Rethink Learning Now

It is with enormous gratitude that I write this heartfelt thanks and reflection to my Shinnyo-En family. When I was invited to attend their conference in Hawaii and the lantern floating ceremony, I almost didn't come, as I was so busy with work and felt that it would be irresponsible to take off -- without my family -- for a week. So, I talked to my husband about going, and he said, "You should do this...it's a gift and it's as important to accept them as give them." And...

Mr. Ward created a 60-member chorus and a 60-member marching band from a small high school student body in a DOD (Department of Defense) school in Berlin, Germany, during the days of the 'Cold War' - and he did so in only 4-5 years' time. Mr. Ward was from California, and for military kids who identified each other by the state they were from, California was considered a beacon of coolness. It didn't hurt that Mr. Ward had a handsome boyishness about him, either, although he was...

The Dalai Lama was once asked in front of a live audience what was the cheapest, fastest, easiest way to enlightenment. His reaction was to put his face in his hands and weep. After a few moments, he said that this was not a question a practitioner of meditation would ask, and that if he knew what enlightenment was, there would be no hesitation to do what it takes to attain it.

In this same way I could weep when I hear those who wield influence in the field of education...

Our mama taught us how to be simultaneously brave and pliant, and we found ourselves in this winning combination.

Mama Annie was my only teacher for much of my childhood. She home-schooled me through several formative years spent in Central Java, my father's birthplace. There I made note of the traditional preference that a woman not laugh too hard or be too assertive. There my peers were taught to wait, be patient, and to duck and look down when passing adult men.

I grew up in a space in-between. A mixed race child who predominantly spoke Mandarin and "Chinglish" until about the age of four or five, I remember having a really difficult time in school. I must have sensed the discrimination from the parking lot. Once my parents and I passed through the doors and into the hallways, I wanted to run right back out of elementary school. I was curious enough to stay, but I started crying, which my teacher disliked; she responded by...

Learning is a lifetime necessity that is increasingly subtle with the aging process. Behavioral scientist Ralph Tyler, one of my mentors, was chair of my doctoral committee at the University of Chicago. At that time, he was dean of the arts and sciences division, chair of the department of education, and university examiner. (By passing a comprehensive batch of tests, overseen by the university examiner, able students could secure the bachelor's degree in less than the usual...

The press badges on two junior high reporters caught the president's eye at the steps of Air Force One. "Oh, I see you're starting early," Richard Nixon told the students as he stepped forward to shake their hands.

The two student reporters, wearing the same press credentials as the half dozen professional reporters also at the aircraft, were the only ones who got to talk with the president. He was in Rockford, Illinois to deliver a campaign speech. It was...

I had brought an Outward Bound group to the summit of Mt. Kathadin in Maine, and we were starting to head down the mountain along a relatively flat, long and very exposed bare rock surface that we had to cross before we got back down to the tree line. I was concerned that in the summer afternoons on that mountain there was often thunderstorm activity, so I encouraged them to double time it along the exposed ridge to the tree line.

Everyone took off smartly, except...

My organization, Playworks, started going national about six years ago, and our first expansion city was Baltimore. On our first exploratory visit, we took one of our coaches, Lamarr. In his late twenties at the...

My learning story is also about teaching. After spending some years teaching high school English, I took a break to raise my two babies. During my pregnancies, I rediscovered and rededicated myself to my yoga practice. Yoga was one of those things that didn't come naturally to me but that I loved somehow, and pre-natal classes allowed for a gentle, welcoming reintroduction. After giving birth to two babies in two years, I found myself back on the mat. One of my teachers, Anna...