“The assumption of smart and dumb kids is so deeply ingrained in our society that it is hard to imagine an alternative. But the alternative is right before us: All human beings are born with unique gifts. The healthy functioning of any community depends on its capacity to develop each gift. When we hold a newborn we do not see a smart or a dumb kid. We see the miracle of life creating itself. The loss of that awareness is the greatest toll exacted by our prevailing system of education, in and out of school.” Peter Senge
We seem to invest a lot of time trying to find someone to blame for how we educate our children; teachers, administrators, and parents all come to mind. Yet, the system we live within has been with us for hundreds of years, with little change. Changes we make to current education, whether it is tweaking Traditional Public Schools (TPS’s) or fleeing TPS’s for home schooling or private schools, is essentially based on the same paradigm, just in different contexts.
Every TPS district or alternative education setting must make the decision on educational transformation strategies they will accept and those they will not. It truly must be a community by community decision. Underlying each decision, communities must embrace developing each child’s gifts so that they can realize their potential. How the community decides to get there is altogether another matter.
That is where Dr. John Inman steps into the picture. With a deep understanding of how humans organize into communities, how humans communicate through dialogue to create meaningful and lasting change, and how humans of all ages learn, grow and contribute to the world, he can help educators of all types come together to craft their own unique path forward to transform how children learn.
Dr. Inman grew up unable to read the way his school system taught, methods basically unchanged in 50 years and understands how so many children wither in the predominant education systems. His work is founded on the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and any strategy that helps move a school system towards teaching the way children learn vs. forcing children to learn how the teacher teaches is of interest. Dr. Inman embraces learning strategies to include traditional Indigenous learning, andragogy, flipped classrooms, cognitive processes design, green inspired classrooms (SEED), multiple intelligences pathways, systems thinking, multi-tiered classrooms, technology assisted learning, situated learning, and scenario based learning. He helps education communities design their own transformation approach based on these and any number of other strategies.
Dr. Inman can assist in developing learner center curriculum and Indigenous learning curriculum. An example of an NEO tribal training: neomanualscreen
Dr. Inman one page capabilities introduction to education excellence
The exceptional is all around us. Our job is to recognize that every child, in fact every person, has gifts to contribute to our world.
Contact Dr. Inman at 541-497-3774 or at john@learningexceptionalities.com to explore how he can help you achieve transformation in your educational community.
