60 ways to build community

(Source: anthoninep)

zilfworks:

“The best thing about my childhood was the time I spent with friends outdoors creating our own fun…without parents around!”

This guy gets it right.  Well, almost. The one problem is that it is, once again, an example of the adults trying to manufacture the environment and make it safe for kids, rather than letting the kids explore freely and transform their own environment (which is exactly the idyllic childhood he remembers so fondly).  I love the open-to-the-community aspect, however.  That is indeed a huge step in the right direction.

answers so far…

1. qbnscholar answered: Find, develop, and share your talents. This is the purpose of life and education. 
2.  darkepiphanies answered: The relation between life and education is that life is about learning…learning how to talk, walk, make friends, finding and losing love.
3.  punitpal answered: To live your life like no one has live in entire world.whatever knowledge you have give everybody
4.  deannaslamans answered: The purpose of life is to live to give back. The purpose of education is to learn who to give back to. Yes, they are very much related…
5.  rtg23 answered: Yes. Being an educated person is a way of life.

(Source: adventuresinlearning)

Dymaxion Sleep is a structure of nets suspended over a field of aromatic plants. Rather than walking through the garden, visitors lie on top of it, translating the typically solitary experience of a garden into a public event. Created by the Canadian designers Jane Hutton and Adrian Blackwell.

amazing!

subjectrelated:

George Stratman of the San Diego County Office of Education (n.d.) has created a useful list of “10 Subtle Ways to Create a Positive Learning Environment”, which can be a useful guide of elementary school teachers:

1. Begin your week by “nesting.” Students need time upon arrival to become…

thinkingoutsidethelines:

Thank you, Sir Ken Robinson. Start a school, and I’ll be knocking down your door, begging to teach.

bettermousetrap:

Dr. Russell Ackoff, my systems theory guru. Dr. Ackoff did some really compelling research on advertising and personality that helped Anheuser Busch dominate the beer industry.

Over the course of the next few weeks I plan to share some of my favorite Ackoff fables on problem solving. Who says philosophers can’t be useful?

Systems theory in a nutshell:

• It’s about interactions not actions
• The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts
• Use force where you have the greatest leverage, regardless of where the problem is (i.e if you have a headache take an aspirin rather than attempt brain surgery.)
• The nature of the whole is not the same as the nature of the parts. Every part affects the whole. Furthermore, actions on the parts will not produce equivalent results in the whole.
• Synthesis is the opposite of analysis; looking at the whole as part of a bigger system (i.e. car as part of transportation industry) as opposed to looking at the parts to understand the whole (i.e car in the mechanics shop).
• Analysis answers “what/how” questions. Synthesis answers “why” questions.

Below you’ll find my top resources on systems theory and systems thinking.

-Systems Theory Books

• The Art of Problem Solving Russell Ackoff, The book that converted me. This is the single best book there is on the topic of problem solving and creativity. Period.
• The Fifth Discipline In this definitive tome, Peter Senge of MIT applies system thinking to real-world problems in management, business dynamics, innovation and logistics.
• Ackoff’s Best An anthology of classic writings and research on management.
• What are some other classic books on systems and problem solving? Tao of Pooh and The Art of War come to mind. I guess The Tipping Point even borders on systems theory.
• Any of the excellent books around on crowd-sourcing are also highly recommended.

In addition to this list, I consider the work of most of the great economists to take a systemic view. For even more, visit this excellent systems thinking wiki.

new2unschooling:

Deciding to go away from brick and mortar schools was far from an easy decision. I had gone back and forth many times not confident no matter what my decision was. After doing tons of research and looking into my own experience b&m schools I made a list to help me.
1. Bullying including cyber…

irishboyinlondon:

Artinfo: Pop-Up Populism: How the Temporary Architecture Craze is Changing Our Relationship to the Built Environment

America is fast becoming a pop-up nation. From sea to shining sea, her cities have been swept up in the frenzy for temporary architecture: Brooklyn vendors sell their wares in artfully arranged shipping containers; Dallas’s Build a Better Block group champions DIY painted bicycle routes and pop-up small businesses; architects in San Francisco are repurposing metered parking spaces into miniature parks; residents in Oakland, California rallied to create an entire pop-up neighborhood. The phenomenon has even climbed its way from grassroots origins to the agendas of local authorities: D.C.’s office of planning sprouted a Temporary Urbanism Initiative, while New York’s transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan is implementing what she calls “Jane Jacobs’s revenge on Robert Moses” with her fast-acting interventions favoring pedestrians and cyclists. The temporary, so it seems, is overtaking the permanent. But how permanent is our current fascination for the temporary?

(Source: guiseppegetto)

(via Our Approach: Theory of Transformation » Spirit in Action)

REIMAGINE: Conceptualizing New Systems - We are in a critical period of social evolution that requires new ways of being. In order to generate a just world, we must be able to imagine what a society based on partnership, inclusion, and interdependence looks like. This strategy area engages how we think about ourselves in relation to each other and the whole and taps our individual and collective ability to engender new cultural norms. Approaches can include the arts, the creative process, media and cultural and spiritual traditions.

REFORM: Working Within the Current System - The current structures in society have real impact on our daily lives and our ability to self-determine. While we work on building new structures, we must simultaneously change the structures of society that are in place now. We understand that the very immediate and real needs of people who lack food, housing, well-paid work, safety and opportunity need to be addressed, especially if we seek to build a base from the ground up that is led by those most impacted by injustice. This strategy tackles immediate needs and requires our current social and political institutions to provide remedies to pervasive social problems. Approaches can include human services and policy development.

RESIST: Working On the Current System - Throughout history, we have seen that “power concedes nothing without demand.” Resistance struggles have given rise to our greatest wins. To address the root causes of injustice, we are often called to stand against the destruction of what we hold dear. This strategy analyzes and challenges our current political and social institutions by contesting their legitimacy and by directly confronting how they perpetuate inequity. Approaches can include direct action, community organizing and electoral work.

RECREATE: Generating New Systems - The future we envision calls for the creation of new institutions and practices to take the place of the broken ones that have not been serving us. As we resist and succeed at dismantling current unjust systems, we will need to erect new institutions and paradigms. This strategy enables us to experiment with new ways of constituting our society by building entirely new models, forms of governance and leadership structures. Approaches can include democratic schools, restorative justice processes, local economies, and open source technologies.

goodmorningteachera:

In the Philippines, they are using shipping containers to build similar low-cost housing.  Not a bad idea for a school building - for small classes :-) It looks well ventilated also.

unconsumption:

This isn’t your great-grandmother’s one-room red schoolhouse …

The Vissershok School — located near Cape Town, South Africa, in a rural area where most students are “children of farm workers and underprivileged communities” — is built from a used shipping container.

Tsai Design Studio, mentioned previously here, designed the project.

For more container reuse, check out the Unconsumption archive here.

toseealambatschool:

By Ruth E. Van Reken and Sally Rushmore

Advances in science and technology, globalization of trade, international competition for markets, ethnic conflicts, and the limits of the planet’s ecosystem have brought global issues and the people of the world to our doorsteps and classrooms. With the…