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In times of change, |
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We live in times of rapid change. Our schools prepare us for a world that no longer exists. Our decent schools churn out people who know something. Our poor schools don't. We have barely begun to tackle the challenge of turning out learners.
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Bring me men to match my mountains, |
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The challenges facing humanity in today's world are not the mountains and plains of America's 19th century. Yet the spirit of Foss' poem is alive today. What will inspire and enable our men and women to match themselves to the "mountains" in front of us?
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The mind is not a vessel to be filled, |
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The Foundation for Learning takes on the challenge of matching educational thinking and practice to the requirements of the world of today and tomorrow. We want to restore, revitalize, and reorient the systems of education so that it delivers people who are at home in the world, ready and eager to meet its challenges, appreciative of the vast richness and complexity of our world and our civilization.
We are a non-profit organization organized in Washington state.
You can reach us at
webmaster@foundationforlearning.org
or fax us at 530 255 2997. Our president is Dr. Bert Speelpenning.
Our mission is:
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The real act of discovery consists not |
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The conventional way of looking at education and learning is that it is the thing that moves you over the finish line from being a kid to being an adult: kids learn, adults know. Schools are the kiln kids need to be baked in for so many years till they come out as glazed pots, hardened into a particular function, while the ones that have cracked get tossed aside.
This notion of education, this notion of kid/adult, this notion of learning has been obsolete for a while. As a society, we continue blithely on, occasionally patching up the old model - and we haven't yet built any compelling model for what should replace it and how.
The Foundation for Learning is exploring and developing a model for learning we call "learning for the 21st century." In this model, people learn from cradle to grave: we learn as naturally as we breathe - we stop learning when we stop breathing. Much of this learning doesn't necessarily look like the education we get in school. We learn to walk and talk without school, we learn most of our hobbies outside of school. Yet schools have a hugely important role to play as an environment in which kids learn about the world, and learn to learn effectively. To be a match for the world of the 21st century, people will require a real facility for unlearning: for finding out that something they took for granted ain't necessarily so. In this model then, learning goes way beyond accumulating of knowledge. Learning will be more akin to appreciating - acquiring new eyes to see with.
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I am not a teacher, but an awakener. |
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Interested in a world where teachers are awakeners? A world in which teacher is a title of honor given to someone around whom people open their eyes and see?
Many teachers already are awakeners. The work of the Foundation for Learning is to sing their praises, to foster the environments in which they emerge, and to put a spotlight on innovative teaching.
The Foundation for Learning is accepting nominations for the Awakener Award for innovative leadership in education. We are looking specifically for people whose innovations have spread beyond a single classroom, a single school, or a single school district.
Send your nominations to nominate@foundationforlearning.org or participate in the community discussions on this site.
The first recipient of the Awakener Award is Linda Inlay of River School in Napa, California, for her work on the Implicit Curriculum.
If you are intrigued, here are some ways you can participate:
We offer telephone seminars for graduates of the Wisdom Course. Find out more about our discourse calls.
Or see the slides of the Conference for Global Transformation presentation on discourses.
| learning for the 21st century | links | cgt 2006 |
