How to Talk "Imaginative Education" (to People Who Only Want to Hear "Brain Science")

This is you (no, really)

I've lagged in posting because, for the last week, I've been consumed with preparing (and giving) a speech for the 2014 Imaginative Education Conference, held in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. Its title: How to Talk 'IE' to Someone Who Only Wants to Hear 'Brain Science.'

It tackled a fairly serious problem I've had: I know IE, I love IE — and yet it's been very difficult to talk about. The standard way of presenting it (starting with the concept of cultural–cognitive toolkits) tends to befuddle people from the get-go.

That's tragic, as IE is (I think) an unbelievably powerful idea — maybe the most powerful in education today. 

And, at its root, it's a rather simple idea, as well.

That, at least, is what I suggested in my conference talk. I've re-recorded the talk, and I'll be posting it (in chunks) over the next couple days.

Here's the first part:

I'm in love with Imaginative Education - the teaching theory promulgated by Kieran Egan and others - but I've had a hard time explaining it to other people. In this talk (first given at the 2014 Imaginative Education conference in Vancouver, BC) I sketch out a new, "upside down" way of presenting IE.

Part two:

For all four parts of the talk, please visit schoolforhumans.org/2014/07/08/how-to-talk-imaginative-education

Part three:

For all four parts of the talk, please visit schoolforhumans.org/2014/07/08/how-to-talk-imaginative-education

And, finally, part four:

For all four parts of the talk, please visit schoolforhumans.org/2014/07/08/how-to-talk-imaginative-education

I'd love (love love LOVE) feedback on the talk.

Oh, hold up — if you don't know anything about IE (Imaginative Education, that is), don't worry. The video shall explain all.

I haven't written much about IE lately, which is, frankly, weird — I see IE as being the beating heart of our school, particularly in the early grades. (In the triad of love—mastery—insight, IE is the tool that enables us to nail love.)

One of my (myriad) hopes for our school is that it can be a sort of flag for the educational world on how powerful IE is in crafting a curriculum that matters — that draws in all aspects of a students cognition, particularly their emotions.

If you like this video, let me know — I'd be interested in tweaking it to explain IE to an audience who's never heard of it. And then maybe releasing it as a series of quite short videos.