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 Introduction: Why does critical thinking matter?
During the first week of class each semester, I ask, “Have you heard of critical thinking?” In response, nearly every hand goes up. Next, I ask, “Have any of your professors used the term ‘critical thinking’ in classes?” Most hands go up. Finally, I ask students to write their own definition of critical thinking in their notes without looking up anything on the Internet, and I call on individuals to read their definitions. Most or all are at a loss to say anything specific. My point is that the term “critical thinking” is often used but seldom defined, and it becomes a “buzz word” like terms such as “green,” "natural," and “ethically sourced.” Yet, critical thinking skills are essential for any participant in our society, and the importance of critical thinking is magnified by the fact that it is essential to the practice of ethical behavior. (For discussion of this symbiotic relationship, see The Thinker’s Guide to Ethical Reasoning: Based on Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools, by Richard Paul and Linda Elder.) Therefore, I am writing this essay to provide ground for conversations about it. I will begin with an introductory definition and discuss several essential characteristics and practices of critical thinkers. Defining critical thinking Recently, a friend asked me “What is critical thinking?”, and I responded with a brief statement about its characteristics while acknowledging that I cannot give a succinct, universally-recognized definition. Upon reflection, I decided that it would be helpful to respond to her question in an essay. As background for my perspective, I have read a several books and taken a weeklong workshop about critical thinking with Dr. Richard Paul, founder of the of the Center and Foundation for Critical Thinking.  As I reflect on my efforts to cultivate a strong and cohesive learning community in each class I teach, I realize that many of my practices become rituals for students and myself. In this essay, I will discuss the concept of ritual and describe several rituals that help us build our learning community. Those practices include, but are not limited to, music, a greeting in the Tupi language, use of the talking stick, and "take-aways."
I have taught at Michigan State University (MSU) for forty years, stepping back to part time recently. I continue to teach International Business Law and Sustainability, a senior (400-level) class that is also open to M.S. in Accounting and MBA students. But my methods could work at any level of education. People often associate ritual with religious practices, but all humans use ritual, whether we are conscious of it or not. According to Casper Van Kuile, a ritual is a practice that crosses over from every day activity to something with deeper meaning. Ritual is created when we act with intention and we pay attention to what is happening. Some rituals, such as journal writing or the morning cup of coffee, may be individual, but many are shared and remind us that we are not alone. Activities such as dance, cooking, and singing give us a fast track to community, and ritual does that, too. (For further discussion of the nature of ritual, listen to “The Power of Ritual by Casper Ter Kuile,” at https/www.calm.com/ [paywall].) Rituals in the classroom help us connect with each other, and they help students know what to expect in our learning community. When they know what to expect, they relax, and learning is easier.  I play music as students enter my classroom each day to study International Business Law and Sustainability. Music helps me as a teacher in several ways. It promotes informal conversation, creates a shared experience, and sets a mood for the day. It may even tie into the content of the day’s readings and discussion. This daily practice is one of many tools I use to facilitate a welcoming and cohesive learning community.
Before I start the music, those who are already in the classroom are usually silent. At best, there may be some hushed conversation. When the music begins, the room starts to buzz with conversation. Hurray! That means my students have an opportunity to get know each other. In my class of forty students, I rely heavily on discussion. Discussion helps students process their readings, my presentations, and words of guest speakers. It also helps me gauge their learning before we get to exam days. When students converse with each other informally before class, they are more comfortable speaking in small and large groups during class. Familiarity prompts students to respect and listen to each other during class.  The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed life in many ways, yet Okemos High School junior Bernadette Osborn and her classmates in the Lansing area have moved quickly and energetically to confront the challenges of climate change. Osborn first heard about climate change when Hurricane Sandy hit her family’s home in Gunpowder Falls State Park, Maryland, in October 2012. In 2015, she moved to Michigan with her family and took a Physical Science course at Okemos High School with teacher Dave Chapman where she was inspired to learn more about the challenges related to climate change. In the spring of 2020, Osborn decided that she wanted to start a Lansing area chapter of the Climate Reality Project, and she realized that goal in September. Since then, the chapter has grown and launched several campaigns. During Earth Week 2021 the chapter has launched a new campaign on water conservation and a new blog. During the spring of 2020, while businesses were shutting down and schools were moving to online teaching, Osborn saw an advertisement on Instagram for former Vice-President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. She said she was “looking for something meaningful to do.” She was soon off and running, using her free time to make a difference at the grassroots level. She and her fellow climate activists have worked on climate education and initiatives in the Lansing-area community and across the world through the Internet. During Earth Week 2021, they are launching a new campaign focusing on water conservation. The launch includes daily presentations to help members and others learn about the relationship between climate change and Michigan’s waters. When Osborn set out to form the Lansing area chapter, she learned that a team of five people is required to start a chapter and that the President of a chapter must be  Maya, my sweet companion while I teach online, is all set for a rainy day. *When I planned for my retirement to begin at the end of spring semester 2020, I expected to continue to teach my International Business Law and Sustainability class “as usual.” I had no idea that our academic world would shift drastically with the Covid-19 pandemic, compelling me to learn significant new skills. I have learned to use many tools on Zoom and our Michigan State University (MSU) learning platform called “D2L” (Desire to Learn). That learning took dozens of hours.
