study celebrations around the world. In Year Two it could be the universe and international cosmonauts. Our Year Three looks at Indigenous cultures of the world. Year Four studies Oceans of the World and their sustainability. Year Five focuses on the Asia Pacific and its importance to Australia, and Year Six study Ice Caps -- the Arctic and Antarctic, the Mars ice caps and also the ice on Europa."

More specifically: "Apart from differences and similarities we look at concepts such as ownership, responsibility, resources, trade and tourism. We might ask, 'In 10 or 20 years of time, when you cannot access fuel to drive to work or go on holiday, will you be willing to mine Antarctica?'"

Some people point out that the IB method is only suited for students who want to pursue a serious academic careers. This is true in the case of the IB tertiary entrance diploma. Senior high school students who undertake an IB diploma have to be able to engage in rigorous study. They have to "study theory of knowledge, carry out a significant community service project, write an extended essay of 4,000 words investigating a topic of special interest, study two languages and complete a high level of academic course work in other areas," Lamprell reports. Once they receive the IB diploma, however, they can study at a tertiary level in any country in the world.

Other people have doubts that a country such as Australia needs any international assessment method such as the IB. They worry that an international system like this may undermine the autonomy of Australian education decision making and affect the design of Australian curriculums.

Greg Valentine, the aforementioned IBO representative in Australia, disagrees. "The [IB] diploma develops internationalism and diversity but never at the expense of local knowledge and understanding. The diploma philosophy is that you become a citizen of the world, not a global nomad -- you still belong to a community and study within that community, and relate to the issues of that community," he argues.

Perhaps the best thing about the IB method, not just for students in Australia but also for those in every other country in the world, is that it is not attached to any political agenda. The system is consistent no matter who is in power and what political ideology is in force. In the words of a teacher in Australia: "[A good education] means inspiring a lifelong interest in learning, and it means equipping students to analyze and understand political, industrial and social processes on a local, national and international level." The IB method is believed to be an education system that offers this philosophy.

More information about the IB concept and learning method can be found on the International Baccalaureate Organization's web site at: http://www.ibo.org [Top]

Global Village

The town of Santiago Sacatepequez in Guatemala, in Central America, celebrates the All Saints Day on the first of November every year. The day is known locally as the Day of the Dead. It is a three-thousand-year-old custom developed from a mixture of local religious practices and Christianity. On this day, local residents dress up in traditional bright-colored clothing and go to the graveyards to fly kites in the hope that they can communicate with the departed.

These are not normal kites. While they are constructed simply out of bamboo, cloth, paper and wire, they are amazingly durable even in strong winds. These kites are designed in a circular shape and usually with a religious or folkloric theme. They are also gigantic. Most of them are with a diameter of 24 to 30 meters -- or even 36 meters!

These tremendous kites fly effortlessly into the wind, their strong purple, yellow, orange and red colors standing out clearly against the blue sky and white clouds. Local residents fly these kites to establish links with the dead. However, families, community groups and religious communities often try to compete with each other and see which one's kite is more colorful and flies higher. There is a prize for the best design.

While the All Saints Day is dedicated to the dead, for the living it is a happy festival. In addition to flying kites, local residents gather together at home to eat, sing and dance. Those who have picnics at the graveyards paint the graves blue, pink or green, then decorate them with beautiful flowers. Finally, various delicious traditional foods are prepared for both the dead and the living. One of such foods is a dish called "Fiambre", which is made only once a year, for lunch. It is a mixture of cheese, meat and vegetables cured in vinegar. [Top]

Cross-Cultural Communications

The following contribution is from Anne L., who lives in Taipei, Taiwan. Anne is expecting her first child in October.

These days it feels like I have been drifting between the need to stay in this mundane world and a desire to pursue some supermundane world… My Buddhist studies have taught me that our lives in this world are so short that we do not know when they will end abruptly. If we do not hold on to every chance in this life to do good and learn to improve ourselves, then I wonder whether we will be granted another chance to do so in the next life.

Indeed, we do not go out of our ways to study Buddhism. It should be done as we live our daily lives.

But if we are too busy living our lives to sit down and do some serious thinking, then we will likely to misunderstand whatever little we have learned about ourselves. It is also likely that we will miss the correct way of life that we have been taught to follow.

When I first began to study Buddhism, it seemed that all the different schools of Buddhist thoughts have their own strengths, but they often contradict each other a lot. Now I have learned that I should try to study the background behind these different thoughts. Otherwise, I will never be able to appreciate them adequately and cultivate my own independent understanding.

As the baby grows inside me, I feel that I am becoming more aware of and dependent on this world. I have so much happy expectation for the arrival of this baby, that I feel it is time for me to shoulder all my responsibilities for this world.

In the past several years I have been trying to distance myself from this world and avoid all of its conventional life styles. I have even distanced myself from my family and friends! Now I realize that since I am a lay person, I need to try and figure out how to act properly as a Buddhist who belongs to this world. I will need to observe and reflect more on how my Buddhist learning can help me find a way to live my life properly, joyfully and peacefully.

I am the only one who is able to decide what I will and will not do in this world. [Top]

Notice Board

Since August 2005, The Naughties Club has been officially online. Our web site is at the following address:

http://www.taiwan.com.au/Club/index.html

After half of year's preparation, we have finally managed to set up the official web site of The Naughties Club. The web site has eight sections:

• "Our Goal" -- Cultivating Global Citizens with Multicultural Minds.
• "Recent Stars" -- Who is having a birthday party coming up?
• "Do You Know?" -- New century, new age, new happenings, new knowledge.
• "Global Village" -- Intriguing and funny cultural events all over the world.
• "Cross-Cultural Communications" -- All kinds of communications across cultures.
• "Notice Board" -- What is going on in The Naughties Club?
• "The Naughties Club Newsletter" -- Four issues per year, in English.
• "Membership" -- Everybody born between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2009.

Our members and other Internet users can go to each of these sections by following the links in the Home Page. We also plan to add several new sections to the web site in the near future, including some online games that are educational and suitable for our young members.

Starting in January 2006, our members will receive The Naughties Club Newsletter by email. Four times every year, in the beginning of January, April, July and October, an email will be sent to our members automatically. This email will contain a summary of the contents of that quarter's newsletter, with links to the full contents online. Parents: Please let us know if you have changed or are planning to change your current email address.

Meanwhile, our members will still receive a Happy Birthday card every year. This is a tradition that we will keep no matter how much our computer technologies have moved on.

Our members can also request that The Naughties Club Newsletter be sent to them by mail. Please give us a message and let us know your preference.

Please feel free to contact us with your comments and suggestions about the web site. Our email address is:

club@taiwan.com.au

We also welcome new members who were born since January 1, 2000 and who will be born before December 31, 2009.

Again, welcome to The Naughties Club's official web site! [Top]

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