A patchwork quilt of ideas, only loosely assembled so that you might do your own sewing and stitching. The patches are thanks to my wonderful professional learning network…
Some words – and ideas – to chew on.
The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It’s proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible. This cannot be done by gathering or “accessing” what we now call “information” – which is to say facts without context and therefore without priority. A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means putting first things first. ― Wendell Berry [HT @cannonball31]
“10 Ideas Driving The Future Of Social Entrepreneurship,” Co.EXIST, Mark Cheng
And these 10 seem broader and more universal than just applying to social entrepreneurship. See the entire Fast Co. post here. Just the section headlines here… [HT @cannonball31]
- “It’s about changing the system, stupid.”
- “Change is accelerating.”
- “To solve our problems, we need more problem-solvers.”
- “It starts with young people.”
- “Scale through collaboration”
- “Technology is driving creative disruption.”
- “Power is moving from the few to the many.”
- “The silos are breaking down.”
- “Here comes the social entrepreneur.”
- “When you pass the torch on, light many fires.”
The Hard Parts, Seth Godin, blog post on April 28, 2013
Seek out the difficult, because you can. Because it’s worth it. [HT Google Reader]
Young Movers, With a Passion for Change, NYTonline, May 1, 2013
These young peacemakers challenge the standard notions many adults have about people their age. “We tend to look at young people in one of two ways: they’re either victims or potential victims we need to protect, or they’re perpetrators we need to punish. That’s our narrative. That’s our public policy,” said Eric Dawson, Peace First’s founder. “The idea behind the Peace First Prize is to offer a different narrative. That young people are peacemakers — powerful change makers.” [HT Mary Cobb]
This article is so inspiring. And it reminds me of a post I wrote not long ago about what schools grant students credit for. Some might think I am “missing the point” by suggesting that schools grant credit for such community work and independent social entrepreneurship. That such examples live in the necessary space “outside of school curriculum.” I disagree. I think the work in this article COULD BE SCHOOL CURRICULUM!
“If We Didn’t Have the Schools We Have Today, Would We Create the Schools We Have Today?” Thomas Carroll, 2000 (yep, 2000!)
(HT to @SAISNews for reminding me of the post by @WillRich45 linking to this article.)
Dewey, Self-Interest, and Community
A brief Storify archive of a Twitter discussion that is proving to be invaluable to some of my thinking and dot connecting. Thanks to this blog post: “Finland: The Lighthouse of Progressive Education and Divergent Learning,” by Kavan Yee, shared by Chris Thinnes.
(HT @KavanYee, @CurtisCFEE, @pgow, @GrantLichtman, @FredBartels)
it's about learning 