CULTIVATING COMPASSIONATE EDUCATION
August 2, 2006

What is the highest vision for the lives of young people?

What are the best educational practices, policies, and principles that support
children’s self-discovery of their unique gifts and purpose?

How do we foster personal growth, meaning and fulfillment in educational systems dictated by scripted curriculums and excessive testing?

How can we craft partnership (child, facilitator, family) learning environments based
on relationships that nurture authenticity, safety, honesty, sincerity and respect?

What does it mean to support independent, student-directed learning where freedom
to pursue diverse creative and academic areas of interest is welcomed, honored
and encouraged?

How do we nourish spiritual development in public schools?

What does it mean to “educate for humanity”?

These are just a few of the burning questions we will be exploring in depth when you
participate in Cultivating Compassionate Education community gatherings. At the heart of these topics is quality of relationships: the educators’, students’ and parents’ relationship with self, others and the learning process/curriculum. With this in mind, it matters not how you label the learning environment - public, private, Waldorf, democratic, Montessori, traditional, alternative, special education, home schooled or something else – relationship is vital! Replacing fear, domination, coercion and competition with love, caring and compassion is the connecting quality of learning environments, the glue that builds and bonds intimate relationships, the heart and spirit of a community that embraces the fullness and richness of life, individually and collectively.

Education is not simply about teachers covering a curriculum;
it is a dance of relationships among the people of the class. Tim Seldin

So what is Cultivating Compassionate Education? There are innumerable possibilities yet based on your feedback and personal experience, I envision this community being able to serve a variety of needs, interests and desires: advocacy, collaboration, exploration, learning and personal growth, alliances, partnerships, activism, consultation, support, speaker’s
bureau, think-tank and action center, influential, book studies, facilitate town hall meetings, forward thinking, visioning, heart-to-heart dialogues, or whatever else we design together.
The next few meetings are dedicated to participating in processes that support creating community, connection and narrowing our broad intentions into a working vision statement. Your involvement at this early stage of development is important and deeply appreciated.

Cultivating Compassionate Education is not about blame/shame, good/bad, right/wrong,
or us versus them. I have faith that we are all doing the best we can with the information or knowledge we have at any given moment in time. In this community, all viewpoints are
welcome as they contribute to learning, awareness, clarity and lifting us to a higher
perspective.

If you are a parent, educator, child care provider, teacher assistant, administrator, coach, social worker, or simply interested in supporting the well-being of children, please join this community. Your passion, spirit and consciousness are valued contributions. Together we
can make a difference. Together we strengthen our voice and multiply our effectiveness.

Heartfelt gratitude is extended to those who participated and contributed to the launching of
our first meeting on July 20th: Rosemary, Jim and Lily. We engaged in lively conversations about teaching experiences and practices, concerns regarding the value of children and strategies to support colleagues. For the time being, we decided to stay with a central
meeting location where we will reconvene twice in August during this initial phase.

Looking forward to our compassionate connections,
Lovingly,
Adrian Reznik

In loving memory of Dezzy

Copyright © 2006 Adrian Reznik