What's in a Name?

Hello Imagining Learning! Good-bye Imagine Learning.

For the past several months, I have been in deep meditation about the name Imagine Learning.  In August of this year, we received a very nasty letter from Imagine Learning, a software company that primarily sells software to individuals desiring to learn English as a second language.  They "demanded" that we discontinue the use of the name Imagine Learning.

As we do not sell any products at all and as we are a research effort trying to bring the voices of young people into the conversation about education, I do not believe we offer any threat to them at all. Still, they contend that the use of the name might confuse some of their customers.  After consulting with a wonderful lawyer, we determined that it would not be an affordable exercise to continue to pursue holding on to the name.

Many names came and went, but one day I was working on a new book about our effort thus far and I titled it Imagining Learning and the name really felt good.  It has a more active stance, a stance that is precisely what we are asking young people to do in the Listening Sessions. So after retooling everything, the web site, the blog, our Facebook page, business cards, logo, etc., we are now proceeding under the name Imagining Learning.

I like its intended action.  It is a statement about what we are all involved in on an ongoing basis. It is a call to create.

Our new web address is: www.imagininglearning.us
Our new blog address is www.imagininglearninghs.blogspot.com

We are excited about the prospects for this coming year and look forward to continuing to meet many more young people as we lead the Listening Sessions.

PNW Education Conference is Inspiring

Last week, at the Pacific Northwest Conference Holistic Education Conference, we were embraced most enthusiastically for the work that our Listening Sessions are accomplishing. I had the wonderful pleasure of sharing our journey and the messages that young people are creating in their paintings.  Their wisdom, energy and boldness spoke to people in a deep way.  Comments ranged from "Thank you for listening to young people" to "Inspiring! I remembered why I was in education."

Perhaps the most telling moment for me was when I was stopped in the middle of the presentation by one of the attendees. At that point in the presentation I had explained the process we use in depth during the Listening Sessions and was beginning to share the vision of the young people in the paintings. I had just finished describing the vision in the second painting when I was asked, "So are you telling us that you have ABSOLUTELY no influence in how these paintings are created?" This was met with nodding heads from others who were also finding it hard to believe that the paintings were not influenced by adult minds.  I believe people found a true wisdom in them that belies the years of the young people creating them (in their minds).

This tells me that there is a true opportunity for us to share with people the true wisdom that exists within young people today that may be largely unrecognized or at the very least passed over due to the way the school system is structured to work with them every day.  At the conclusion of the presentation, we were met with much applause and a true energy in the room of gratitude and excitement to help us. Many people came up and offered to help in the ways they felt best able to be of service.  It was quite meaningful to have our work so embraced.

It was our first presentation at an education conference and I feel we crossed a threshold while we were there.  Ours is a message of hope fueled by the energy of our young people. It does not focus on what is wrong.  It is not mired or entrenched in the current conversations in education. It has a freshness that offers people possibilities based in their love of young people and their reasons for working with them in the first place.

I want to thank Paul Freedman for inviting us to share our story.  He is a tireless champion of children and of creating an educational journey for them that is nourishing.  I will write more on the other presenters at the conference as I have time.

Imagine Learning to Share at Education Conference

This coming Sunday, I will be traveling to Orcas Island to share our work at the Northwest Education Conference 2011.  Paul Freedman, the convener of the conference has asked us to share our work concerning the Listening Sessions we are conducting around the country.  This is a wonderful opportunity to return to Orcas and make new friends and share our work as well as hear what other educators and education "passionates" are thinking and saying about a more holistic approach to education.  We are deeply appreciative of the invitation and looking forward to the new learning that will occur.  If you are interested in attending, just click on the link for more information.  More on the conference when I return mid-week next week.

Keep the Channel Open

This week, Stella shared a quote with me from Martha Graham:

There is a vitality, a life force,
an energy, a quickening 
that is translated through you into action
and because there is only one you
in all of time,
this expression is unique.


And if you block it,
it will never exist 
through any other medium 
and be lost.
The world will not have it.


It is not your business
to determine how good it is 
nor how valuable
nor how it compares with other expressions.
It is your business to heep it yours,
clearly and directly,
to keep the channel open.


You do not have to believe in yourself
or your work.
You have to keep open and aware 
directly to the urges that motivate you.
Keep the channel open.

