The Journey Within

As I have become a huge fan of Laurens van der Post, I must share another paragraph that I read this week in the sequel to A Story Like the Wind, entitled A Far Off Place.  Once again the story of the young 13-year old Francois has continued (see post from December 8, 2010), this time with Francois taking a harrowing journey across the great desert of Africa for over a year. His journey comes to an incredible, but safe end and in the waning pages of the book, Francois' Uncle Mopani is reflecting over man's existence, and as he does so, van der Post writes the following:

"...the whole intellectual trend of the day put up a plausible pretense that our troubles were due to imperfect political systems, badly drawn frontiers, and other environmental and economic causes. The whole history of man as he, Mopani, knew it, had tried all of those approaches over and over again and at last, as far as he was concerned, they were proved utterly bankrupt. 


The real, the only crises out of which all troubles came, was a crisis of meaning. It was the terrible invasion of meaninglessness and a feeling of not belonging invading the awareness of man, that was the unique sickness of our day.  And this sickness, he was convinced, was the result of the so-called civilized man, parting company with the natural and instinctive man within himself. Never had the power of the civilized over the natural been so great... 


For that reason alone, the journey within could not be resumed soon enough..."


There is so much being said here and on many levels, but I would like to put it into context of what we see as the next step in creating a learning journey with and for young people.  What van der Post says to me in this passage is that at some point in the distant past, a decision was made by our forefathers to follow the belief that the way to a better world was through rationalization, mechanization, and standardization, and in so doing set us on a course that moved us away from the natural patterns of life.  In doing this, we began a long journey into the desert - a journey that has left our societies starving, thirsting, and so heat-stricken that we are struggling, even failing, to find a solution to getting out of this desert.  The efforts that we have made over and over again have not worked and despite all of the modern day way of doing things, we have brought ourselves into an even more precarious position.

As I sat with this paragraph, I began to think of young people faced with this way of being in the world. How difficult it must be for them today to move from their childhood of intuition, flow, creativity, play into the rationalization, mechanization, and standardization. In seeing this through their eyes and hearts, the impact on them is enormous.  As it was designed by those same forefathers, our current education is designed to honor this old path, to teach our young that the secret to success lies on the outside, lies in re-creating what we already have in place.  But as they well know, this is not the answer and I believe it has led many of our young people to a sense of aloneness, powerlessness, and despair.

As he says in the last line, the answer lies by taking a journey within - back to the natural self that exists in all of us, a self that is filled with magic, intuition, wonder, and curiosity - all seeking to create a sense of meaning and belonging - the place where real nourishment occurs.

What would happen if we sat down together and answered together, the question Imagine Learning is asking, "How do we educate young people to thrive in a world of possibility?"  The optimal word here in this instance, is "thrive."  Isn't it time that the learning journey moved from a system based on testing knowledge into one that teaches each and every student the skills, the insights, the ways to journey within themselves for the answers they need and for the nourishment they seek?

We can sit and point fingers at all sorts of reasons why we are here and who caused us to get here, but wouldn't it be better if we just sat down and did what our inner voices were telling us needed to happen?

Won't it be the most amazing day when we sit together and embrace the inner light of our young people as being sacred and that fueling the growth of that inner light is the most important thing that we can accomplish? I am so excited that we have reached this point in our history, that we can now look back and see that the time has come to choose a different path - not one that leads deeper into the desert, but one that leads to fertile lands beyond that will feed every one of our parched hearts, particularly those we call young people.

Imagine Learning to Hold Public Conversation on Orcas Island

On March 11 from 7 - 9 PM, we will offer a public conversation on the future of young people in education at the Senior Center on Orcas Island.  This is a wonderful opportunity to meet and discuss our vision with the community and to hear their feedback and ideas about where we are headed.

We are circulating an invitation to everyone on the island that says that we:

invite everyone, of all ages to a thought-provoking presentation and conversation:

"How do we educate young people to thrive

 in a world of possibility?"

“The times implore us, our young people implore us to create a fresh seed for education. What does the DNA of this seed need to contain?  What do we need to conserve? What do we need to let go of? What do we need to discover?  What will it take?”

