In 2011 while trekking through the Himalayas of Nepal with my friend Steph Reynard, we met Jeff. Actually first we met incredible flags describing children's dreams on them around a local school at nearly 4000m altitude. And it won our hearts.
We interviewed Jeff back then and he won our hearts too and since, life on the road has enabled me to become a more practical supporter of the project and put more energy in to what I feel is one of the great examples of how we can all contribute to a better world for our children.
I feel very grateful for Jeff's friendship and humbled to know someone so committed to creating a platform that empowers children to dream a better world for themselves, to walk the path of their hearts truth and enable Schools to help prepare students to be part of a world they WANT to be part of.
I am a big fan and hence, would like to share a short exchange I had with Jeff on the project and its expansion in to the digital realm (with this Kickstarter campaign), enabling a shared dream, bringing dreamers together in an increasingly digital world.
The Dream Flag Project is an invitation for students to reach into their hearts, to find what Langston Huges calls their "heart melody," to write about it, often in poetry, to put that on a standard sized piece of fabric, make it sing with color, attach it to a line with others, and share it with the world.
That's the simplicity of the project and the reason it's travelled so far and so deeply--around the world, into innner cities, into remote villages, all over. But at a deeper level, The Dream Flag Project is a path for bringing dreams back into the classroom for a better world.
What does that mean?
It means that when you look at the way education used to work, at least in America and much of the world, "the dream" was to do well in school, get the opportunties that afforded, and "do better" than your parents--to have a material life that's fuller and materially easier. It may or may not have ever been true, but it was a motivating dream for many. And it doesn't work anymore. Students do well in school, go to college, and can't find jobs. They have fewer opportunities than their parents, not more.
The old system was built on a model of continuous growth, a stockmarket that always increases in value. Greater GDP every year. Continuous economic expansion. And, as Jane Goodall tries to point out to everyone who will listen, that doesn't work in an ecosystem. It's a recipe for disaster--a recipie for death.
And The Dream Flag Project? Making stuff out of fabric and hanging it? Where does that fit in?
The Dream Flag Project brings a different kind of dream back into the classroom. It brings a "we dream." It's fundamentally a group experience. Students, inspired by the poems of Langston Hughes or whatever else their teachers provide, are invited to articulate their dreams. Some are simple--like having a chicken on a Dream Flag from a village in Madagascar. Some are poignant -like the wish for a cure for Alzheimer's from a student I taught this year who lost her grandpa to that disease. Many are global, like the a Dream Flag from a village in western Russia about hoping that people will be kind everywhere or for an end to wars. But all are linked to a line, done in a group, and connected to each other. As in powerful poetry, it's the metaphor of the project that carries the impact. Connecting to others. Knowing you're not alone in your dream.
As it says on our Kickstarter site, "Schools should help prepare students to be part of a world the WANT to be part of. The Dream Flag Project already helps students to imagine that world. DreamLine will help them make it their reality."
How?
Through network and connection, the greatest single benefit we have from the sytem of technology that's part of all of our lives. Connection to others who share a dream, brings strengh and potential for real change. So it's a very open forum. And it's in schools, not outside of schools. That means it's safe for children. The teachers are in charge of making it a safe space through moderated exchange.
What will happen if we create this global network of teachers and students around the world who share dreams?
We don't know. And that's a great thing. Starting The Dream Flag Project, we just invited teachers to have their students take part in a simple process of Dream, Create, Connect, and Share. It's an open framework that's been taken in so many directions, places, and extensions, we never could have anticipated them. In today's educational world, everyone wants to know about outcomes. Like children are being processed and we can predict what we'll turn them into. Like any organic growth process, the outcomes are not completely predictable. We're not machines. Yay! But the growth that comes from connections has tremendous potential to instigate positive change.
It's very simple really. When you look at hundreds and hundreds of Dream Flags, or thousands and thousands, not one, not a single one, zero--say they dream of wiping out all of the so-and-so's or beating everyone in a war. They're about health, about safety, about prosperity. And they're about peace and fairness and harmony. When you create a global way to help children see those goals as tenable, and when they have a structure that supports small actions toward them, who knows what will happen.
So we want to bring dreams BACK into the classroom--but for a better world, for a we-dream.
Please pledge your support for DreamLine here.
The Dream Flag Project brings a different kind of dream back into the classroom. It brings a "we dream." It's fundamentally a group experience. Students, inspired by the poems of Langston Hughes or whatever else their teachers provide, are invited to articulate their dreams. Some are simple--like having a chicken on a Dream Flag from a village in Madagascar. Some are poignant -like the wish for a cure for Alzheimer's from a student I taught this year who lost her grandpa to that disease. Many are global, like the a Dream Flag from a village in western Russia about hoping that people will be kind everywhere or for an end to wars. But all are linked to a line, done in a group, and connected to each other. As in powerful poetry, it's the metaphor of the project that carries the impact. Connecting to others. Knowing you're not alone in your dream.
As it says on our Kickstarter site, "Schools should help prepare students to be part of a world the WANT to be part of. The Dream Flag Project already helps students to imagine that world. DreamLine will help them make it their reality."
How?
Through network and connection, the greatest single benefit we have from the sytem of technology that's part of all of our lives. Connection to others who share a dream, brings strengh and potential for real change. So it's a very open forum. And it's in schools, not outside of schools. That means it's safe for children. The teachers are in charge of making it a safe space through moderated exchange.
What will happen if we create this global network of teachers and students around the world who share dreams?
We don't know. And that's a great thing. Starting The Dream Flag Project, we just invited teachers to have their students take part in a simple process of Dream, Create, Connect, and Share. It's an open framework that's been taken in so many directions, places, and extensions, we never could have anticipated them. In today's educational world, everyone wants to know about outcomes. Like children are being processed and we can predict what we'll turn them into. Like any organic growth process, the outcomes are not completely predictable. We're not machines. Yay! But the growth that comes from connections has tremendous potential to instigate positive change.
It's very simple really. When you look at hundreds and hundreds of Dream Flags, or thousands and thousands, not one, not a single one, zero--say they dream of wiping out all of the so-and-so's or beating everyone in a war. They're about health, about safety, about prosperity. And they're about peace and fairness and harmony. When you create a global way to help children see those goals as tenable, and when they have a structure that supports small actions toward them, who knows what will happen.
So we want to bring dreams BACK into the classroom--but for a better world, for a we-dream.
Please pledge your support for DreamLine here.
