High School Training Ground by Malcolm London (by malcolm london)
If you have not seen @MalcolmLondon video High School Training Ground! It is a must, even before coffee! #stuvoice at its best! Truth spoken
“Rather than standing or speaking for children, we need to stand with children speaking for themselves.” - Sandra Meucci (quote via The Freechild Project)
Imagining Learning is standing with young people and providing space for them to stand with each other. Please donated to help us provide more opportunity to help activate and amplify young people’s voice! http://www.incited.org/projects/13
When I was a kid, I wanted to spend all of my time building umbrellas out of old wire hangers, duct tape and garbage bags; I wanted to take my bike, my notebook and my PB&J sandwich and be on the road all day long. I observed insects, drew their pictures and named them; I learned the names of the local rivers and made my own routes; I saved baby birds from the mouths of cats and learned how to care for them by talking with neighbors and going to the library. I once kept a baby Goldfinch in my room for nearly two weeks; every morning, I woke with the sun to bring it outside where its mother taught it how to fly until it flew away one day. I have to admit, though, that some tears were shed that day. Tweeters was indeed missed.
I felt more invigorated and more alive in these moments than I ever did in school. I found school to be a place where kids were mean, or they didn’t care about all the cool stuff I was doing. I remember longingly gazing out the windows, wanting so badly to be on my bike with my notebook and with other kids who were as into adventure as I was. The smell of textbooks made me ill; homework was a death march. I dreaded being squeezed into the school cafeteria with all of those smells - nervous sweat, Tetherball sweat; the odor of cheese zombies (think lots of butter, slabs of white bread and Velveeta cheese - all smashed flat by sweaty, miserable cafeteria cooks).
This was elementary school; prepubescent frustration with school led to downright rebellion in middle and high school. That’s a story for another venue.
So here I am, recalling the memories and details of what I remember from ages eight to twelve; what I learned from my own education during those years far surpasses what I learned in school - other than the terrible smells and anxiety of worksheets and text books. I don’t remember anything from all of those lessons, save for a few ridiculously awesome field trips and outdoor school.If I would have had a few adults in my life who realized that school was actually choking me, and who would have allowed me to stay on the path I was on while coaching me along the way, I might not have dropped out of high school to play Hacky Sack with all of the stoner kids. In fact, I might have been coached into designing a really cool school club, where all the Hacky Sackers could go to kick sack and discuss politics or science; we could have had our own newsletter for the school to read and show them that we were sharp. Since we weren’t seen as smart, but rather as slackers, it was all too easy for many of my friends to believe that. I believed it, too, for quite some time.
As the story goes, I now have my own self-directed learner, Zoe. She’s 16. She has struggled with school (academically) since the beginning. I’ll never forget - when she was in the 2nd grade, one of her assignments was to color in her hand turkey (you know, when you trace your hand and make your thumb into the turkey’s head; then all your fingers become feathers.); she had very little interest in doing this assignment. I remember thinking to myself: Why wouldn’t she be into this? What’s so hard about coloring in a cute little turkey? She didn’t see the value in it. She wasn’t interested in doing that. What she was interested in doing was spending hours and hours building an elaborate and well-designed (functional) palace for her hamster, or in running around outside and climbing trees. She was also really into fashion and dance. She was putting outfits together that Versace could learn from in the 4th grade.I was a young mother, in college, studying to become a teacher. I knew that my daughter was the kind of kid my mother wished on me - she was like me. To this day, she hasn’t seen the value in cramming for tests, writing essays that fit into a rubric or learning about the threat and danger of suicide in health class for weeks on end. Inside, I agreed with her; I was right there with her when I was a kid in school, and my own values surrounding education contradicted every punitive action I took when it came to bad grades. But I couldn’t tell her these things - it would just fuel the “eh, who cares about homework” even more.
The ego can sometimes be mistaken for love.
As a parent and an English instructor, I was torn. My kid had to do well in school. She’s a representation of me. My ego and my genuine concern for my daughter were playing chess - one of those painfully long games, too, where an important move is so important that it takes years to make. I made her education about that for too long. I didn’t want either of us to be just another statistic of a single mother whose child flunks out of school. And if I am such a good instructor, then why is my own kid flunking out of school? Okay, I can understand why she’s failing math - but there’s no way she should be failing English!
Ninth grade was the last year I struggled with this whole debacle. My daughter goes to a good school, but it’s not good for her. She was on the varsity dance team with girls whose parents earned more money in a year than I will in my lifetime. She wasn’t one of them, and it was painfully obvious. I volunteered as a food mom, and during competitions, she often sat alone. I suppose it’s also worth mentioning that fees for dance team were well over $2K for the year and they offered no scholarships. I was barely able to come up with this kind of money, but to keep her involved in what she’s passionate about was important to me. And because she failed a few classes, she wasn’t able to dance for the final competition. And that broke my heart. I needed to make that chess move before my opponent forgot how to play chess.
