Category Archive

I’ve just met Willie Smits. It’s pretty incredible that so quickly we have entered this world of world-class environmentalists. Willie was at TED 2009 last week and from what I hear from those that heard him speak, he stole the show. Sandwiched between some of the greatest minds in the world, Willie’s vision for conservation inspired those that were in attendance. We had never heard of Willie until this past December when I read about him in an issue of Scientific American. He has worked to replant the rainforest and his first experiment with his idea has been at Samboja Lestari, where we are now. This project has been described as the singe most important reforestation project on the planet. That article and what he is doing are why we are here now. Pretty amazing how life is.

We spent the day working with the often overlooked sunbears. With the eyes of the world on the orangutans, the kind and gentle sun bears do not receive the attention they deserve. Before coming to Samboja, I also did not know very much about the sun bears. Thanks to our new friend, Meike, a 32 year old German who is currently working at Samboja, we now have a new appreciation for this animal. Today was a very important day with the Sun Bears. Two of the bears were transferred out of the smaller quarantine cages and were brought to another location to get ready for entry into the larger outdoor cages. These bears have spent the last 5 years in very small cages and now are two days from their first taste of “freedom” in their lives. It’s quite an incredible story and I’ve decided to document this story with video and see where it takes me. I’m currently sitting here on the top level of the lodge and am watching orangutans on the islands enjoying the cool evening by playing and swinging on the trees and enrichment facilities. A family of wild boar just walked down the road and up the trail near the sun bear facility. Off in the distance, the sun bears are also enjoying the late afternoon. Yesterday a gibbon was desperately trying to get our attention with his amazing call, we hasn’t been back today. Willie Smits the founder of Samboja Lesari was the hit of the 2009 TED conference this past week for this work with Samboja Lestari and what has been called “the greatest reforestation project on the planet.” It is quite amazing. Environmental conservation isn’t always galmorous. Today we scrubbed the sun bear cages with brushes and built hammoks for the bears still in quarantine. It was hard work but worth the effort when you see the bears go back into a clean cage. Tomorrow we are heading to “Kilometer 23” to see a sun bear education center built by a Dutch woment and her husband. I’m very curious to learn more about the plight of this small bear. Next week we will be meeting with the head of BOS International to talk about our NPO and hopefully Wille will be coming here soon. We are also planning a trip to the coal mine near here, a palm oil plantation as well as a day trip to some primary rain forest near here where the first BOS (Borneo Orangutan Survival) orangutans were released. I have a feeling that our month here will go by extremely fast. We are still discussing the feasibility of bringing students here. It has a ton of potential; we just need the green light from the higher ups. This is an amazing planet and being in the middle of nature helps remind me of how incredible and precious our short time on this planet is. Looking down on the orangutan island, I see that most of the orangutans have made their nests and settled down for the evening. I think I’ll do the same.

Please click here to access the ASCD article on Expeditionary Learning. Please click here to access the Keynotes “It’s all about Design” and “Awakening Global Consciousness.” Please click here to access the Awakening Global Consciousness Wiki. Don’t forget to join the Facebook group Awakening Global Consciousness and join a group of individuals working to make a difference in the world.

Karsten Heuer and Leanne Allison spent 5 months being caribou as they following the porcupine caribou herd’s annual migration to the birthing grounds in ANWR. The story of the adventure of traveling with the herd is itself worth the read. However, what separates this book from other adventure narratives is the discussion and openness that Karsten shares of how being caribou for 5 months effected both him and Leanne personally. They opened themselves up to learn from the caribou and by doing so were forever changed. We have a deep connection to nature and to every creature we share this planet with. We have depended on each other for millions of years and this connection is what makes makes us human. Having the opportunity to learn from another species besides the human species is a gift that every student should have the opportunity to experience. One cannot walk away from the experience of learning from another species without a profound sense of appreciation and humility for the other creatures we share this planet with. Karsten and Leanne had the incredible gift of spending 5 months with another species and learning from them. being caribou for 5 months helped them learn what it really means being human.

“Mans heart, away from nature, becomes hard; the Lakota knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.”
- – Luther Standing Bear

I’ve been reading a wonderful book by Richard Louv, “Last Child in the Woods” which has fallen into my hands at a very opportune time. My wife and I are in the process of developing a “school without walls” where we will take students on 8-16 week educational expeditions in Africa and Indosnesia (to begin with). Our main purpose is to awaken global consciouness in students by providing an experience that will help them to live in and interact with the world in a very different way. One which is more sustainable and which leaves a much smaller footprint. The greatest brainstorming for our ideas have come while taking long walks in the snowy woods of Squamish, BC. Breathing the clean air and listening to the stillness is inspiring and has reminded us of the importance of nature in education. Nature inspires, feeds the soul and nutures the creative potential. For thousands of years, our learning happened outside, in nature. We are wired for this. There is a growing body of research which points to the importance of nature on learning and Richard Louv does a great job presenting this evidence in his book. However, go outside and take a walk in the woods, feel the inspiration and sense of calm that nature has on your mind. This is really all the evidence you will need.

