John Stewart Green School Bali Director receives Golden Goody Award

Join us in cheers for John Stewart, Director, The Green School Bali, who received a Golden Goody Award (our top humanitarian award) for 20 years of education leadership focused on innovative learning. John was honored with this lifetime achievement award after speaking at a Startup Grind event hosted by Roger James Hamilton at Vision Villas in Bali, Indonesia.

With a Master of Education from Cambridge, John is focused on innovative, holistic and child-centered education at The Green School Bali. Everyone at this event was hanging on to every word, and you can watch the highlights in our VIDEO: Green School Bali Director John Stewart receives Golden Goody Award.

When Roger asked John about his vision for education, he shared, “I think education needs to be progressive and look to the future…. And I love schools who are progressive, I love schools who are actually trying to offer diversity in learning.”

After John shared a very funny story about how he got his first job teaching “games” in England, the conversation shifted quickly to The Green School Bali. Ironically, his first job is symbolic of the active learning that his students now participate in daily.

And then the room stood still when John asked the audience to think big:

Let’s think bigger than just jobs.

Let’s think about leadership and creating a community in the future that are going to look after us in nursing homes, not try and put us there.

Let’s think about people who are actually going to be finding a compelling desire…

Let’s make children and students and adults in a community aware that we’re all learning together and that our future is going to rely on the decisions we make today.

And that if we’re not carefully considerate of how and what we do impacts the future, then our understanding of sustainability is only sustaining us and my needs right now, and that’s not sustainability.

When John later asked the audience how many teachers did you have who “made you think”, the room average was two. Sadly, John explained that this low number is the same average you will find if you poll most adults.

At The Green School, they teach students how to follow their passions (music, dance, problem-solving, and more). They teach how to be “caring and courageous so they can go out and make a difference.” They learn through nature, the local culture and tradition, and from each other. And in their Green School Video, a student explains, “We are a community of global citizens taking responsibility for the planet.”

After this powerful presentation, Goody Awards Founder Liz H Kelly presented the Golden Goody Award to John Stewart, with few words because there was no need to read his bio and list accomplishments after this inspirational talk.

Liz thanked John and shared that this top award is given out about six times a year by the Goody Awards, and previous winners have included Ian Somerhalder (“Vampire Diaries” star and Activist, Ian Somerhalder Foundation), Emmy Award Winner Joel Bach (Co-Creator and Producer, “Years of Living Dangerously”, Showtime), Louie Psihoyos, Director of Academy Award Winning Documentary “The Cove”, Anna Cummins, Founder of “5 Gyres”, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Sir Nicholas Winton (who has been on “60 Minutes”) and more.

Congratulations John Stewart on this top social good award, and for your enrollment going from 300+ to 400+ students from 2013 to 2014. And special thanks to Roger James Hamilton and the Vision Villas team for inviting the Crystal Circle members to attend this thought provoking Startup Grind evening.

© Goody Awards 2014