Now, More Than Ever, Let's Practise Being Human

Did I use generative AI to write this? You'll never really know. 

The temptation to do so sits hovering. Schools are busy places and time is at a premium. I wonder if my writing might be more succinct, more profound, more insightful if I do. I wonder if this is the best use of my precious time, and if, with some careful prompting, I could make it sound like me — maybe even the 'me' I aspire to be. I know what I want to say, but how can I best structure it? I'm certain that if I just use a few prompts it would sort this out in moments. But at the same time, I question what it would mean to put my name to words that are not really mine — even if nobody ever really knew. I'm not averse to using these new tools; in fact, I'm trying my best to learn and lean into them, as rapidly as they are emerging, despite my worry for the impact they are having and will have on our world. At times, it seems like a necessity. But the internal conflict is real.

During training to become a Master Practitioner of Compassionate Systems, the concept of integrity was challenged early on. Integrity, the alignment between one's values and actions, seems, at face value, like an attractive character trait to develop. However, as Mette Boelle, co-founder of the Centre for Systems Awareness, suggested to us, much harm in our world is done by people with integrity; one's value system can be fundamentally opposed to human and planetary flourishing. Enter the concept of compassionate integrity.

Compassionate integrity can be thought of as an ever-increasing compassionate alignment between our thoughts, feelings and actions. In short, am I able to stay emotionally grounded even as my knowledge about the world and all its injustices grows, and remain both able and willing to act in service of another? It is an elegant concept which neatly describes the purpose of a holistic education. In fact, it does this job so well that the International Baccalaureate (IB), in partnership with the Centre for Systems Awareness, articulates that compassionate integrity is a tangible expression of international mindedness, the fundamental goal of an IB education.

What does this mean? It means that while the pervasive discourse in society about education is increasingly reductionist, placing education as a purely knowledge-based pursuit with memory and recall as the outcomes that matter, we have higher aspirations for children. When we support students to develop knowledge and understanding about the world and it's profound interconnectedness; when we enable them to develop broad skills and competencies; when we help grow their motivation, attitudes and dispositions; and when we underpin this with a compassion — the capacity to sense into the experiences of others, both human and non-human beings, and stay emotionally grounded and action oriented — we nurture the development of a different sort of person. A person who understands their actions matter, and whose knowledge about the world informs how they show up. A person who acts with compassion and lives in alignment with their values. A person with ever-increasing compassionate integrity. An internationally-minded person. A Woodleigh person.

So did I use generative AI to help write this? No, I didn't. I could have, and it might have been 'better'. I'm entirely unsure. But the impact of using a tool like that for something like this — something that describes a deeply humanistic approach to education and a high aspiration for our children — matters. In our rapidly changing world, we must acknowledge the hidden tensions and speak of them openly. How can I speak of compassionate integrity if the words I share are not mine? How can I speak of international-mindedness whilst knowing that the energy and water consumed by the tool I used are having such drastic effects on our profoundly interconnected planet? How can I speak of respecting others whilst lying to them about the source of my words? Now, more than ever before in history, we must practise being human.