Hello, I have a couple of things to report at this time:

i. I’m writing a book, ‘Learning Your Way: A Guide for Teens to Living a Meaningful Life’, and that’s where much of my writing and researching time is going these days. I’m very excited about it, and am making good progress now on completing a sound proposal before I begin seeking the right publisher. Essentially, I’m including a lot of research insights from the cutting edge of brain-based learning, multiple intelligences and learning strategies, as well as including important insights on things like ‘mythology’, all written with intelligent teens in mind.

I’ve read many, many books targeted at teens and while I think some of them offer some valuable insights and strategies, I think way too many punches are pulled for this audience, and the authors are too often serving a hidden agenda (such as religious ideals). I think teenagers are worthy of the finest efforts we can muster for them and so … that’s what I’m working towards accomplishing with my efforts. I’m also including many of the learning strategy resources I have worked up in ‘SelfDesign Learning Community’ and in the courses I’ve lead in SDLC and ‘SelfDesign-ISK High School’.

ii. I just finished a therapeutic week of camping, swimming and canoeing nearby to where I live on the British Columbia coast, and during this time I finished a marvelous book, ‘The Element‘, written by Sir Ken Robinson. SKR is well-known for the TED Talk-lecture of his on Creativity and Education, and for his other efforts supporting education transformation.

It’s a poignant, significant book and I highly recommend it. Here’s a stirring excerpt from the Introduction:

“The world is changing faster than ever in our history. Our best hope for the future is to develop a new paradigm of human capacity to meet a new era of human existence. We need to evolve a new appreciation of the importance of nurturing human talent along with an understanding of how talent expresses itself differently in every individually.”

Complemented nicely by this quote from the book’s last page:

“To make the best of our time together on this small and crowded planet, we have to develop – consciously and rigorously – our powers of imagination and creativity within a different framework of human purpose.”

I now have a ticket to spend a day with Sir Ken, as well as the Dalai Lama and others, at Vancouver’s Orpheum theatre on September 29, for a day-long seminar, ‘Educating the Heart’. You can learn more about this event, which is part of the ‘Vancouver Peace Summit 2009’, at:
http://dalailamacenter.org/conference/vancouver-peace-summit-2009

Hope to see you there! – Michael Maser