I wanted my child to do well in school, or so I thought. When I let my love for her take over, and not my ego, I came up with a new question.
Do I want her to do well in school, or do I want her to do well in life?
This is right about the time I was introduced to Alan Burnce, founder of a new program here in Portland called Open Road Learning Community for Teens. I met with him; we talked as teachers together in this, and we talked from my position as a parent. This is the answer to my problems. My daughter met with him, we all talked together. It was unlike any other conversation I’d had before because we didn’t have to talk about forecasting, grades, classes that need to be repeated, test scores or whether or not we live in the district. My daughter is a dancer, she’s an amazing cook - totally into healthy designer food; she is an artist, and comes to many great conclusions and finds new interests through that art.
The dress my daughter is wearing in this photo was taken last year at summer camp. She was given a room filled with supplies, a sewing machine, a mentor and the time to make anything she wanted to make. She came up with this design years ago - a flapper dress is something she always wanted to make. There you have it. She made it. It took her hours and hours to glue those crayons onto that dress; and to this day, she is proud of her creation and dedication to her vision. This one dress boosted her confidence in ways I seldom see happen in school.
Knowing that Open Road can guide her through her passions and talents, connect her with people from the community who will work with her on turning those talents into real world opportunities puts my mind at ease. Without programs like these, too many creative and innovative kids get lost in the cracks of subject matter and tests.
I look forward to watching Zoe become confident and proud of doing what she does, and does well. This entire experience - parenthood - is a healthy and humbling beast. My grownup ego and hypocrisy have been sufficiently squashed. Zoe is her own force; she’s on her own path just as I was.
Open Road is building something special for teens like Zoe. If this concept moves you, visit their campaign on IncitED and share their work with your friends.
— Kevilina Burbank
We could really use your help this weekend! Our goal is to raise at least 1000 dollars today and tomorrow. We can do it, but we will need some of your amazing energy! First step would be to make a short list of 5 people who you think would really love Imagining Learning’s work and then personally connect with them via chat, phone or email. Tell them why you are apart of Imagining Learning and then send them to the campaign page. http://www.incited.org/projects/13
Second, share it out via twitter, facebook and tumblr. Make it as personal as possible.
Third, Donate what you can. If that’s 5 dollars awesome! Our goal is to reach 1000 donations by the end of the campaign no matter the amount. I can’t wait to walk into a listening session and say to the young people that over 1000 people believed so much in the importance of your voice that they donated to get us here!
Fourth, Have fun with it. You all our Imagining Learning too. Feel free to message us or email us (charlie@imagininglearning.us) about different ways to reach out to people. Write about Imagining Learning on your blog, or join us for a hang out to meet us in person (digital) Our next google+ hang out will be Monday at 2pm PST!
I am helping! Are you? Please donate! http://www.incited.org/projects/13
The painting above was painted by three students in Birmingham, Al in late 2012 during one of our first 20 listening sessions. We want to do 50 more over the course of the next year. Currently we have 37 different communities requesting we come do listening sessions with them.
These are the questions Imagining Learning is asking young people in our Listening Sessions across the country.
- How would you create a learning journey for yourself and others that you would love?
- How would you like us - your elders to support you?
- How do you think you should be engaged with other young people in America and around the world?
- How would you create an invitation for other young people to be excited about learning?
And their answers are brilliant. They find themselves seen and heard. They see great possibilities in their co-created visions. They open their minds and hearts to the idea that as they say to us often, “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
By synthesizing the themes that young people put in to their paintings, we get a set of emergent themes that represent their collective voice. A voice that is filled with wisdom, passion, love of learning and a sense of empowerment.We believe by presenting their hearts through the art that they create, their visions and their voice will get the nation to listen. We believe people won’t be able to look away because the problem seems so insurmountable, won’t be able to KNOW what is best any longer, won’t be able to let the stream of their lives carry them forward away from the problem of how to educate all of our children.
We need your help to continue to bring this experience to more young people! Every dollar you donate helps us to get to one of the 37 communities asking us to join them! Please donate even a dollar to our campaign. Our goal is to reach 1000 donors averaging $25 each by June 13th. We want to keep the listening sessions as pure and free of outside influence as possible. This is about young people’s voice nothing else!
But to do this we need communities like Tumblr to support us by donating a few dollars, by reblogging our stories, but requesting listening sessions!
Please don’t wait, donate! Tonight’s goal is to reach over 3000 dollars! That will be 6 listening sessions funded!
Imagining Learning - Creating a National Collective Voice through Listening (by David Loitz)
We are only 241 dollar short of our Thursday goal! Please donate tonight to help us reach our goal! http://www.incited.org/projects/13
Help by donating a couple dollars http://www.incited.org/projects/13
What’s a Imagining Learning listening session look like? This great short film created by Bo Adams showcases our listening session at Unboundary in Atlanta, GA! help us give this experience to other students by donating here
We need $446.00 to fund the next listening session! Every dollar counts! That is only 20 donating 25 dollars!Do you want to bring a listening session to your community? Find out more here
We need $446.00 to fund the next listening session! Every dollar counts! That is only 20 donating 25 dollars! or 44 people donating 10 dollars! I have 39,000 followers I think we can do it!