Each day I am continually discouraged by the news. Bernard Madoff stole billions of dollars, the US economy continues to slide with no end in sight, the world wide environment continues to be abused at an unsustainable rate and war still ravages millions of people. The connection to education seems all too obvious. These problems can only be solved if we begin adopting a completely new set of values and purpose for schools. I believe that “Empathy” may be the most important 21st century skill and should be fostered in every student on this planet. The current design of most schools socializes students to become indifferent players in an unsustainable and unfulfillable economic game. This socialization reflects the current values of a society and it’s becoming far too obvious the sheer destruction these values have on the planet. The connection to education and the socialization power of schools seems far too obvious. It’s now time to rethink the purpose of schooling and begin equipping a generation of students with skills that will help us build a more noble, sustainable and brighter future than the one we are currently facing. Imagine what the world would be like if every school valued empathy more than indifference. That’s a future that excites me.

I’ve been thinking about the change process for quite some time, actually for a number of years and Chris Lehmann’s latest post on Change brought it to my attention once again. Why is it so hard for some people to change? Schools are only a collection of people and therefore, schools don’t resist change, people do. Is this resistance hard wired into us? Is it an evolutionary mechanism designed to keep us safe? This resistance to change has been amplified over the past few years with a call for change coming from everywhere. The current and exponential growth in technologies over the past 10 years is once again reviving the call for a transformation in education. The video above is yet another call of action for schools around the world. Students are sprinting into the 21st century and dragging schools with them. However, students are also resistant to change and refuse and resist many of the innovative pedagogical practices teachers are asking of them. Why should a student search for the information on their own if they are used to a teacher just giving it to them. Why should a student work so hard at becoming an independent learner if they are used to total dependency? It’s so much easier. If we are so resistant to change, why should we be surprised when students are also so resistant to change?

Al Gore presented updated information on the climate crisis at the TedTalks in February. In a nut shell he was asking the same question I’m asking in this post. Very little has been done to solve the climate crisis in the past few years. Why are people resisting the urgency of the global crisis? Why aren’t schools leading the way in helping to manage the change process needed to begin transforming the perceptions of how young adults live in and treat the world? I’ve been exploring with my students in Global Ethics about what it means to be a 21st century citizen. Recently we have been discussing our responsibilities toward the other sentient beings that we share this planet with. We all agree that we have responsibilities toward these animals and that industrial food production is not the best way to both treat animals and produce food. However, they will still come in the following morning eating pre-packaged 7-11 pork sandwiches without thinking about it. Change is hard, even for students. Therefore, we need to learn to manage the change process not only for our teachers but also for our students. If we are asking them to think about both school and the world in a completely different way, then we must help them manage the change process. Anytime you change, you must give up something to make room for something else. When you give up something there is always a time of mourning, a time of resistance. We must do a better job of helping both teachers and students through this change process.

There is no question that we have to change. The world cannot continue to support both the industrialization of education and food. We must change, however how we manage that change may depend whether we succeed or fail.

Can we change education around the world? Yes We Can! Can we use education to help create a more caring and compassionate world? Yes We Can! Can we use education to begin creating sustainable economic systems? Yes We Can! Can we bring cost effective but innovative education to everyone on this planet? Yes We Can! Can we begin rethinking the old models of education? Yes We Can! Should we begin today? Yes We Must!

It’s Tuesday night, late, and tomorrow is our last day before Winter Vacation. We had our Winter Performance debut this evening and it was a smashing success. What made this night so special was the fact that the entire evening about about kids and for kids. Our educational philosophy as a community was encapsulated in this evening. The students organized the whole event, they cooked and served the food, designed the programs, sold the tickets, performed, washed the dishes, mopped the floors and decorated the auditorium. The entire evening celebrated and focused on students and was run by students. It was truly amazing. The success of this evening and the “high” experienced after such an event, in addition to a couple of other things that have happened this week, has put me in a reflective mood. I posted an entry in August titled “A New Beginning” and then went “off-line” for a few months. Now it’s time to begin writing again.