I also retooled my teaching methods. This has caused me to devote nearly twice as much time as normal to teach one course. I have done my best to be resilient, and my students have joined me. Fortunately, we have found unexpected silver linings within online teaching and learning. This essay describes some of them.
 During the Covid-19 pandemic, Spartan Global Development Fund (SGDF) students at Michigan State University have found ways to be creative and flexible in their service to others. (See www.spartanglobalfund.org.) Spartan Global works to expand awareness and support for microfinance while building lasting partnerships in the quest for permanent solutions to global poverty. We aim to educate, inspire, and enable tomorrow’s agents of global change by raising funds locally to offer interest-free microloans to aspiring entrepreneurs throughout developing regions of the world.
We founded SGDF in 2009 by making contributions to four different microloans through the KIVA.org online lending platform (See https://www.spartanglobalfund.org/.) Kiva works with field partners around the world, who administer loans on-site. In 2011 SGDF expanded its activities by forming a companion 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The 501(c)(3) enables us to make loans through our own field partners. Between these two channels (KIVA and loans using our own field partners), we have made over $110,000 in loans. As Covid-19 came upon us, we adapted our practices to meet the needs of many of microloan recipients.  One of the greatest joys of my life, personal and professional, is working with Spartan Global Development Fund (SGDF), our Michigan State University-based microfinance organization, and I am delighted to report that SGDF has reached a significant milestone: Since we made our first package of four $25 loans on July 4, 2009, SGDF has extended over $101,000 in loans to small entrepreneurs across the world. Our latest package of loans totaling $3,370 has been sent to Guatemala to assist five new or developing small businesses. This landmark set of loans is even more special to us because the loans are dedicated to the memory of Mitchell J. Taylor (pictured above), beloved member of the SGDF Fundraising and Development Team. With these loans, we celebrate Mitchell’s smile, laughter, and dedication to making life better for others.
This coffee was roasted and packaged by Sr. Victor Cataví of San Miguel Escobar, Guatemala in early January. He was assisted by our Michigan State University Spartan Global Development Fund (SGDF) students who visited Guatemala over the holiday break 2017-2018. Students learned about the intricacies of and hard work involved in planting, tending, harvesting, sorting, roasting, and packaging coffee. Several of our students stayed with Sr. Victor Cataví and his family while in Guatemala. This gave them an opportunity to nurture friendships and experience family life in Guatemala. I am advisor to the student-led SGDF and a member of the board of directors for its non-profit companion organization, so, of course, I traveled with the group.
Señor Cataví became involved in the coffee industry about around 2015 with the help of SGDF’s field partner, As Green as it Gets (AGAIG). Sr. Cataví did not have any land to grow coffee, so he decided to enter the coffee processing business. This is fitting because coffee is part of his I visited the village of Naitolia in Northern Tanzania (near the Serengeti) in May of 2016 on a Michigan State University (MSU) faculty team. Our visit was part of an on-going Tanzania Partnership Program (TPP) that MSU has conducted for over five years, and our objective was to explore the potential to assist citizens of Naitolia through microfinance. During our visit, we learned that citizens of Naitolia are already involved in one of the most basic forms of microfinance: group-lending. It is a tool involving extremely small loans among members of a group. The loans are not enough to support significant entrepreneurial projects, but Should we give rights to trees, rivers, and other entities of nature? Indigenous people in Ecuador, Bolivia, and New Zealand have convinced their governments to pass laws designed to protect Mother Earth.
I was introduced to the movement to protect Mother Earth through law by indigenous friends in Ecuador when I did research on sustainable development in that country in 2008. To this day, I continue my conversations with them. Ecuador is one of the most bio-diverse countries in the world; its territories include Andean mountains and valleys, Pacific coastal zones, Amazon rain forests, and the Galapagos Islands. Vast numbers of endemic species, many of which are endangered, live in the Galapagos which is where Charles Darwin conducted research leading to his theory of evolution through natural selection. Monarchs, Milkweed, and Sustainability
How many monarch butterflies did you see during the summer of 2014? Most people in Michigan and the rest of the Midwest would answer, “Fewer than ever before.” That is true, but they may not know why. In fact, their dwindling numbers are closely related to unsustainable activities and practices of humans. Did you know that the activities and practices that are killing butterflies also contribute to the rapidly accelerating climate change we are experiencing?  Can you name a cooperative? A presenter at the 2014 International Summit of Cooperatives in Quebec, Canada, (October 5-9, 2014) reported that 78% of those people she surveyed in various countries could not name even one cooperative. In October of 2014, I gave a presentation on sustainability before a group of 119 undergraduate business students. In response to my written survey at the start of our session, 85% could not name a cooperative. Fortunately, that lack of familiarity is likely to change.