                - Martha Graham

There is so much that is noteworthy for how we approach reinventing education for young people in the future.  Let's start with

"There is a Life Force that is translated through you into action"...  I think of this as a voice, a unique voice that exists within every child - every child.  This Life Force is so precious in all of us, but when we are young, it is particularly innocent, alive, and powerful...especially if it is allowed to flourish. Can we design education so that it enables the voices of our children to thrive? I can hear a cynical voice arise within me - it is an old voice, a tired voice...so tired in fact, it can barely utter the words, "no one can create a system like that for all children. It is impossible."  Thank goodness it is so tired and useless in my world now. There is no place anymore for standardized, regulated, graded and evaluated in the new education we are seeking to create.

"And if you block it, it will never exist...and be lost"... Can we create an educational system for ALL children that holds this line as precious, and undeniably true if we are not vigilant stewards of the opportunities for their Life Force to grow and be nourished?  So often in the current system, we see how blocked, cynical, jaded, depressed and desperate young people are becoming or already are as a result of years of being subjected to a system whose drumbeat is numbingly the same year after year.  In the Listening Sessions, once the students have created their visions and shared them with each other, we ask them how the experience was for them.  Quite often they say to us in disbelief, "You mean this could actually happen?" "Do you believe we could create this in the real world?"  Through the process of the Listening Sessions, their inner hearts awaken and hope and possibility begin to grow. It is a remarkable change that occurs.

"It is not your business to determine how good it is..." No judgment! No Comparison! No Inner Critic! No Fear! Can we create an educational system that eliminates these qualities?  This would require courage of the greatest degree, for it would first mean listening within ourselves and healing our own judgments and inner critics in order to be present to this possibility. Yet, I believe it is a process worth undertaking if we are to nourish the Life Force of every child.

"It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open"... Can we create a system that enables young people to have the sense of presence, awareness and skills to be self-sovereign? Their inner light is their own and to know that they are the creators of their own future,  that they are the lighthouse keepers, that their actions can grow possibility in their own lives is a worthy intention of an enlightened system.

"Keep the channel open"... Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all sit down together and explore the possibility of creating an education for young people that enables them to thrive in a world of possibility?

Look To The Mountain

A few months ago, one of our most gracious and ardent supporters, Linda O'Toole gave me the book "Look To The Mountain", by Dr. Gregory Cajete, Ph.D (written in 1994).  

Dr. Cajete is the Chair person of the Native American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico.  A Tewa Indian, his work is "dedicated to honoring the foundations of indigenous knowledge in education." (Source UNM website)


"As Stella and I read the book, we were deeply moved by its wisdom, its scope of vision and its balanced compassion for all people and particularly native American youth.  The book discusses in detail Dr. Cajete's views on the need to radically transform education for native American youth.  What is so beautiful about his book, is his stated recognition that the system of education he is proposing can easily be adopted to all young people anywhere in the world.  If you care deeply about education, this book is a must read.


Here is a marvelous excerpt highlighting his vision:


"American education must forge educational processes that are for Life's Sake and honor the Indigenous roots of America. A true transition of today's American educational orientations to more sustainable and connected foundations, requires serious consideration of other cultural, life-enhancing and eclologically vialble forms of education...Tribal education presents models and universal foundations to transform American education and develop a "new" paradigm for curricula that will make a difference for Life's Sake.


American education must rededicate its efforts to assist Americans in their understanding and appreciation of spirituality as it relates to the Earth and the place in which they live. It must engender a commitment to service rather than competition, promote respect for individual, cultural, and biological diversity, and engage students in learning processes that facilitate the development of their human potential through creative transformation."


Beautiful.


This Friday, we will be meeting with Dr. Cajete and we are most excited to have the opportunity to sit down and commune on our views about educating young people today.  He is a wonderful writer whose work is expressed clearly, thoughtfully and quite poetically.  He recognizes and advocates the need for education to begin by focusing inwardly. In his book, he wrote: "Hah oh is a Tewa word sometimes used to connote the process of learning.  Its closest English translation is to "breathe in."


We will post more about this meeting after it has concluded, but here is a brief bio of his life's work as stated on the UNM web site.

Gregory Cajete, is a Native American educator whose work is dedicated to honoring the foundations of indigenous knowledge in education. Dr. Cajete is a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. He has served as a New Mexico Humanities scholar in ethno botany of Northern New Mexico and as a member of the New Mexico Arts Commission. In addition, he has lectured at colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, England, Italy, Japan and Russia.

