Slightly different track :)

A snippet from: http://www.creatinglearningcommunities.org/book/roots/laszlo2.htm

From There to Here

When we think of the kind of future we wish to bequeath to future generations, we imagine one in which we finally have found ways to live in harmony with each other and the other inhabitants of this planet and are consciously and ethically engaged in the most fascinating explorations of our human potential. This is our vision of a “sustainable and evolutionary future.” By sustainability we mean the capacity to maintain the viability of the biosphere since, without it, neither healthy life nor healthy societies are possible. Evolution, as we are using the term, implies the conscious capacity to unfold into new ways of self-organization that allow for a fuller expression of the creative potential of the universe of which we are part. In this sense, sustainability is as a necessary but not sufficient condition for an evolutionary future. But combined, these two features provide a powerful attractor¹  for the ethical co-creation of desirable futures.

Evolutionary Learning Community

Evolutionary Learning Community (ELC) is an ideal image of a future educational system. The three interrelated concepts that comprise the ELC construct (evolution, learning, and community) make explicit the key assumptions and aspirations underlying this image of education:

·         It is a community based educational system. Rather than functioning on the assumption that we need to go to school to learn, to work to be productive, and “away” to enjoy and have fun, ELC suggests the integration of work, learning, and enjoyment throughout life (i.e., intergenerational learning) in all our communities (e.g., family, neighborhood, organizations).

·         It is a learning oriented education, rather than a teaching based one. Its focus is life-long learning and the development of human potential.

·         It promotes self-directed, flexible, ongoing collaborative learning through learning community. This is not simply collective individual learning, but synergistic collaborative learning: learning content issues together while at the same time learning process issues about how to be community.

·         It seeks alignment with the evolutionary processes of which we are a part and empowers people to participate in conscious evolution.

Beautiful by Design

Chapter 1: "Nurturing Genius Through Natural Learning; Self Design"
Please log in and comment I want to hear other perspectives on this evolutionary thinking!!

This Chapter is full of "ah ha" moments. Made me realise how out of touch I am with true 'living'. How often have you felt in the flow of life where your daily activities and chores seem to just blend together effortlessly and your in touch with yourself and others. I know very occasionally this has happened, its called alignment with our own nature. We can have this all the time if we can stop thinking of our lives in terms of outcome and start noticing the inner process to lead to a more joyful way of living and learning.

Being Present

"Children are born totally present, and healthy relationships are based on full engagement in the present" hence we have so much to learn from our children by learning how to access the same state of presence. This chapter discusses tools to help us with this such as:

• looking closely how the conscious mind can limit the perceptual world

For me this means recognising how I can make everyday activities fun for myself and when I am enjoying life it helps everyone around me to enjoy life

• recognising the culture in which we grow up defines our identity

I understand this to mean we see ourselves as having to be a certain type of 'mother/father', 'wife/husband/partner' 'person at work'. To give a basic example: sometimes this makes me say to myself  "I have to cook dinner every night". This is the pressure I alone am putting on myself no one else is saying the dinner has to be cooked......being conscious of where we put pressure on ourselves to have certain things done and therefore not living in the moment and being. The judging of ourselves needs to STOP :) We have a choice!

Brent Cameron discusses Hardings findings and how he has a webcourse to learn his techniques and how we can use them with our children. I am yet to find this on his website but have been in contact with him  so will ask about it at a later date.

He goes on to discuss how SelfDesign is a whole mind/whole body learning process....true freedom to be curious enthusiastic and learning within a community, the optimal way of being human.

Let me know what you think of these ideas which is Chapter 0 "Nurturing Genius through Natural Learning"

SelfDesign "The Book"

"Nuturing Genius through Self Design" by Brent Cameron with Barbara Meyer, is a book we will be looking at and working through together - the adults in our Buds of Life group :). Anyone else is more than welcome to join us on this part of our journey! "As the self evolves, the design of our lives reflects this proportional growth, and our plans and passions shift accordingly. This is the heart of the self design process" Barbara Meyer. As this metodology involves a process of changing our beliefs about how education can be, my intention is for us to be able to work together to recognise how this will fit into our lives and look when we are interacting with ourselves , our children, and each other.

The Intro discusses conservation and innovation and finding the balance between using what has already been and using something new. Self Design is about living in alignment with our own natures which therefore creates the greatest balance. Not only our children will feel happy and fulfilled we as adults feel happy and fulfilled and everyone benefits.

I loved the analogy of gluing wings on a caterpillar that is used describing the current model of schooling where as to allow our childrens gifts to uniqely unfold "our caterpillars to metomorphose into butterflies" their natural learning ability can be nutured and they will fly with passion and understanding of how joyful life can be.

Buds of Life!

We are a group of Mums and Dads interested in home educating through a natural learning approach, our precious children and we invite you to come to our weekly get together. Participate in the fun and learning we share together as adults and children.
Our gatherings involve talking about healthy eating, sharing recipes and sustainable living ideas, making our lives full of learning and being role models of this: so the children see how wonderful and engaging life is!
The group meets regularly at various locations, such as the library, pool, beach and each others houses which stretch from Slade Point to Ball Bay.
We love to watch our little ones learn and grow together as they play, laugh, create, experience and share amongst each other. Our interest in home educating our children creates likeminded discussions and confidence in our direction.