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HRP Update March 2023
9 Plays2 years ago
Welcome to a brief HRP update with me, Nick Covington, Creative Director here at Human Restoration Project!
As you may have hear, Chris & I are coming off a whirlwind of a week in Columbus, Ohio, where we hosted a team from our Poland-based partners at Holistic Think Tank, Polish teacher representatives from the Polish-American Freedom Foundation, and a rockstar group of American teachers that included a team from our friends in Muskegon, Michigan (be on the lookout for more involvement from them in the future), as well as Trevor Aleo, and Jen Lucas; on the campus of The Ohio State University. The keynote of the conference was from none other than former Finnish minister of education & the author of Finnish lessons, Pasi Sahlberg, speaking not only to the need for systemic change, but the right kind of systemic change: rooted in cooperation, customized curriculum, holistic teaching and learning, trust-based professionalism, and where every school is a good school.
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Transcript
Rethinking Education: Logic vs. Memorization
00:00:00
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Good morning.
00:00:01
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Good morning, sir.
00:00:03
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How are you?
00:00:04
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We are all right, sir.
00:00:08
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How are you?
00:00:09
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Fine, sit down.
00:00:11
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We sit, they tell us good morning.
00:00:13
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We open the box and we start.
00:00:17
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My hand would be really tired because in math especially, we write like 20 pages of math.
00:00:24
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It's a lot.
00:00:26
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Just sit and write, sit and read, sit and read.
00:00:31
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I don't like going to school.
00:00:35
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A lesson is boring because they repeat, repeat, repeat the same question and sometimes they give you more information about something that you will not use in life, especially the history.
00:00:46
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Like we are talking about the past.
00:00:48
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Like we are now in the present and yes, we should know about the past, but why making a book when we can search on Google?
00:00:57
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Yes, they make us memorize 50 pages.
00:01:02
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I was told to memorize math.
00:01:04
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My chemistry book I memorized it.
00:01:06
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My biology book I memorized it.
00:01:08
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And I want to say that going about logic would be a better way, but if you memorize, you can pass.
00:01:14
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You don't have to really understand the subject and go into the details.
00:01:20
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If you memorize, you're good to go.
HRP's Columbus Conference: A Global Gathering for Change
00:01:26
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Hello and welcome to a brief HRP update with me, Nick Covington, Creative Director here at Human Restoration Project.
00:01:33
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As you may have heard, Chris and I are coming off a whirlwind of a week in Columbus, Ohio, where we hosted a team from our Poland-based partners at Holistic Think Tank, Polish teacher representatives from the Polish American Freedom Foundation, and an absolutely rock star group of American teachers that included a team from our friends in Muskegon, Michigan.
00:01:52
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So be on the lookout for more information from them in the future.
00:01:55
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as well as Trevor Elio and Jen Lucas on the campus of The Ohio State University.
00:02:01
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The keynote of the conference was none other than former Finnish Minister of Education and the author of Finnish Lessons, Pasi Sahlberg, speaking not only to the need for systemic change, but the right kind of systemic change rooted in cooperation, customized curriculum, holistic teaching and learning, trust-based professionalism, and where every school is a good school.
00:02:24
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This was also Holistic Think Tank's American debut, and what you heard in the introduction was an excerpt from a short documentary titled Good Day that they filmed in over half a dozen countries around the world in 2022.
Documentary 'Good Day' and the Global Student Experience
00:02:37
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The documentary followed the lives of students in Kenya, Lebanon, Poland, the United States, Brazil, South Africa, and India to understand their experience of school.
00:02:47
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HRP participated in both the research study and the film project with the cooperation of Antonio Beeler, the founder of Abrome in Austin, Texas, both of which are featured prominently in the documentary.
00:02:58
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A YouTube search for Holistic Think Tank will lead you to the doc very easily, and I'll have a link in the show notes as well.
00:03:05
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We are also hosting a watch party in our Discord book club on March 21st at 5 p.m.
00:03:11
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Central.
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We hope you'll join us.
Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Tackling Universal Educational Challenges
00:03:13
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The focus of the conference was on the launch of Holistic's Interdisciplinary Subject, or IDS, for which we developed an interdisciplinary curriculum
00:03:21
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based on Holistic's 10 standards of what schools ought to teach, which include how to confront themselves with challenges, how to function in relation to the world and nature, as well as one's own body, aesthetic and cultural awareness, and how to function in society.
