unexpected invitation to Betty Peck and her daughter Anna Rainville’s home for an intimate conference on education, specifically on Waldorf education, is what led me to Ida Oberman. There were a few of us at the gathering who were not especially knowledgeable about Waldorf education, but Betty and Anna have always liked expanding the circle. For decades, Betty Peck’s weekly salon has been a meeting place for a wide range of creative individuals from a variety of perspectives in the thick of Silicon Valley culture. This particular gathering was more focused than Betty’s regular salon meetings and no less interesting for that. It was a chance both for new conn... posted on Aug 24 2015 (7,519 reads)

all know that what will transform education is not another theory or another book or another formula but a transformed way of being in the world. In the midst of the familiar trappings of education—competition, intellectual combat, obsession with a narrow range of facts, credentials—we seek a life illumined by spirit and infused with soul. This is not romanticism, as John Cobb (President of the Naropa Institute and host of the Spirituality in Education conference) has properly cautioned us. I saw the other day a remarkable documentary called The Transformation of Allen School. Allen School is an inner-city school in Dayton, Ohio. It was for many years at the bottom of the l... posted on Aug 25 2017 (15,281 reads)

the free speech movement of the 1960s has to do with digital learning and The Beatles. Education is something we’re deeply passionate about, but the fact remains that today’s dominant formal education model is a broken system based on antiquated paradigms. While much has been said and written about education reform over the past couple of years, the issue and the public discourse around it are hardly new phenomena. Today, we round up the most compelling and visionary reading on reinventing education from the past century.   ISAAC ASIMOV: THE ROVING MIND Earlier this year, we featured a fantastic Bill Moyers archival interview with Isaac Asimov, in which the iconic ... posted on Jul 6 2011 (40,743 reads)

years ago, my own yearning for community in education led me out of the mainstream of higher education to a small place called Pendle Hill, a 55-year-old Quaker living/learning community near Philadelphia. It is a place where everyone from teachers to cooks to administrators receives the same base salary as a witness to community. At Pendle Hill, rigorous study of philosophy, nonviolent social change, and other subjects, goes right alongside washing the dishes each day, making decisions by consensus, and taking care of each other, as well as reaching out to the world. Out of that long, intense experience, what might I share that would somehow be hopeful and encouraging? I learned, of ... posted on Nov 13 2016 (12,482 reads)

to get out and walk the remainder of the way. We go up and down these steep ravines and finally get to these little huts made of stone and thatch.  We are always welcomed with great warmth, and they try to share whatever they may have. They could have a coconut tree or an avocado tree in their small garden and so they'll always share what they have.  We sit with them and we listen. They usually speak about what it means to them for their daughter to have the opportunity or an education; what it means to them that somebody comes to visit them so far away and pay respect to them, to learn their names, and hear a little bit about their story. Of the five home visits I made... posted on May 6 2021 (3,421 reads)

sourced solutions for girls’ access to education. In our recent digital action campaign, World Pulse asked our community to share their testimonies on the obstacles that stand in the way of girls' dreams. Grassroots voices from all over the world chimed in with lived experiences that illuminate the disturbing statistics: There are currently 66 million girls in the world that should be in school, but are not. Thirteen girls under age 18 will be married in the next 30 seconds. The number one cause of death for girls aged 15-19 is childbirth. Out of more than 350 submissions from over 60 countries, an alternative vision for the future emerged: Global legions of gi... posted on Nov 15 2013 (22,686 reads)

his late 40s, Shai Reshef was lucky enough to enter into semi-retirement. After all, he was a man who thought he had achieved much of what he wanted to achieve. But having been an educational entrepreneur all his life, there were nagging questions: “What if everyone could go to university? What if education was a human right?” Many people might have kicked their feet up and left it at that. Not Reshef. The fearless entrepreneur set about bringing together volunteer tutors, low-tech open-source software and the internet to create the world’s first tuition-free online, accredited university. But even he didn’t realise just how much the whole world was behind hi... posted on Mar 11 2017 (19,068 reads)

a respected educational writer, teacher and activist, Parker J. Palmer shares some powerful thoughts on the current landscape of higher education with regard to pedagogy and practice. Through his personal and professional experiences with teaching and learning, Palmer highlights the existing disconnect between objectivist thinking and subjective experience within our classrooms and campuses and how to address this in order to better navigate the connection between our external and internal worlds. Palmer argues that, at the present time, we no longer can ignore the “inner drivers” that connect to the very core of humanity and the central mission of higher education, and advoca... posted on May 8 2018 (11,534 reads)

good teaching: the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. To chart that landscape fully, three important paths must be taken—intellectual, emotional, and spiritual—and none can be ignored. Reduce teaching to intellect and it becomes a cold abstraction; reduce it to emotions and it becomes narcissistic; reduce it to the spiritual and it loses its anchor to the world. Intellect, emotion, and spirit depend on each other for wholeness. They are interwoven in the human self and in education at its best, and we need to interweave them in our pedagogical discourse as well. By intellectual I mean the way we think about teaching and learning the form and content of our... posted on Oct 3 2016 (31,641 reads)

in painting, music, engineering, caring for the sick, the economy or whatever. All around us the fundamentals of life are crying out to be shaped or created. But our idea of culture is severely restricted because we’ve always applied it to art. The dilemma of museums and other cultural institutions stems from the fact that culture is such an isolated field, and that art is even more isolated; an ivory tower in the field of culture surrounded first by the whole complex of culture and education, and then by the media which are also part of culture. We have a restricted idea of culture, which debases everything; and it is the debased concept of art that has forced museums into their... posted on Apr 30 2016 (9,837 reads)

