Today is blog action day, and the notion is to write about poverty. A noble intention aimed to “raise awareness, initiate action, and shake the web!”

However, I’m Deputy Head (that’s Assistant Superintendent for you Americans) of an independent international school in England. It’s a beautifully diverse student body, with diverse learning needs – but none of the children are poor. So how to think about poverty in this context?

Since I’ve been here, my greatest impression of the students is that they are very aware. Aware of other cultures, aware of global issues, aware of their need to be involved. I’ve learned of just two amazing project in the last few weeks. A high school junior applied for a grant and used it to help provide eduction-to-work experiences for several adults living in her native country of Nigeria. A high school senior from the Sichuan province of China raised funds to provide relief for 15 elderly victims of the 2008 earthquake. She arrived in China last summer with money in hand but no way to use it and so developed her own plan to provide shelter and belongings for some of the most seriously affected residents.

I am always impressed by students who take initiative and develop new ways to contribute to the greater good of society. But what strikes me as even more important is the educational implications exemplified in these two projects. We talk about authentic learning and the need for relevance to students’ lives – but here it is, case in point. Did the students’ education encourage them to take ownership of their learning? I like to think so …