Recently I got an e-mail from a concerned friend, asking me if I am okay. I think she’s been reading some of the articles I’ve been writing lately about how I almost killed my Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs and how I was in the process of a Shamans Death.
We mortal humans have a river of emotions flowing through us, and when we allow all of our emotions to flow through, no matter how uncomfortable they are, one feeling leads to another. Even when a sharp stick is in the flow, if we trust the process and let ourselves allow our feelings to flow through us without judgment, the broken branches will naturally move down river.
A Sharp Emotional Stick
In April I ended my relationship with the business coach I had worked with for over six months. This was a mutual decision, and it was a great decision for me. In my attempt to try to learn how to market and sell myself, I wore myself out and lost touch with the beauty that is in me.
Allowing the grief to flow through, letting myself wonder if I were a coward and a quitter, I released everything. I let go of everything I thought I knew about what I was supposed to do in the world, and how I needed to do it.
This was uncomfortable sometimes, but I trusted it, even when I didn’t trust it.
New World Catalyst
Because I emptied myself out, even emptying myself of self-confidence, a space was created in me. This space allowed me to have a Big Idea, an idea which allows me to give the best I have to offer in the place the world needs it most.
My Big Idea came to me, note that I did not seek it, when I was preparing to go to Portland to teach a week-long class to teachers, which I do every summer for The Innovative Northwest Teacher. I usually stay with a dear friend who I met when I was a Distinguished Oregon Educator. We sat next to each other in a large room at the Oregon Department of Education, and we laughed too much and got shushed often.
She told me a good friend of hers had just gotten hired as the superintendent of a K-12 new international school in Nigeria. “You two have got to talk!” She said.
What if Schools Prepared Students to Work for Google?
“What would I do if I had a new school to play with?” I wondered. A Big Idea appeared about how I could design a program that would teach character, courage, initiative, and responsibility throughout the curriculum, and connect to the 21st century in the most glorious, human way. Students would create curriculum that was alive and relevant. Rigor, relevance, and relationships! A school based on how our brains work and what the human heart craves! Cowabunga!
Ahh, the power of simply asking a Question!
The answer came to me, like a deer, a little idea wonders into an open meadow of the brain. If I could play with an entire school system, I would have students do more and teachers do less. I would have students focus on one word each grade level, such as friendship in kindergarten. Science experiments studying friendship could be set up, the kids could keep track of friendship, produce videos, write stories, draw pictures, create calendars–in short, students creativity could become the engine of the school.
We could repeat the study of friendship in sixth grade, when students certainly need to take another look at what it means to be a friend. “You don’t have to be friends with everyone, but you do have to be friendly to everyone.” Wow! What a great motto for sixth grade.
I decided to have a curriculum description that was only two pages long. If Apple can create a manual for the new iBook that is only two pages long, certainly I could create a simple, easily understandable, yet profound system to revolutionize education. Nobody needs eight more notebooks of curriculum sitting on the shelves.
And I already know how to do this! I know how to get kids and teachers excited about writing, transforming reluctant writers into eager writers in one session. I know how to transform a school that is full of bullying behavior into a school that leads with kindness and courage. I’ve done it. I’ve done it all over the world.
Synchronicity at Work
As it happens, another good friend of my friend in Portland was just hired as the head of CEESA, the Central European International School Association. This Association had invited me to be a keynote speaker in 2006 in Prague. I’ve known her for years and she needs to build a conference. How cool is that?
I decided to contact a good friend of mine, Paul Poore, of the South American International Association. I met him when I was presenting for the African Association for International Schools when he gave a speech because he had been selected as International Head of the Year. He has the heart and mind and the respect of the International School Association that I needed to help me move my Big Idea forward.
We talked for about an hour and he told me my timing couldn’t be better. The international school conferences now are all about schools of the future. He gets me, he gets this Big Idea, and he has the connections to help make it happen worldwide. He tentatively invited me to speak at the March 2012 ASSA conference in Quito, Chile.
Meanwhile, my son Martin, who works at Google, has agreed to pass on Paul’s invitation to Google to speak at the same conference.
What does this have to do with you?
If you have something that the world needs, and you wouldn’t be reading this unless you did, I’m hoping my story will give you the encouragement you need to step up, lean in, ante up, let go of all your excuses, and create the support you need to stay in the game. I just happen to write a song about this, and I’m including it as a gift in this week’s newsletter.
I’m putting a brochure together for New World Catalyst: Education for the Future–Now! If you are interested in this, let me know, I need all the help I can get transforming education worldwide.
Is that a big enough idea, or what? Does it sometimes scare the piss out of me? Yes, it does.
Blessings,
Vicki Hannah Lein
P.S. The spammers are still winning, so I can’t allow comments on my blog. If you would be so gracious as to comment, please email me at vicki@outrageousvisions.com.