He worked at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico for 21 years. While at the Institute, he served as Dean of the Center for Research and Cultural Exchange, Chair of Native American Studies and Professor of  ethno science. He organized and directed the First and Second Annual National Native American Very Special Arts Festival held in respectively in Santa Fe, NM in 1991and Albuquerque, NM in 1992.  In 1995, he was offered a position in American Indian education in the University of New Mexico, College of Education

Currently, he is Director of Native American Studies and an Associate Professor in the Division of Language, Literacy and Socio cultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Cajete earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from New Mexico Highlands University with majors in both Biology and Sociology and a minor in Secondary Education. He received his Masters of Arts degree from the University of New Mexico in Adult and Secondary Education. He received his Ph.D. from International College – Los Angeles New Philosophy Program in Social Science Education with an emphasis in Native American Studies. 

Dr. Cajete has received several fellowships and academic distinctions, including the American Indian Graduate Fellowship from the US-DOE Office of Indian Education (1977-78); the D’arcy McNickle Fellowship in American Indian History from the Newberry Library, Chicago, IL (1984-85); and the Katrin Lamon Fellowship in American Indian Art and Education (1985-1986) from the School of American Research in Santa Fe, NM. 

Dr. Cajete also designs culturally-responsive curricula geared to the special needs and learning styles of Native American students. These curricula are based upon Native American understanding of the “nature of nature’ and utilizes this foundation to develop an understanding of the science and artistic thought process as expressed in Indigenous  perspectives of the natural world."

Dr. Cajete has authored fivebooks: “Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education,” (Kivaki Press, 1994); “Ignite the Sparkle: An Indigenous Science Education Curriculum Model”, (Kivaki Press, 1999); “Spirit of the Game: Indigenous Wellsprings (2004) ,”  “A People’s Ecology: Explorations in Sustainable Living,” and “Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence” (Clearlight Publishers, 1999 and 2000).

Deep Wisdom from Orcas Listening Session

Orcas Island Participants Samara (our host!), Willow, Stephanie, Sebastian, Liam and Iris

In mid-March, Stella and I conducted a Listening Session on Orcas Island, WA and I want to share the stories found in the paintings done by Stephanie, Iris, Sebastian, Willow and Liam.  Though the group was smaller than usual, we had fun together and in the end, what emerged was beautiful.

This painting was done by Willow and Iris with Samara's help.  Their vision, which we call Waterfall, was as follows:

The whole picture is the school.  The waterfall is the stream of learning and all students are in it.  The rainbow signifies the school's connection to the community - with lots of diversity flowing both ways.

The soil at the bottom is the family.  The quote says Nurtured by the soil of my parents I blossom and grow.  Bee says, "My assistance is valued." as it means that contributions to the community are valued (Bee Pollinating!).

The grey rocks on the right and the tree on the left stand for mentors and teachers as solid, framing and holding the education (the waterfall).  The salmon are swimming upstream which represents being challenged in their learning and the fish (students of all colors) are returning to their natural habitats, using their natural instincts.

The flowers, blossoms in the tree, and the fish all represent the different way every student is and how differently they learn.  

The next painting was done by Sebastian, Liam and Stephanie and we call it Glass Dome:

There are many qualities to our school:


There are evaluations and no grades
There are applied knowledge skills so that we know how to use what we learn when we leave the school
It encourages courage
Children know they have a voice
They learn by doing
Mandatory yoga
Supportive teachers
Joy!
More freedom/more choice
Quiet room
Infinite Snacks!


The school is self-sustaining as evidenced by the solar panels on top of the glass dome and the compost pile in the lower left side of the painting where a long pipe runs to the glass dome carrying the heat from the compost pile into the dome which is made of glass. 


All is built on a Foundation of Love


There is a lot of education in nature


The community in the school is strong and the community outside the school is supportive and safe


A portfolio is required for graduation, not specific exams, etc.


We also have our own garden and our own observatory.

It is such a gift to be able to be present with these young people as they create from within their hearts.  Given a chance in a trusting, caring environment - without constraints as to what their vision can be about - you can see that their wisdom emerges in beautiful ways.  We are excited about the opportunities that are emerging on Orcas and thank each one of these beautiful young people for their contributions to Imagine Learning!

Imagine Learning Shares in Asheville, NC

Last week, we had the honor of presenting on the future of education to a audience of teens and people in their twenties. There was a wonderful discussion about how the framework we are proposing could work, as well as some stories shared about their school experiences in comparison to the material we presented. Once again, we were embraced and asked what they could do to help! It was most gratifying.

Following the discussion we solicited their input on the presentation itself. Together, we explored how effective our presentation was and whether there were other ways to make the material easier to understand. They were full of suggestions and extremely helpful.

