Monday, September 5, 2011

Returning to School: Education for a Livable Planet « Cooperative Catalyst

Returning to School: Education for a Livable Planet « Cooperative Catalyst:

Returning to School: Education for a Livable Planet

For my blog post today, I’m sharing a recent post I wrote for Common Dreams, a progressive news site. Here’s an excerpt from“Returning to School: Education for a Livable Planet”:

“Students and teachers are returning to school. I know few in either group who are genuinely excited at the prospect. This is a travesty and a tragedy.

Humans are, by nature, passionate about learning. It is truly extraordinary that in a few thousand years our species has learned to create elaborate shelters and to heat and cool them so that the temperature is always comfortable. We have turned minerals and ores into metals that we’ve shaped


Why “who” is more important than “what”

Here’s a peek inside a staff meeting at PSCS, the school where I work. We have only four teachers, three administrators, and an administrative assistant, so the conversations are always very intimate.

PSCS founder Andy Smallman led a conversation that was inspired by Parker Palmer’s book A Hidden Wholeness. He started by drawing a map.


The traditional way of looking at school is from the outside-in. So, when schools are hiring new teachers, they