This question has been our guide since the very beginning and now the time has come to begin to explore with others the ideas we have been nurturing and learning through the listening sessions, readings and meetings with others who are passionate about education, and our own meditations on the possibilities for the future.

Thanks again to Samara Shaw for making this happen.  She is a beautiful, positive force for change and we deeply appreciate her support.

We invite you to join us!

We pray for the People of Christchurch

It is hard to describe the feelings we have this morning after seeing the reports, photos and videos of the incredible destruction in Christchurch, New Zealand yesterday after a massive earthquake occurred. In 2008, we made many new friends in this city when we were there to lead a listening session and we have stayed in touch with them over the past two years.  Our hearts are heavy with worry and sadness, not only for them, but for all of the people who live there.  

According to the reports, the earthquake struck at lunch time, one of the busiest times of the day and more than 75 people are dead and up to 300 are missing.  The downtown is in a shambles. We can do no more right now than offer our energetic prayers and send healing energy to them.

In September of last year, an even larger earthquake struck there and while it was not as terrible as this one in terms of its toll on human life, its impact combined with the thousands of aftershocks took a very heavy emotional toll on everyone there. Now this is their darkest time.

Please join us in sending them your healing thoughts and prayers, especially Cobi, Holly, Julia, Max, Morgan, Pip, Glynese, Lee, Jocelyn, Vickie, and Gaike.

Osho on Courage

"In a better world, every family will learn from children. You are in such a hurry to teach them. Nobody seems to learn from them and they have so much to teach you."

                                                                 Osho

This inspiring quote from the book Courage, by Osho, really spoke into my heart.  It does seem that we have gotten so caught up in being the providers of knowledge that we have forgotten to listen. Listening to the inner wisdom of young people is a gift that carries immeasurable possibilities.  It is also a gift of giving them an inner sense that they are worth being listened to and that holds immeasurable possibilities as well.

Orcas Island - Here We Come!

On March 9, we will be on Orcas Island in Washington state to facilitate a Listening Session and we can't wait to get there!  One morning, like any other morning, I was reading my email and there was one for Imagine Learning from Samara Shaw inviting us to come to Orcas to do a Listening Session.  We called and spoke with her and set the dates and now we are making preparations to meet the young people of Orcas.


Samara has a deep belief that a new learning journey for young people needs to be created and she spoke about the desire of the island to recreate its systems to really support young people in their growth and learning.


In her email to me, she wrote: "We envision our island of a population of 5,000,  becoming a model sustainable community, providing programs for young people to learn about sustainable education, living, community building, etc."  What a beautiful intention they are holding and we really are looking forward to meeting everyone and seeing all they they are doing and planning.  


Here's a little map I found on the web.  As you can see it has a very unique horseshoe shape and is filled with natural beauty.

It is located in the San Juan Archipelago of Islands in the Northwest portion of Washington State. There are somewhere around 743 islands, islets and reefs at low tide. Of that many only 172 are named and out of these only thirty are inhabited. Orcas is the largest of all of the San Juan islands. I have visited the San Juans several times before (but never Orcas) and they are remarkably beautiful.


Many thanks to Samara for her gracious invitation.  See you soon, Orcas!

A Story Like the Wind

I have had the delectable opportunity to be reading A Story Like the Wind by Laurens van der Post. It is the story of a remarkable 13-year old European boy growing up in Africa.  Van der Post uses the story for social commentary on European values as they affect local cultural life in Africa.  He begins the book by saying that he is writing it to help Africans recapture their sense of magic and belief in the unknown forces at work in the world, which years of colonization and cultural influence has erased from their memories. He states that life in modern times has taken them far from this way of being in the world.

He also uses the book for commentary about young people and about education.  I want to share one particular section with you for it gets at the heart of many young person's experiences (including our own when we were younger) and it gets at the heart of one of the things Listening Sessions are trying to accomplish.

During the story, the 13-year old boy, Francois, has just lost his father.  His father had been in a distant location in Africa seeing many European specialists when he had died.  They had not understood why he had been sick and could not fathom why he had died.