On a personal note, all three of my children were there and it was wonderful to share with them the entire scope of our progress to date. So often, they have heard bits and pieces but being able to show them the entire scope of what we will be presenting around the country meant a lot to me. I thank them for coming as well as thank the other young people who attended for their listening and their input. And Chelsea, thanks for making it happen. Onward!

Yes, Charlie, this is the time, and we on Orcas are ready. We are in our positions, we’ve sufficiently prepared ourselves, and we are ready to move forward.

It is all Written on Our Hearts.

The Presentation Stella and Charlie brought to Orcas was the spark we needed on Orcas to move us from dwelling on what is wrong with our Educational System, to discovering the possibilities that arise from receptivity, deep listening, and trust in our true nature.

Charles and Stella helped our group stay in that quiet place of openness, while we listened, shared, decided it was time to go forward, and while we talked about our next steps.

How accustom we are in our culture to staying in our heads when it comes time to make decisions, get things done, do our work. We have been taught to believe the heart cannot be rational, and should only consulted in matters of personal relationships. To get things done efficiently, we believe, we must remain rational, clear headed, and detached.

We become then, also detached from the truth of our being - which is not only heart centered, but includes the head, spirit, mind, body, earth, stars, universe...

We are parts of a whole that is so vast and unexplainable, that when our minds get close to it, they shut down. We, as a culture, have become afraid of this shutting down, and do not have many systems in place to help guide people through this process. Oh, sure, we have mental health facilities, ritalin, and all sorts of labels we can put on people who are simply, waking up to the truth of their expanded selves - or in the case of many young people, struggling to remain in that expanded self.

Our culture has developed many powerful systems that seem to be designed to keep people from even thinking about these matters. And yet, the human spirit cannot be squelched. We are speaking our truth, regardless of what is going on around us, because, at this point, as Charlie wrote in his post, we now know who we are.

Indeed, “We are the ones.”

The Next Steps

When I spend time with young people, I often ask myself these questions.

Who is this being before me?

Why are they here?

What are their gifts?

It’s amazing how these three simple questions will provide me with so much information. Often the information comes in at first, as an overwhelming appreciation for the incredible being that stands before me, and I connect with all the beautiful work they are here on earth to do. I might not always be clear about their specific work at this point, but being able to see their light seems to be the first step.

In spending time with the person, watching them in action, I might get more information about them, and as it comes in, I may or may not share it with them. I often wait until I’m guided to say something, and this is usually when they are most ready to hear and accept it.

I feel called at this time on Orcas, to help create opportunities of time and space for young people to explore, with the help of trained, skilled adults, these important questions. Who am I? Why am I here? and, What are my gifts? Charles and Stella have called those people who do this and other inner work, “Stewards of Learning”.

We have many on Orcas ready to do this work, and who wish to become Stewards of learning. We hope to go forward, with the continued guidance and partnership of Charles and Stella to help train these willing Stewards.

It also seems that a next step for all adults who feel called to do this work, might be for them to also ask themselves the questions, who am I, why am I here, and what are the gifts I have to share?

In asking myself, “Who am I beyond daughter, mother, educator, writer, friend, etc.?” I have discovered my being to be so great, it encompasses everything. I begin to know myself as everything. Then, going even deeper, I have caught glimpses of what it also means to be no-thing. These experiences have been both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

When asking myself, “Why am I here? - what part of the vast whole am I here to express?” I might come up with Harmonizer, Connector, Nurturer, etc. These answers also may change over the course of my lifetime.

I may have been a system buster in my past, in resistance to systems I saw were killing people’s spirits. Now, I might be called to help transform those systems. I have changed from a system buster to system transformer.

As for gifts, we’re all accustom to listing listing the things we’re good at - skills we might have. This is great, and these skills are a part of what we have to offer, but I also like to go a little deeper into my “gifts of the spirit.”

For example, I seem to be gifted with a great intuition about people, I can often see their life purpose clearly, and can help guide them towards understanding and sharing their gifts. I also have the gift of healing, as I’ve been working with Reiki for years, and have recently been learning about sound as a powerful tool for transformation.

It seems as if I was born with these gifts, but in order to make best use of them in the world, I have, over the course of my development, needed the guidance and training from someone who has sufficiently developed their gifts. Some of that guidance has come from people, although much of it has come from the unseen world. Call it intuition, spirit guides, my higher self, ancestors inner teacher - it matters not what I call it, what matters is that I’ve developed the habit of listening, and have had the courage to take action based on what I’ve heard and learned.

