In 2001, Deborah Frieze walked out of her career as an executive in the high-tech industry. She was disillusioned by a business culture that emphasized short-term results, looked upon growth as an end rather than a means, and cared more about compliance than community. A year later, she met Meg Wheatley and a community of pioneering leaders who, like her, were walking out of organizations and systems that were failing to contribute to the common good. These were friends and colleagues of The Berkana Institute. She currently lives in Boston but can more often be found visiting friends and colleagues around the world who are creating healthy and resilient communities.
In addition to getting to know each other better, on this episode, we also brainstorm possible questions for Deborah Frieze's visit on the next episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers.
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On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, learn more about the co-hosts of our webcast, +Chris Sloan @csloan, +monika hardy@monk51295, and +Paul Allison @paulallison
After hearing about a teacher from Ft. Worth, Texas, Brian Ingram at the end of a couple of recent “Best of the Left” episodes http://www.bestoftheleftpodcast.com we decided to invite him to join us on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers http://teachersteachingteachers.org/?feed=rss2 . Brian is a teacher who recently made a decision to Walk Out and to Walk On into an electoral campaign. The Occupy movement has inspired him to consider a run for Congress. Talk about Inspiring!
Brian joins the teachers listed here in an ongoing a conversation about Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze’s book, Walk Out Walk Onhttp://walkoutwalkon.net :
We also look to learn from the Occupy movements. Recently we have been having discussions around the book http://walkoutwalkon.net which was published earlier this year by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Frieze of The Berkana Institute. We’ve been noticing the convergence between the school change movements that many of us connected to Teachers Teaching Teachers are involved with and this book. We have also taken note of the convergence between the Occupation movements and Walk Out Walk On.
As it says in the book:
Walk Outs are people who bravely choose to leave behind a world of unsolvable problems, scarce resources, limiting beliefs and destructive individualism. They walk on to the ideas, beliefs and practices that enable them to give birth to new systems that serve community. This is the story of an emerging movement of pioneering leaders and communities around the world who are self-organizing to create healthy and resilient communities.
On Teachers Teaching Teachers, we have been talking to teachers involved with their local Occupy Wall Street movements, and we are looking for what we can learn from both that movement andWalk Out Walk On to further our commitments and understanding of change in education.
Enjoy! And join us in upcoming shows when we plan to continue this conversation.
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Are you a Walk Out? Read these couple of paragraphs from the book and Web site, then come join us on Wednesday, 12.21.11 for a chat room at http://edtechtalk.com/live-ttt and watch the LiveStream.
ALSO - if you would like to join us in the Hangout soon, if you have read the book and would like to get in on the conversation directly, just let us know.
Inside dying systems, Walk Outs who Walk On are those few leaders who refuse to work from the dominant values that permeate the bureaucracy, such things as speed, greed, fear and aggression. They use their formal leadership to champion values and practices that respect people, that rely on people’s inherent motivation, creativity and caring to get quality work done. These leaders consciously create oases or protected areas within the bureaucracy where people can still contribute, protected from the disabling demands of the old system. These leaders are treasures. They’re dedicated, thoughtful revolutionaries who work hard to give birth to the new in very difficult circumstances.
And then there are those who leave the system entirely, eager to be free of all constraints to experiment with the future. You’ll read their stories in the next pages. But even though they might appear to have more freedom than those still inside, they encounter many challenges that restrict their actions. Old habits and ways of thinking constantly rear up on their path. It’s easy to get yanked backwards, or to doubt that this is the right direction. It takes vigilance to notice when these old ways of thinking block the path ahead.
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