Deborah+Meier

__**IMAGINATION: Why It's At The Core Of Schooling For Democracy**__ Presented by: [|Deborah Meier] Father Sarducci's [|Five Minute University]

- the path we take as teachers has to do with the kind of learners we are - we're all born curious inquirers trying to make sense of our worlds - the schools should get ready for the kids, as opposed to the kids getting ready for the schools - how do we prepare kids for the complexity of the modern world? we've barely scratched the surface

Developed 5 Habits of Mind that were the basics of all curriculum for the schools founded by Meier: 1) What's the evidence? How do you know what you know? 2) Is there another viewpoint? 3) Is there a pattern here? 4) What if? Supposing that... 5) Who cares, anyway?

- map-making fit very well with the 5 Habits of Mind - all maps are created from different perspectives - whenever you try to recreate something round onto a flat surface, you must distort something - there must be some compromises, as with democracy...

- each student set their own learning path and all learning paths were all built around the premise of 'imagination' - it's not possible to sustain democracy if we can't imagine what we can't accomplish - we must expand our student's ability to imagine possibilities that are not within their immediate potential - we shouldn't view disagreement as a bad thing... we should see disagreements as challenges to imagine competing possibilities

- millions and billions are incredibly far apart, and in this day and age we must know the difference between them

- even in moments of stress, we stick with our habits - democracy is under stress - we must sustain, nurture and expand democracy

Listen to a portion of Deborah Meier's presentation at the Engaged Learner conference: media type="file" key="Engaged Learner - Deborah Meier.mp3"