we asked children to create their own gender equality ratio<\/a>\u2014based on the people who influence their lives.\u00a0 We wanted them to stop, think and check whether they are growing up with strong female and male role models in their communities and if they aren\u2019t\u2014to think about what they can do about it and even to become those role models in the future. It was incredible to see gender ratios flooding in from children online and to hear feedback from teachers.\u00a0 One used the project as part of a math lesson and ended up using the real life ratios to have a discussion on the role that gender balance plays in shaping your views as you grow up. She and her students didn\u2019t expect to have that conversation that day, but they will remember it and they will remember the Goals too.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping this classroom experience will be replicated at HLPF soon\u2014a real commitment to driving change for Goal 5 following review and discussion.<\/p>\nThis year we are asking children to think about how their food choices impact the SDGs and to pledge to make changes.\u00a0 From healthy eating to reducing wastage, eliminating plastic packaging, sourcing closer to home and checking on the practices of food producers, children will roll up their sleeves and dig into Goals 2, 3, 13, 14, and 15.\u00a0 And not forgetting a call to them to fearlessly stand up for the children that are hungry right now and need our help.<\/p>\n
There is still work to be done but the reach of the lesson has been encouraging, largely thanks to the efforts of influential figures and familiar faces.\u00a0 Since September 2015, 43 government ministers have gone to schools\u2014some in EVERY continent\u2014and either given or taken part in a lesson.\u00a0 58 ministers of education have sent out messages to all the schools in their country encouraging them to take part.\u00a0 These efforts have been echoed by key influencers (including some royalty) on social media whose followers have helped the SDGs\u2019 presence on social media grow daily. Teachers have responded by sharing what they\u2019ve been doing at school on Facebook and Twitter.\u00a0 There are hundreds of photographs showing how amazing and creative teachers can be!<\/p>\n
None of this would have been possible without the incredible partnership of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵICEF and the support of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵESCO, civil society, and the education community coming together to raise awareness at all levels of the importance of children learning about the Goals.\u00a0 It really has been a team effort (I hope it\u2019s a sign that Goal 17 is rubbing off).\u00a0 But we can\u2019t stop.\u00a0 There are millions of children who don\u2019t know about the SDGs\u2014millions of children who could make a difference.\u00a0 My motto is\u2014\u201cYou can\u2019t fight for your rights if you don\u2019t know what they are\u201d\u2014and the young generation has the right to a world without extreme poverty, injustice and the threat of disastrous climate change.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad to have been able to tell you a bit about my favorite lesson\u2014the World\u2019s Largest Lesson\u2014and can I ask you right now<\/strong>\u2014if you have a child in school, ARE in school, or you know any teacher\u2014then forward this to them! Tell them that there\u2019s a new online training course for them to learn more about the SDGs and teach more about the Goals and make the generation now in school the most important generation EVER.<\/p>\nYou can find out more about it at http:\/\/worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Curtis, Member of the SDG Advocacy Group, Screenwriter, Producer and Film Director<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":28761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5507],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdg-advocates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}