So, again, I keep coming back to these words - given to me by that unseen help..

It is all written on your hearts.

Thank you Charlie and Stella for helping us draw out the wisdom and knowledge that is within each and every one of us, and for opening us up to the possibilities for us to eventually help the young people of Orcas Island to do the same.

In Deepest Gratitude,

Samara Shaw

Orcas Island, WA

It is the Hour

Over the weeks prior to our presentation on Orcas, I kept feeling that we were heading into a conversation that was on the other side of a threshold we had not yet crossed.  That threshold was being the one to ask the people we were meeting with to let go of everything they knew and to open their hearts and listen to the voices of the young people as we had heard them in the Listening Sessions.  I thought of the Hopi prophecy called "We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For."  

It begins with 

"You have been telling the people that this is the eleventh hour.  Now you must go back and tell them that this is the hour."  

I do not feel a sense of doom and gloom when I hear this - as if this is the final hour...but instead I feel a tremendous rush of possibility.  All of the work to bring about a new vision on the planet that has been going on for so long now is ready to coalesce.  The message is saying that now is the time.

In another section, it says "There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore....

Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate."


Let go of the shore. See who is in there with you and celebrate!  As I reread this, I knew that this was the wisdom we needed to carry us all across the threshold.  We needed this energy and this message to pave the way for the vision we were going to share.  We decided to open the presentation with Stella reading it to everyone.


I closed my eyes and saw myself standing in the room with everyone there and I looked with the deepest possible love I could feel into each person's eyes and celebrated their presence, rejoiced in their willingness to let go of the "known", and felt a tremendous sense of connection to them for seeing with their hearts.


It IS the hour!

Today Stella sent me this quote by Andrew Cohen:

Evolutionary Pioneers

"If you are trying to do something genuinely new, you have to be a pioneer, you have to be a change-agent. In order to contribute to creating the future, you need to be aligned with the very edge of evolution...at this particular time in history, for new evolutionary stages, structures, and potentials to emerge requires rare and heroic men and women who have awakened to the conviction that this next step needs to happen and that we're the ones who have to take it."

~ Andrew Cohen

As I read this, I thought of the men and women on Orcas Island who did not question the content of our presentation, but instead the first question asked was, "How can we make this happen?"  It was one of the most moving moments of my life.  In the world today, the obstacles and the old ways look like skyscrapers, mountains, invincible forces. The patterns of doing things a specific way have been so deeply etched into the landscape for so long that it seems they are destined to continue.  

But what I saw in the hearts of those who listened, were people who had let go of the shore and who saw a different possibility. They embraced a new seed in education.  Without knowing what that seed could grow into, they felt its freshness, its aliveness and their was a willingness to open to it.

They left the discussion that night saying that they wanted to be the ones who would take the next steps.  Rare and heroic.  Indeed! 

It felt so wonderful to be floating there with them. 

Imagine Learning Pesentation on Orcas Spurs Lengthy Conversation

On Friday night, March 11, Stella and I presented our vision for the future of education.  The vision stems from our research in the Listening Sessions we are conducting, as well as from our own listenings and educational experiences.  The new framework we presented holds the opportunity for communities to self-organize their educational approach and to provide a radically different education for their young people.

It was a wonderful opportunity to share and we felt well met by those in attendance.  Our hearts were filled by their passion for the subject.  What should have been a 20 minute conversation at the end, went for more than an hour and a half!  What was so gratifying was the fact that the conversation centered around how to move forward and not about whether our ideas were appropriate for them.

The conversation around the circle at the end demonstrated the significant wisdom that was present.  Everyone was engaged and the thoughtfulness, care and determination were wonderful to witness.  We really began to see some possibilities emerging for future time together. Orcas would be a wonderful community in which to begin to grow this vision.  Its size, its unique desire to be a model sustainable community, as well as the significant gifts of its residents give it great possibilities.

One of the most beautiful aspects of the presentation for us was the way the information we are learning in the listening sessions played such a major role. The innate wisdom of the young people we have worked with thus far is providing a platform from which to offer a new educational term and framework.  The shift that must occur from an externally directed and focused curriculum to one that is internally guided and focused is echoed strongly in their voices as expressed through the paintings.

Samara Shaw held the vision for us to come and for that we want to thank her.  Hopefully Samara, you will add your own comments or post concerning your feelings about what happened after the presentation.  Just know that we are deeply appreciative and excited for this opportunity and about where things seem to be heading.

Thank you Orcas!