00:03:37
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Chris and I presented our vision of an interdisciplinary curriculum, as did the other grantees from the Fab Foundation and the University of Sheffield.
00:03:45
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We at HRP are thrilled to announce that we will be working closely with Holistic and our friends, Drs.
00:03:51
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Ryan Bramley and Sabine Little of the University of Sheffield in the UK on the next phase of the project.
00:03:58
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That is...
00:03:59
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working directly with teachers to test drive the IDS in schools and gather feedback for a more thorough and coherent
Creating a Nurturing Learning Environment: Universal Needs
00:04:06
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rollout in 2024.
00:04:06
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Please change.
00:04:09
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Please stop listing of expectations too much.
00:04:13
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Too much.
00:04:15
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Understand.
00:04:16
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One thing I would like to tell them is that understand that we are still kids.
00:04:24
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Through extensive research, Holistic Think Tank has diagnosed and confirmed universal challenges and shortcomings in teaching school subjects.
00:04:36
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There is universal energy and need for change that flows from the hearts of students, teachers, and educators in different parts of the world.
00:04:48
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Our HDT research proved that the conditions are different all over the world, although the needs are universal.
00:04:55
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So let's prepare some tools that will help children address their needs and embrace them with the atmosphere and a place which is friendly, caring and safe for them for their development.
00:05:08
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We want to concentrate on education as a system of shaping their personalities, giving kids a good start to their further adult life.
00:05:16
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It's about creating and shaping the social attitudes.
00:05:20
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It's about building our identity, our personality in the contact with others.
Pay-What-You-Like IDS Lessons: Accessible Education
00:05:26
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Now, with the holistic think tank summit behind us, we've made available six of our IDS lessons as a pay what you like resource, as are all of our materials.
00:05:36
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at humanrestorationproject.org slash resources.
00:05:40
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Of course, you can also learn more about Holistic Think Tank and their vision for an interdisciplinary subject at holisticthinktank.com.
Virtual Conference Announcement: Restoring Humanity
00:05:49
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Our other huge announcement is, of course, the keynote and learning track lineup for our upcoming fully virtual Conference to Restore Humanity, which takes place July 24th through 27th, 2023.
00:06:03
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The feedback we got from last summer's conference was incredible, and we've taken it to heart to provide an even better experience, community, and purpose as we will work together to break the doom loop.
00:06:15
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The simple act of having hope for a better future breaks the doom loop and builds a platform for action.
00:06:22
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In Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, the main character, Lauren Olamina, digs and leads others to this well of hope amidst climatological and man-made disaster, disruption, and mass death along the American West Coast.
00:06:36
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Spreading the philosophy of Earthseed, she writes in her Book of the Living, the destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars.
00:06:45
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A different world is possible if we overcome the distortion of our senses and see beyond broken systems.
00:06:52
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By setting our sights toward something new, we can reveal solutions that already exist today.
Spotlight on Innovation: Student Activism and Joyful Teaching
00:06:59
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Leading us in that work in July are Antonia Darter, Cornelius Minor, and Jose Luis Wilson.
00:07:06
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And these keynotes are flipped, meaning each day we will release a roughly 30-minute recorded keynote from the speaker before getting to spend a full hour in Q&A with them.
00:07:18
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We're also working to secure our fourth keynote, which we have tentatively lined up as a student activist group.
00:07:24
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Additionally, we'll offer three asynchronous tracks for you to engage with throughout the week.
00:07:30
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A green education to change the world, a new perspective on education through video game design, and a third track to be determined.
00:07:39
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We'll also have live daily workshop events led by teacher teams and organizers to help us put the desire for change into practice.
00:07:48
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So please follow, if you don't already, our social media pretty much everywhere at HumeResPro and sign up for our newsletter for information and updates as our conference lineup grows.
00:08:00
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And you can learn more and grab early bird tickets right now at humanrestorationproject.org slash conference.
00:08:07
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And as far as this podcast goes, I'll be back with a new episode on March 18th with the incredible Miss Elmi, at Miss H-E-L-M-I on Twitter, an elementary teacher in Canada whose work is rooted in joy, love, and liberation.
00:08:23
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Be sure to check out the work she is doing with the kids in her class since you can truly feel the energy coming off the screen.
00:08:30
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I can't wait to share that conversation with all of you on the 18th.
00:08:35
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So here's to wishing all of our educator friends, listeners, colleagues, and supporters a wonderful, restful, and safe spring break this month.
00:08:44
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You deserve it.
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You've earned it.
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Take care.