Castle Rock...well, Rocks!

We have just completed a Listening Session in Castle Rock, CO where we had a beautiful time with some amazing people.  Nate, Lily, Emmy, Kayla, Tim, and Megan all provided wonderfully creative and thoughtful responses to the questions as well as told the most amazing stories about their lives.

A very special thanks to Tam Hill who made it all possible.  She was a tireless recruiter and helped throughout the process. It was a lively evening that came just after six inches of snow had fallen a couple of days before.  Conversation was stimulating, exciting, moving and delightful.  The paintings turned out beautifully and we are pleased to report they are home safe and sound in San Francisco.

We thank all of you for the amazing participation, time and willingness to share.  We also deeply appreciate your courage, your commitment to changing education, and your passion for life.  Welcome to the growing world of Imagine Learning! Here are their paintings:

Restoring Harmony to Young People

I love how curiosity can lead anywhere... I was reading the book Holy Personal by Laura Chester, which is about private places of worship that individuals create for themselves. Within the book, the author tells the story of an artist, Michael Dowling, who has put a small chapel in a root cellar in his home. It was really amazingly done, but what struck me the hardest was the following part of his story.

Michael had a talent for art at an early age, even drawing things from his subconscious that were symbols that were ages old... however when (and I quote)... he was eight, his art teacher was teaching the class: The Six Steps to a Perfect Tree.

"So there I was, looking out the window, he recalls. It was a beautiful fall day. I had my crayons and I was coloring and coloring - but then she held up my drawing and said to the entire class, 'This is the worst tree I've ever seen a child draw.'

Unbelievable. But the thing was, I believed it. Suddenly everything was split in two - everything had a right and left, light and dark, wet and dry, visible and invisible. It was a time of confusion. My intuitive knowledge got put aside, it's so hard to retrieve that earlier sense of things. I remember showing the bad tree drawing to a little girl across the street, Jane Nicholson. She loved it, so I gave it to her".

Suddenly everything was split in two - everything had a right and left, light and dark, wet and dry, visible and invisible. It was a time of confusion. My intuitive knowledge got put aside...

I believe all young people are born with innocence and a beautiful sense of harmony with the world. They understand from the beginning that everything is one, that we are all connected. Possibility is king and their creativity is alive with their curiosity pushing them to learn at incredible speeds. We may hold the common belief that we grow out of this natural state, but I wonder if it is not the fact that events such as this one that Michael experienced and so eloquently stated, or hundreds of smaller ones, take us to a very different place - that of separation. Separation from parts of ourselves and from those we respect and admire around us.

In the work we must do with our children, healing is required if we are going to help them grow back toward that natural understanding of creative energy, curiosity and oneness with all things.
If we can develop learning journeys that protect their innocence, enable them to find their true gifts and the inner strength to hold on to them as they grow, it will be a joyous future for all of us.

What others are thinking

Kia ora to the IL community.
I've just been reading this Action Spark weblog & really like many of the things the writer says about institutional education. It's very relevant to those of you in the US but, of course, these issues of youth disengagement from education are happening here in NZ, too.

Presently, we are battling massive budget cuts to Adult and Community Education, Early Childhood Education and Education for Sustainability. Our conservative government (National) seems to be tracking NZ away from a course set toward sustainability and life long learning. Educationalists such as myself fear the direction we are taking bodes ill for our future. The government has, however sunk money into private education to the tune of NZ$35 million much to the horror of a number of us - this NZ Herald article captures that.

I do hope that you in the US continue to do some wonderful work with young people searching for a new learning pathway. I may be wrong, but my impression is that there is renewed hope for education right across the US after years of neglect. We're looking forward to hearing from Syd Golston, President of your National Council for the Social Studies, when she speaks at our Social Science teachers conference in Sept. Will keep you posted.

Don Tapscott on Self Organization by Young People

This short video is a wonderful synopsis of the abilities of young people to create dramatic change in the world. It gives a short encapsulation of where we are and then discusses how young people have grown up in technology and thus are capable of using for tremendous good in the world. The video was created for corporate executives to view after NetChange - an event held in Toronto last week, so it might appear a bit odd for our purposes. But if you think about learning as you watch it, you will see the possibilities.

A message from Don Tapscott from SiG @ MaRS on Vimeo.

The ability of young people to self organize has massive implications for education. It is a given in young people's lives, yet it is not an integral part of their learning in schools. We must hold this possibility in deep regard as it is a way for young people to speak with their true voices in a manner that can come from the heart.

Beauty in Small Places

Yesterday, I received this video of a young 17 year old named Declan Galbraith singing a song when he was 9 or ten years old, called "Tell Me Why?" I was literally moved to tears, not only at the message but at his passion for almost demanding an answer to the question.




I researched into Declan a little bit and he was born in 1991 in England. He has been singing for most of his life. He is no longer in school as his performance schedule was too demanding, but he is instead being home schooled. He is mostly known in Europe and Asia, although since I got this in an email, I am sure he has a following here as well.

Declan, a different knowing of ourselves is required. One that - if we were to discover it quite early in our lives - would serve us and all life on the planet well. Then, we would not feel the separation, the loneliness from ourselves and from the Source of life that leads us to do things that lead to the problems you are asking about. This will come, but we are going to need young people, who have found their wisdom at an early age, to help make it happen. You have inspired me and I hope will continue to inspire others to keep asking inside themselves to listen within for the answers. Don't get lost in the glamour and fame, but keep using your voice, which comes from your heart, to raise the questions we need to hear.