Before I begin, I want to say that HIS is truly a remarkable place. I’m proud of what we have accomplished so quickly and have never been a part of an institution such as this. Everybody is talking about a “Whole Child” education, we are doing it. I was speaking with a parent this evening who, in tears, commented to this effect. HIS, she said, focuses on the good in each child and brings that good out. Therefore, each child can and will succeed if schools are small enough and take and create the time to find that good in each student. We are not bound by the traditional “boundaries” that most schools create for themselves. We are free to create and make a place where each child can and will succeed.

The most powerful lesson I have learned over the past few months is to Persevere! I don’t know how many times I have been told that this couldn’t be done. What we are creating couldn’t be done. The culture and parents wouldn’t accept it. I didn’t have enough experience. Actually, I didn’t have any experience. We weren’t tough enough. What about AP’s and IB’s? You can’t teach with laptops! Macs will never work in Taiwan! You can’t admit this student, he’s been expelled. Many times I have felt like a football player running through the middle of a line of blockers with each one taking their shot and trying to knock me down. Some shots have hurt worse than others and I’ve been temporarily stunned, but Persevere. Get up and keep moving forward. Whenever you try something new, something that may have never been done, you will always get the naysayers. Actually, the more bold and different you try and be the stronger the opposition. Persevere. If it’s good for kids, it’s good! Stick with it.

We’ve all been working with kids for a long time. We all have been reading the journals. We all know in our guts that education has got to change. This does not mean following some formula of schooling that has been done before. This means being bold. Trying something new, different and scary and sticking with it. We will change education one school at a time We will get knocked down. We will get up. Persevere.

I just came back from an Apple Distinguished Educators conference in Bangkok last week. The conference was great and was filled with a group of educators from Asia who are working to transform education. One of the things we discussed was having a Yes!…..and, attitude as opposed to a Yes!….but, attitude. Too many people who are working to transform education meet individuals that have a Yes!….but attitude. Yes that sounds great but our parents wont go for that. Yes computers are needed but students still need textbook. Yes we need to differentiate and provide a learner centered curriculum but I can’t teach three different classes at the same time. When someone has a Yes!…..and, attitude these same sentences take on a completely different meaning. Yes that sounds great and we’ll work to educate our parents on this new way of learning. Yes computers are needed and with the internet and access to open source information we can create our own textbooks. Yes we need to differentiate and provide a learner centered curriculum and I’ll work to learn how to make this happen in my own classroom. Transforming education around the world is going to take the collective efforts of innovative and passionate educators all around the world. If we all begin to work together with a Yes!…..and attitude, just think what is possible. 

My summer is coming to an end as I write this. I can sense it not only by the packing Sheryl is busily doing in the other room but also by the usual anticipation I feel in the core of my stomach. One of the joys of education is that each year is a fresh start, a gift given to each of us to reflect on the wonderful things we accomplished last year and the lives we changed along the way. A fresh start can also be about reinventing oneself, learning from the mistakes we made and trying to do things a little better this time around. There is no other job like it. As we celebrate our joys and reflect on new beginnings, I am eager to hear what goals you have for your school and what each of you hope to accomplish as we work to change education around the world. I hope our stories will inspire and motivate each other and work to break some of the professional isolation that can happen as friends and colleagues continue to spread around the world

As most of you know, we are starting a “new” school in Hsinchu, Taiwan call Hsinchu International School. As we move into our new building and begin classes on September 3rd, we are embarking on a mission to design an educational model that is truly unique and special to international schools. I will be in charge of curriculum development and have worked hard over the past few months to help us accomplish our mission. One of my goals this year is to continue to work to create a model of education that works for every child. A model that truly differentiates and individualizes the curriculum while working to develop the whole child. As we work to create this model, I hope that we can continue to venture into uncharted territories and deal with the obstacles and frustrations that will arise without falling into the trap of falling back into the safe and comfortable path. What Dennis Littky and Debra Meier have done with their schools will continue to be an inspiration to me over the course of this year. It’s an exciting time and I hope to collaborate as much as I can with all of you over the course of this year. Have a great beginning to your school year.

This podcast is a wonderful treat as Debra Meier shares her vision of what a good school looks like. Debra Meier, Ted Sizer and Dennis Littky are the three forces in educational transformation today. Over the next few weeks I will be posting podcasts by each of these wonderful people. I’ve listened to this Podcast many times over the past few months and each time I pick up something different or it reinforces something I’ve been thinking about.

