Parisa Maftoun

Educator/Teacher, Explorer, Idea generator, Life mentor

Each day I get up, take a shower, go to work, and enter the classroom. I constantly think about students who could have left the school happier, who could have been taught to be more curious, who could have had their imagination and creativity stretched further, and who could have been made to see how much sympathy really matters. This is why I am truly passionate about Education.

Each day I get up, take a shower, go to work, and enter the classroom. I constantly think about students who could have left the school happier, who could have been taught to be more curious, who could have had their imagination and creativity stretched further, and who could have been made to see how much sympathy really matters. This is why I am truly passionate about Education.

Many educational systems in developing countries cannot respond to the 21st century needs. Lots of knowledge and information remains locked inside universities and research institutes – it is not percolating down to societies. There is a severe discord with the knowledge available and societies’ ability to unlock access to it. After my graduation I want to establish a social entrepreneurship to form this bridge. I plan to build a network of schools in developing countries and bond with the local community as well as the authorities where possible. The aim is then to maintain and develop this network remotely. By maintaining regular contact, and sharing new ideas and teaching strategies I hope to empower those in local communities and help them to affect real change through their own teaching. Many aid programs and government strategies have established educational programs within many developing countries. My aim is to build upon and maximise these resources. I want to focus on the quality of the education being provided. I want to help teachers and community leaders to develop better lesson plans, to more effectively develop students’ curiosity, creativity and compassion, to engage parents in their children’s education, and to build community bonds centred around learning. My aim, in short, is to help people to empower the future generation more efficiently and effectively. I am keen to ensure that this network should be self-sufficient and self-sustaining. It will require a lot of energy to set it up, but once established the network will hopefully become a shared pool of resources where communities and teachers can access resources and others’ help as and when they need. Slowly I hope this will contribute to filling in the gap between educational systems in the developed and developing worlds. This network is reliant on internet connections, however I hope that, together with other aid and development programs, I can build something which will help communities to make the most efficient use of the resources they have been given.

Intelligent Fast Failure, Leadership for Learning, Teaching