Education has to be able to bloom young people who can brilliantly master the problems they are inheriting. As you can see from Declan, they are immensely capable and their potential unlimited. Beauty comes in small places and sometimes with more power and potential than we ever dreamed.

A beautiful new school opens in Aotearoa New Zealand

Today, 9.30am a new school was brought into being by a group of people who share a powerful vision for education that values the whole person and wishes to nurture the 4 quadrants of our beings - the heart/ taha manaaki , the mind/ taha hinengaro, the spirit/ taha wairua and the physical aspects/ taha tinana.
The school, Seven Oaks, is located on an area of land within the city of Christchurch, an area they share with a community organic garden, and so the tamariki's learning will be deeply embedded in the whenua, the land.

This new school presently has only 12 children/ tamariki enrolled but others are waiting in the wings. These pioneering children and their families have begun a wonderful journey of exploration; they have seen a different way of educating the next generation that is affirming and life enhancing. This is the same journey that Imagine Learning is taking with various groups around the globe - so wonderful to know that eventually many more children and young people will be experiencing the joy of learning in environments that nurture them. Kia kaha, kia manawanui to Gaike, Trent, Bruce & others on the initial team, for bringing this vision to fruition.

For more information on The Holistic Education Trust, Seven Oaks School and the Journey to Brilliance visit their website.
I'll keep you posted should there be a newspaper article on the opening in the next few days.

A Message from the Dalai Lama

At the end of the talk someone
from the audience asked the Dalai Lama,
"Why didn't you fight back against the Chinese?"
The Dalai Lama looked down, swung his feet
just a bit, then looked back up at us
and said with a gentle smile,

"Well, war is obsolete, you know. "

Then, after a few moments, his face grave, he said,
"Of course the mind can rationalize fighting back...
but the heart,
the heart would never understand.
Then you would be divided in yourself,
the heart and the mind,
and the war would be inside you."

He also said,

"Never give up
no matter what is going on.
Never give up.
Develop the heart.
Too much energy in your country
is spent developing the mind
instead of the heart.

Develop the heart.
Be compassionate.
Not just to your friends, but to everyone.
Be compassionate.

Work for peace in your heart
and in the world.
Work for peace,
and I say again,
Never give up,
no matter what is happening.
No matter what is going on around you.
Never give up!"

The Beauty of Cameron

This morning I had breakfast with Cameron Maddux, a friend of mine and a person with whom I taught at the Academy of Art for a couple of years. We talked for a long time about Imagine Learning and all of the wonderful things that are happening. He was and has been a deep believer in changing education. He has a young son, Sam, who is a beautiful sprite of a lad, full of creativity, energy, and curiosity. He worries about what will happen to Sam's light as he gets older and faces high school and more.

So as we were finishing our breakfast, he reached into his pocket and pulled money out of his wallet and handed it to me. At first I thought he was trying to pay for breakfast, but then I remembered he had already paid for breakfast! I realized in a flash he was giving me a donation to the cause!!! It was an overwhelming gesture of generosity, but moreso, belief in what we are doing. "This should cover a listening session," he said. I tried to give it back but he wouldn't hear of it. "I am passionate about what you are doing," he said.

Folks, this is the first donation to Imagine Learning! I believe in the purity of the seeds we plant in the world. As the person charged with holding the integrity of the seed of Imagine Learning, this first money could not have come from a purer intent or a more beautiful human being. It was a very moving moment.

This is the way money should flow in the world - through people's beliefs in the intentions of others and answering a calling inside to support those intentions. We thank you Cameron for your generosity and your wonderful belief in what we are doing.

I think I will go to the bank and open the flow!

A Listening Session in Deli, India

Many, many thanks to Imagine Learning team member Anne Stadler, who is traveling to Deli, India and as a part of her travels has arranged to lead a Listening Session at The Modern School when she is there in April. This expands our International effort and it will be exciting to read the student's answers to their questions and to see their thinking in the paintings. Thank you Anne!!!

The Importance of What is Not

We join thirty spokes
to the hub of a wheel.
yet it's the center hole
that drives the chariot.

We shape clay
to birth a vessel,
yet it's the hollow within
that makes it useful.

We chisel doors and windows
to construct a room,
yet it's the inner space
that makes it livable.

Thus do we
create what is
to use what is not.

I love this verse (11) from Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching. I read this book often, but in this case, it is so appropriate to what I have been working on. I am working on a presentation about why we need a whole new question in education; about why the old system has served its purpose; and that young people hold a Knowing within themselves that is filled with Wisdom.

The stanza that reads:

We chisel doors and windows
to construct a room,
yet it's the inner space
that makes it livable.

Is particularly significant to me because it says that we spend more time trying to build a space than focus on what is not in it... in other words, the inner life of a child is much more important than grades, policies, procedures, standards of learning, tests, desks, bells, and on and on. The inner life of a child is more important than money, and thus every child deserves to be in a setting that has been built for his or her inner life, no matter the cost.

Life becomes livable when we find the beauty of our inner life. This cannot be manipulated into students, forced upon them through external motivation, nor can it be feared into us by a system designed to determine for us whether or not we are a failure. Life becomes livable in a structure where love, compassion, light and abundance predominate. It's the hollow within the vessel that makes it useful and the hole in the wheel that drives the chariot.

For too long, we have been consumed with the structure and instead, should be pouring our attention into seeing what what is not.