Andre Dua Something big is up in higher education thanks to the advent of “massive open online courses” (MOOCs), which can reach millions around the world. What most people—including university leaders—don’t yet realize is that this new way of teaching and learning, together with employers’ growing frustration with the skills of graduates, is poised to usher in a new credentialing system that may compete with college degrees within a decade. This emerging delivery regime is more than just a distribution mechanism; done right, it promises students faster, more consistent engagement with high-quality content, as well as measurable results. This i... posted on Nov 26 2014 (13,105 reads)

Resolution at the University of Hawaii. Her brother is former US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama. But Maya says we can't leave conflict resolution up to governments: resilience will come from ordinary people, not from centralized, powerful institutions or well-tested solutions alone. "It's imperative that we start paying attention to the work that's happening not only in the center of things but also in the periphery," she says. Maya develops peace education curricula in public high schools and for teachers, and is co-founder of Ceeds of Peace, which offers tools and practices for children and adults to develop daily practice in the key "C&... posted on Feb 24 2019 (5,658 reads)

follows is the syndicated transcript of a SoundsTrue Insights at the Edge interview between Tami Simon and Dr. Tererai Trent. You can listen to the audio of the full episode here. Tami Simon: You’re listening to Insights at the Edge. Today my guest is Dr. Tererai Trent. Dr. Tererai Trent grew up in a cattle herding family in rural Zimbabwe, and is now one of today’s most internationally recognized and respected voices for education and women’s empowerment. She was named Oprah Winfrey’s all-time favorite guest, and received a $1.5 million donation to rebuild her childhood elementary school. Tererai Trent is the author of the book, The Awakened Woman: ... posted on May 24 2023 (2,779 reads)

is common in these creative and courageous leaders who generated results in these and other examples? It is their ability as leaders to ground, source and value their (and others’) wisdom as the most important determinant of sustainable change. Wisdom is our inner guidance based on universal truths and insights, leading one to compassionate action in the world. These leaders recognize and value social identities based on nationality, religion, race, gender, politics, education and culture, without rigid intolerant boundaries and relate to these diverse aspects with ease and respect. They also recognize that we all have different personal styles of expression&mdash... posted on Jul 20 2012 (17,402 reads)

courtesy of Adele Diamond ADELE DIAMOND: Well, certainly it does change, I certainly don't mean to say that the unconscious is not you and there's someone else [laughs] pulling the strings. KRISTA TIPPETT, HOST: My thinking about the education I received, about school testing, and about what I want for my children will never be the same after this conversation I had with the neuroscientist Adele Diamond. What Adele Diamond is learning about the brain is turning some of our most modern ideas about education on their heads. What nourishes the human spirit, the whole person, also hones our minds. I’m Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. ... posted on Dec 6 2014 (26,316 reads)

students into the moment and experiencing rather than being told. By bringing myself in a performative, playful way students are invited to bring themselves into the classroom, with their full presence, their attention to what is happening in the moment, with awareness, acceptance, and appreciation. And the attention they have given to me will then be extended to themselves and to their classmates. I also want students to experience vulnerability because I believe that it is a key to education as a lifelong commitment to self-reflection rather than a detached mastery of a finite body of knowledge. Vulnerability means appreciating mystery as much as mastery, and being comfortable w... posted on Aug 24 2017 (13,795 reads)

viable as the only monetary system globally, but at a local or regional level they could work fine. I think people need to have the freedom to work and live in a way that is meaningful to them, as long as it’s within this broader structure of caring about the whole community, and indeed, the whole world. For another example, Northern European countries have done a great job of reducing inequality within their own borders. They have wonderful social programs for childcare, healthcare, education, the environment, housing, transportation, and so on. But these rich countries are still materialistic and consume more than the planet can sustain over time. They also don’t think ver... posted on Jun 22 2018 (8,827 reads)

Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. [music: “Seven League Boots” by Zoë Keating] Two beloved Stanford educators, Abraham Verghese and Denise Pope joined me for a conversational variation on the Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor Lecture, with a live audience of students, faculty, and local community members. [applause] Ms. Tippett:I am so happy to be joined by Denise Pope and Abraham Verghese. Denise is a senior lecturer in the graduate school of education here. She is a researcher steeped in the topic of success and its meaning in the lives of the young among us. You can summarize some of her perspective, I think, by noting the title of her p... posted on Jun 7 2019 (6,071 reads)

the current Executive Director of the Charter for Compassion, which provides an umbrella for people to engage in collaborative partnerships worldwide. In December 2019, she spoke with MEGHANA ANAND about the organization, its partners, and the work done through the Charter in different countries. Marilyn is an educationist-author and writes about world religions and cultures, bringing out their diverse and uniting threads. MA: How did it all begin, your work with the Charter for Compassion? MT: Well, I think it all started when I was a child from a hyphenated American family, in this case Croatian-American. I grew up in an immigrant neighbo... posted on Aug 18 2021 (2,970 reads)

Copyright © 2009 Center for Ecoliteracy. What can educators do to foster real intelligence?...We can attempt to teach the things that one might imagine the Earth would teach us: silence, humility, holiness, connectedness, courtesy, beauty, celebration, giving, restoration, obligation, and wildness. —David W. Orr There is a bold new movement underway in school systems across North America and around the world. Educators, parents, and students are remaking K–12 education to prepare students for the environmental challenges of the coming decades. They are discovering that guidance for living abundantly on a finite planet lies, literally, under their feet and ... posted on May 21 2016 (15,167 reads)