Donate here http://www.incited.org/projects/13
When you donate, message me and I will give you an additional gift. I have some fun stuff to give away from my favorite education books to Hand drawn art to creating personalized education memes for your blog!
Whatever you do, Please reblog this and thank you in advance for your generous support! I know you all are helping to create an education system that treats students, teachers, and communities as if they matter!!!
-adventures in learning
“I think that we got so caught up in school being a tradition that we stopped using it as a learning tool, which it should be.” -Tupac Shakur at Age 17
Follow Imagining Learning on Facebook and Twitter
Reblogging this because I love it!
Words of gratitude from Charlie Kouns, Founding Steward of Imagining Learning on our Imagining Learning IncitED Crowdfunding campaign blog:
Over the past few days since the launch of our campaign, as people have chosen to share our campaign with others, we have seen some wonderful statements written telling others about what we do. These are coming from people who have been in touch with our work in some way and have chosen to make an offering to their friends and networks. These are all unsolicited comments!
“This project is important because it makes a strong statement to the collective of humanity that is it time to listen to what the children have to say about their education. I believe that this project has the potential to create a bridge for the public systems by generating conversation that may inspire policy makers to move away from the current “factory” schooling.” Sue, teacher and mother“(Imagining Learning) has launched a project that could transform education. As a former teacher, I have often voiced my concern for the state of education in our country, and am so excited by the potential of Imagining Learning to make a profound difference for the future of our children and our culture.” Bob, former teacher
“What an AMAZING job Charles Kouns and David Loitz are doing with Imagining Learning to capture the honest and authentic voices of students all over the country. These listening sessions allow students to share their ideas and vision of what learning should look like.” Okaikor, teacher, mother
“I authentically believe Imagining Learning has an opportunity to change the future of education. Please contribute if you can and want to get student voices in the conversation about education.” Cameron, university professor, father
We would add two other statements that were written about us recently:
“By traveling the country to listen to young people about what they imagine education could be, Charles and Stella, along with David Loitz, are conducting invaluable research – and to their credit, they are thoughtful and deliberate about how they gather their research…They are staying true to a fundamental tenet of design – start with empathy and a genuine desire to understand those for whom you are designing. Seek first to understand and then to be understood.” Bo, former principal, father, education thought leader
Bo even created this video without our knowledge to share his experience with the Listening Sessions. Click here.
“Most adults are simply not doing enough, except for perhaps Charlie Kouns and David Loitz—the visionaries at Imagining Learning. Around the United States, Kouns, Loitz, and their team have been hosting listening sessions, inviting young people to share their revelations and insights on education. After these listening sessions, Kouns and Loitz analyze and try to make sense of what they have learned by connecting the voices of young people around the nation. Now students are even calling up Imagining Learning to hold sessions in their own communities.” Nikhil Goyal, age 17, author, student voice advocate, from an article he wrote in Good Magazine
We are moved by these responses and thank everyone for sharing. Perhaps you see something in here you might share in your networks. Perhaps there is something here that helps you see why this effort is so important to support. Please let us know if you see other comments or quotes that would help us move our story forward.
Visit Imagining Learning’s IncitED campaign, share it with others, and give the gift of a Listening Session: http://www.incited.org/projects/13.
Here is where I will hang the students published fairytales. They loved this unit. CCSS no longer allows a fairytale unit for second graders. I do believe with all of this classroom academic rigor the imagination is being lost.
“They loved this unit. CCSS no longer allows a fairytale unit for second graders.”
This line makes me sad, and then mad! A teacher should have the flexibility to teach subjects and lessons that meaningful to their students. I say push the CCSS aside and teach fairly tales…just call them something else!
After the test is gone, next will be the outdated idea there is one set of learning that all “second graders” must learn. Standards should be a guide book, a reference guide, not a set of directions, not a script to be followed line for line. Teach to the heart not to the standards. I know Ursoteachable will find a creative way around it, her blog showcases lots of amazing heartfelt relationship based teacher! I applaud her for spotlighting how the CCSS will limit real learning and as she said lost of imagination in the classroom and our kids.
_adventures in learning
Help Imagining Learning fund their tour to do listening sessions around the country! Listening Sessions are designed to ask young people how they would transform education if they had no limits! Help us now by donating even a dollar! Every dollar donated goes to help us amplify and activate young people’s vision and voice on education!
http://bit.ly/15IE8P6
Please help me boost this message by reblogiging! and join me in donating! I donated 10 dollars can you match that! Hoping to help them raise 500 dollars by tonight!
If you enjoy my blog and all the great education stories, please support this cause! Even a dollar is enough!
-Adventures in Learning
