Each morning, parents around the world pack lunches, help children get their backpacks on and send them to the communities that we call ‘school.’ Each morning, educators around the world have the opportunity to step into the classrooms and create fresh learning possibilities.

“Learning is always a creative act,” Gregory Cajete begins Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education. And:

We are continuously engaged in the art of making meaning and creating our world through the unique processes of human learning. Learning for humans is instinctual, continuous, and the most complex of our natural traits. Learning is also a key to our ability to survive in the environments that we create and that create us.

One of the biggest mistakes that we make as educators and parents is to underestimate and the power of the school experience. How often do we take a moment to stop and ask ourselves “What is the true depth of learning that the school environment offers?”

Education is the process of learning to shape our experience in the world. Schooling is a powerful vehicle for personal and social transformation. When children engage with big, juicy concepts, they develop new lenses through which to see and embrace life. Through this process, they are catalyzed toward a state of self-awareness and understanding, and they begin to name, explore and hone the unique gifts already within them.