 On Thursdays I pick up my CSA share from the Michigan State University (MSU) Student Organic Farm. My share includes the freshest possible organic vegetables, varying each week according to the season. I love it for multiple reasons that I will explain in this essay.
 “Coffee is just a vehicle to make positive economic change”- Matt Early, co-founder of Just Coffee.
In May of 2013, I visited Madison, Wisconsin to learn about cooperatives and Fair Trade in that city. It was my pleasure to meet with Matt Early, co-founder of Just Coffees. Matt is a close friend of Chris Treter, founder of Higher Grounds Coffee of Traverse City Michigan. (See entry #14 of January 11, 2011.) Both men are committed to Fair Trade as a vehicle for economic and social change, and each supports and speaks highly of the other. What is special about Just Coffees and Higher Grounds? There are many attributes, but as an introduction I will focus on the words of Matt Early: "It’s all about Transparency, Cooperatives, and Small Farmers.”  This is Elvia Minas of San Miguel Escobar. I met her on a research trip to Guatemala during the summer of 2012 when I traveled there to learn about the Direct Trade Coffee Cooperative known as As Green as it Gets. I was delighted by the beautiful patterns as well as the quality of Elvia’s creations and purchased several for myself and family members. After seeing mine, some of my friends even purchased items from Elvia, and I continue to put others in contact with her.  "Love doesn’t figure on the balance sheet, but it’s the only thing that makes a difference."
I attended the national Net Impact Conference in Baltimore October 25-27, 2012. As a side note, I am grateful that I got out of Baltimore on one of the last flights on Sunday, October 28 before the airport closed because of Hurricane Sandy. Hurray! But, let’s continue to think about and help those on the East Coast who are digging out from the losses.  Meet Filoberto Salazár: Sixty-year-old Sr. Salazár has been a coffee farmer all of his life. In the spring of 2012, he became a co-owner of a coffee house in Antigua, Guatemala called “Whiskey ADentro” or the “Whisky Den.”
 Entry #21: As Green as it Gets - and My Introduction to Direct Trade
Background: Earlier this year, Stephen Kelly, a Boston College law student contacted me to discuss a mutual interest: helping small entrepreneurs in developing countries throughout Latin America. My background is in Fair Trade and microfinance. Before law school Stephen volunteered with As Green As It Gets (AGAIG), a non-profit organization operating from San Miguel Escobar, Guatemala that focuses on “direct trade.”  Entry #20: Small Steps Get Things Done: Microfinance
Background: When I speak with student groups or give public presentations, I often hear individuals remark that they feel overwhelmed by the multiple economic, social, and environmental problems we face in this world. They feel that their contributions would be too small to make a difference. My students prove otherwise. Anyone can do something to make this world more sustainable.  An experience: While I was selecting my breakfast from a buffet table at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York last summer, a young lady was overseeing the apples and bananas. A woman approached and remarked, “Why would they bother with organic bananas?” The young lady responded that she wasn’t quite sure, so I spoke up.  Entry #18, September 10, 2011
Environmentalist in Process & the Second Anniversary of MSU’s Recycling Center Reflection: Here is an example of my development as an environmentalist in process. Over the past several years, the amount of garbage I put out for pick up has dwindled as the amount I take to recycling has increased. Here is one week’s garbage and recycling: The white basket is for garbage and the two black bins are for recycling. I’m not perfect, but I’m getting better. I have a long way to go before I completely get rid of that white basket. Then again, perfection (no waste) may go beyond what I am able or willing to pursue at this point in my life.
 Entry #16 – June 11, 2011
Don’t Let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good – Voltaire This photo includes my Business Law and Public Policy Students, officers of Spartan Global Development Fund, MSU Students for Fair Trade, and others from the Broad College of Business. The occasion was a visit by Dr. Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange for our Annual Fair Trade Bash. He spoke in my classes about “Green Careers.” |
 Paulette L. Stenzel I am Professor Emerita of International Business Law and Sustainability at Michigan State University (MSU). I continue to teach part time at MSU and coordinate the Broad College Ethical Leadership program Additionally, I advise Spartan Global Development Fund, a student-driven microfinance organization, and serve on its non-profit 501(c)(3) Board of Directors. . Archives
August 2022
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