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What if we made a school?

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What if we made a school? I asked. What if we started from nothing, with nothing more than the end goal to educate people? And created a system of education. What would that system look like? I don't know, they responded predictably. What if it looked like the Boy Scouts, like their merit badge program. That was the beginning for me, the Boy Scouts. Merit badges. Now, of course everybody's been in a hullabaloo about digital badges and such lately and of course they've entirely missed the point – merit badges provide an excellent opportunity to bring education back to the learner in the real world; real world badges still have merit, digital badges – maybe. I'll tell you why. The merit badge program allow learners to study at their own pace. Merit badge programs are self-motivated (yes, I know – just as many moms have earned eagles scouts as have boys, but that's beside the point). Merit badge programs create a product of value, often tan

The Greater Good

We ran into this group, GGSC, The Greater Good Science Center , a few weeks ago. They're out of Berkeley. They're amazing. They are at the fore of a new scientific movement to explore the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior—the science of a meaningful life.   They promote not only exploratory science into the truth about happiness but also turning that science into literal technology and applying it (fancy that, relevant science).  They do so through an online magazine , a blog , and a few other appropriate venues. From what I've read their articles contribute relevant, enlightening material in a very pleasing, affable, academic manner. I know thats a lot of adjectives, but they deserve them all. Berkeley knows what's up. Check out this article on the truth about adolescents.

Spiritual Wholeness: First Strike

We met. We discussed. We wrote. And here is the final (mostly final? Is anything ever really final?) realization of Spiritual Wholeness, the first of the Seven Wholenesses we seek to understand. Enjoy. And please, please, let us know what you think. Spiritual Wholeness is proper, clear, and complete connection: connected deeply with the Higher Power, connected internally with self, and connected horizontally with one another.  To be Spiritually Whole is first to be connected with the Higher Power who has perfect capacity to fulfill our need for love. This connection brings us into obedience with Divine Law and aligns all matter within ourselves.  We can then look beyond the world of physical substance and connect with one another and realize peace in these connections. In this life we deal more with the process of becoming Spiritually Whole rather than the end of being Spiritually Whole. However, during this process we can enjoy peace and happiness in the now as well as

The Wholeness Discussion

To date, the Luminary Discussion group is progressing well. We have met weekly for the past two months to discuss wholeness. We broke wholeness into manageable categories: Spiritual, Intellectual, Physical, Social, Economic, Creative, and Environmental. The first three deal with the individual, the next three deal with the individual's interaction with the outside world, and the seventh deals with the individuals place amidst all things. Sam Stapp, one of the group's members said, this is the learning experience of my life. This is the way I have always wanted to learn finally I am doing it. He referred to many aspects of the group that contribute to its learning environment, but most specifically its atmosphere of discussion and self-motivated learning of the most core principles. 

Social Entrepreneurship Penetrates Education

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Social entrepreneurship is finding its way into many different corners of education. InspirEngage began its competition, "Create Your Career", encouraging "young people   ages 11 to 16, to think about starting a social venture and how it could lead to a career," reported the  Ecopreneurist . Its a pretty sweet set-up that will allow kids to create great social ventures, and more so, it will ingrain in their minds the benefits of a new future, a future of social enterprise and social change.  To help young people get started with their social entrepreneurship, they have access to an ideas notebook, support from a  Live UnLtd  development manager in their area and £500 of funding, as well as access to a Skills BootCamp delivered by InspirEngage.  Social ventures can range from sporting activities, intergenerational themes or groups hosting recreational events.  Clothes recycling and re-design workshops, anti-gun crime merchandise, street dance classes and a t

Social Is

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Guess who's back! Guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back, duh na na da ni da de woo. That's right, I'm back. Today we've got some more on what social is. Bright B. Simons , stationed in Ghana, and writing for HBR, remarked: When social entrepreneurs say that they want to "work themselves out of a job" they are not making a glib statement to sound cool. They are merely stating the obvious — they want to fundamentally solve the problem that their solution is designed to address. He adresses one of the fundamental attributes of SocEnters – they want to solve problems – not keep that problem alive and milk it for all its worth. He goes on:  True, some commercial/traditional entrepreneurs invest substantially in research too. But only to assure themselves that someone will pay enough to make the development of the solution worthwhile. That the person paying the price sufficiently benefits is actually secondary. What matters is tha

A Little Update

Hey guys, Happy New Year to all, and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanza, or other rejoiceful holiday. I have been vacationing in Florida and in my fine home of Washington so I have not posted in a time. The good news is I am back in town and back in business, and I'l be posting more cool stuff soon. The even better news is, it looks like I will have some new writers joining me to create awesome content on the blog. I'll write again soon. Until then Merry Wishes, GS