But Francois, who had grown very close to many Africans working on his father's farm, knew the reason. He had been to an African seer and healer who had divined the reason and then also told him his father had died (before the seer could perform a distance healing on his father). When Francois' mother called the next day to tell him the news, Francois, already aware of the news, became a believer in the "magic" of the Africans.

He also blamed himself for his father's death because he could not get his parents to trust the African ways, as they kept relying on the traditional healing methods that the European doctor's knew.  Had he gotten his father to see the African seer and healer, Francois believed his father would have lived.  But he had to face the fact that his parents did not trust his inner knowing.

So in a moment of reflection van der Post writes,"The pattern (of only teaching the European values and customs to the Africans and not receiving any of their knowledge and wisdom) was all the more telling because had not he himself (Francois) experienced the agony of always being at the receiving end and so rarely at the point where one was allowed to give something of oneself? This was perhaps one of the greatest burdens of being young; one was always expected to take, and so rarely thought to be in a position... to give as well.  And what one had to give, when accepted, once measured in the scales of deliberate values of the grown-up world, appeared trivial."


Francois' belief in the seer and healer had been judged by his adult parents as trivial.  In fact, in the book, van der Post wrote that there was a saying amongst the whites in Africa that Africans "are just like children really and must be treated like children." So Francois' belief in the seer and healer was just as childish as the African beliefs.

How many times do we as adults relegate our children to this same status? Does the education system in operation today act from that point of view? Are we teaching our children that their voices are not worthy or to be taken seriously? Are we teaching them that the "magic" they see and experience every day is "trivial?" What happens to young people when we tell them over and over again that their instincts cannot be trusted?

The Listening Sessions are grounded in the belief that children hold an innate wisdom and that given the chance to speak what they see to those who will listen, they have truths to share that we can learn from and which speak to something within us that as adults, we may have long forgotten.  As each Listening Session evolves, you can visibly see the changes in the students as they realize that their ideas, their heart's desires are going to be contributing a future change in education.  The idea that their voice means something, can contribute something, can give back something is very powerful. Many students have awakened to a side of themselves that has been dormant for many years during the Listening Sessions.

The first offering of young people at the end of a Listening Session is to say, "Thank you."  They always say, that despite education commanding a significnt amount of their life's hours each day, no one is asking them about their experiences or their ideas for making their learning experience more meaningful.

Yet when you sit and listen to their answers to the questions we ask and you listen to their ideas for changing education, there is much wisdom that their young hearts carry. What also comes through is that there is a deep thirst for their elders to "see" them and welcome them more fully into the circle of humanity.

When the time is right, the wisdom in their stories will travel like the wind around the country and the earth and awaken our own deep courage to help guide the co-creation of a new learning experience.

Beautiful Souls from Ojai

Meg Wall who helped make the Listening Session in Ojai, CA possible sent this photo along the other day of the 7 of the 10 young people who participated.  From left to right are Aaron, Nick, Journey, Giani, Charleigh, Will, and Karla.  Not pictured, but still in our hearts are Jose, Sebastian and Emma. More pictures to come of their Listening Session! You can see their conceptual paintings a couple of entries below this one!

A Beautiful Prayer for Children

Yesterday, I read a beautiful prayer by the psychologist and author, Daphne Rose Kingma.  It is deeply moving and the essence of the prayer spoke to me directly about how the vision of Imagine Learning holds young people:

On this day, we pray for tender compassion on all the little ones, whose new souls, so fresh from the light, shine in our midst with a darling adorable brightness.  


May we honor them deeply, learn from them truly, respecting the deep wisdom they carry. Make us wise in our nurturing of them, generous in our loving, unending in our compassion, expansive with our wisdom, kind with our intelligence, and graceful with our hearts. Let us give to them and receive from them, and let it be known among us that they are neither our projects or our possessions, but messengers of light, illuminations of love.
                             - Daphne Rose Kingma

While this prayer begins with young babies, is there any question that no matter what age a young person is, that this stance would create a much different life experience, as well as a learning experience for each and every one?   

Learn from them truly, respecting the deep wisdom they carry......

Thank you Daphne.

Note: The prayer was included in a wonderful little book titled A Grateful Heart, edited by M.J. Ryan (which is full of quotes, prayers and writings on being grateful).

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!