Ojai Listening Session Beautiful

Last Thursday, Linda O'Toole and I had the great gift of being with 11 wonderful young people from the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation.  What was supposed to be 8 students, grew to 11 and it was a profoundly beautiful experience.

The students came from four different schools and while they did not know each other in the beginning, you would have thought they had known each other for years at the end.  It was very gratifying to hear their answers and to see their concepts come to life in their paintings.  They all supported each other tremendously and the paintings showed their deep desire to help create change in education.

Here is a look at their paintings. Each one tells a story about the learning experience that each group would love to create. More on that later:

We want to thank Aaron, Charleigh, Emma, Giani, Jose, Journey, Karla, Nick, Sam, Sebastian,and Will for committing to this project and for being so present throughout. As soon as all of the permission slips are in, we will put up a slide show of the Listening Session.

We also want to thank Meg Wall for her hard work in coordinating and scheduling everything and for making the process go so smoothly.  She has a tremendous love of young peope and they respond to her in amazing ways.

And a special thanks to Linda, who sees the beauty of young people, stands for their voices to be heard and is such an amazing supporter of Imagine Learning.

Imagine Learning is Highlighted in a Book!

The story of Imagine Learning has been featured in a book by author Gail Larsen entitled Transformational Speaking. The subtitle is "If You Want to Change the World, Tell a Better Story."   We have been included in the book because Gail believes we are telling a better story!!

Gail's belief is that transformational speaking is about finding your voice and telling your story from a place deep within yourself. By speaking the truth, people will "hear" you in a way that engages them in your story and moves them to a different place within themselves.

She outlines six principles for this:

1) You are an original, nowhere else duplicated
2) You are a hero on a journey, and your journey defines your message
3) The world we experience, both personal and planetary, reflects and expresses who we are individually and collectively
4) We each must heed our own call
5) Use your authentic power with those who can hear you rather than the force of argument with those who can't
6) You must be personally sustainable to do the work of change. Cherish your precious, worthy self.

It is an easy read and full of wonderful stories and a practical approach that will help any of use learn to listen more within ourselves for the words that want to emerge.

We are honored to have been selected to be included and it is more fuel to help us keep moving forward with our vision. Thanks Gail!

You can read about Imagine Learning on page 161 in the book!