I’m having trouble with this audio. The mp3 link seems to play a little fast. If the embedded mp3 player plays it fast, click on the link to my webpage and download the file from this site and play it on your computer. To download the link with a PC, right click and “save link as”. With a Mac it should automatically play when you click on it but I also know that it plays in I-tunes. The link to my webpage is:

http://tiger.tas.edu.tw/ms/loken/webpage/Resources.html

Debra Meier Interview

Sir Ken Robinson gives the most entertaining argument I have seen for transforming schools. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. This talk came from TedTalks which are short lectures given by some of the worlds greatest minds who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in only 18 minutes. I have downloaded most all of these and listen to them as I walk to work in the morning. They are not only inspirational but also educational. This could be a great idea for a new course where the teacher introduces a new talk each class and then opens it up for discussion.

Direct Link to Video on TedTalks

For those of you with a slow connection here is the audio

Raising Whole Children is Like Raising Good Food 

I ran across this beautiful article by Michael Ableman in the Current Issue of Independent School and it inspired me to write another blog entry. It’s been quite some time since my last official post but this article is worth some discussion. In a nutshell, Michael equates modern methods of schooling to the industrialization of our food system. They are both unnatural. I quote, “The industrialization of our food system and the industrialization of our education system treat us all as if we are just consumers, passively waiting to be fed disconnected information or prepackaged food. But we cannot ensure the well-being of our children or the future this way. Raising whole young people is a sacred practice; it requires waking each day and seeing things anew, responding to the moment, listening, paying attention, observing.” I have not worked or been associated with a school that didn’t want to raise whole children but I have yet to work in a school that actually made this their priority. Why is this? Why do we continue to measure success with high AP, IB and SAT scores? These are all pre-packed, easy to teach curriculums that only focus on one aspect of the child. We continue to feed our children knowledge in fragmented pieces without helping them see the “interconnection of all things.” My gut tells me that schools fall into this trap because to teach the whole child is a very difficult and often messy practice. It takes time, patience and a lot of energy. As many of you know, I am joining a team of educators next year to help transform and build a school whose purpose and mission is to help educate the whole child. We will be one of those special places that provides the right conditions to carefully nurture and raise the whole children that our world so desparately needs.

A colleague of mine recently gave me an article that struck a cord in me. I have been reading and thinking about education for some time now and the more I do the more a feeling of discontent grows inside. The way schools currently treat children seems out of harmony with how the natural world works and how people inherently learn. This industrial, one size fits all, model of education in many cases does more harm to children than helps. School becomes a place to endure not enjoy. Students count credits, waiting to be granted the permission to leave this massive sorting machine. Why do schools continue to do what they do? Why do we continue to subject students to years of content driven madness? When you step back and look at the situation you really begin to see how artificial the entire educational process has become. Let’s take a look at high schools. Students spend 5000 hours in classes over four years learning stuff. Teachers continue to pile on and outfit these students with the information that we believe is necessary to lead successful and happy lives. However, is this really the case? How many of you would bet your next paycheck on the results of retaking your HS finals? How many of you can use a trig. identity to solve a problem? Not many but most of us continue to lead successful and happy lives regardless of the fact that we can’t remember this content. Over the years I have had countless parents comment that by 8th grade they could no longer help with their children’s homework because the content was too difficult. However, most of these parents were successful and doing extremely well in life. We can argue that our students need this information for success in college and for passing such standardized exams such as the SAT, AP and IB. However, is this really true? Should all of our decisions be based on what our students need for success in college? Many courses in college are poorly taught and would not be classified as “good teaching,” however it continues to drive what we do in high school and even lower. I believe that what schools should be focusing on is a list of characteristics or skills that we want our graduates to have. When Mustafa takes over his family business, will he transform it to become more environmentally aware? When Roberta becomes a doctor, how do we want her to treat the patients? When Fatu becomes President of Sierra Leone, what values and attitudes do we want her to rule her country by? When Alex becomes our next door neighbor, what type of neighbor do we want? Do we really care if any of the above students can remember a trig. identity? Is that what is really important? I would argue a definitive No! Then why do we continue to treat education and students as empty vessels that need to be filled with information that we believe will make them successful in the future. John Dewey sums up it when he said:

“What avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win the ability to read and write, if in the process the individual loses his own soul; loses his appreciation of things worthwhile, of values to which these things are relative if he loses the desire to apply what he has learned.”

How many of us have sold our souls to this artificial method of education? How many of us will be bold enough to stand up and demand change for the sake of the students we claim to teach? Carl Sagan, in his book Cosmos, has a chapter titled, “One voice in the Cosmic fugue” which describes how each of the individual and unique parts of this Cosmos join to make the harmony of life. It is my hope that when educators begin to treat children and themselves as voices in this cosmic fugue, each playing a part to create this beautiful harmony then we can all begin making school the experience children deserve.

Quest University is the first private university in Canada and is quite amazing. It should be a model for education in general and has opened it’s doors just a few blocks from our house. Check out their video.

Cultures at the far edge