Learning – Deborah Frieze

Life and death outside my bedroom window

July 24, 2013/in Emergence, Learning, Play, Uncategorized, Walk Out Walk On /by deborah

Every morning I wake up and watch life and death outside my bedroom window. We have two beehives perched on the roof of a first floor sunroom. As I watch the hive come alive with the morning sun, most of the bees begin their very full workday, zipping in and out, hovering as they await return entry. But a few of the bees have a different task: Their job is to pull the dead and dying out of the hive and deposit them on the roof, where some lay lifeless and others tremble with their last breaths.

Photo by Lars Nelson

Leaving Utopia: A Glimpse of How the World Could Be

April 16, 2013/in Community, Friendship, Learning, Pioneering Leaders, Play, Walk Out Walk On /by deborah

A little over a year ago, I made my first visit to Järna, Sweden, home of the Youth Initiative Program (YIP), a one-year social entrepreneur learning program for 18-25 year olds. As I was preparing to depart, one of the YIPpies stopped by my room to ask me how I felt about my visit. It was then that I spoke the lyrics to what would become the first song I ever wrote when I said, “I feel like I’m packing to leave utopia.”

That was foreshadowing. It wasn’t until my third visit, two weeks ago, that I would really encounter utopia, a glimpse of how the world could be.

Restoring the flow of abundance at Kufunda Village

January 17, 2013/in Community, Food, Friendship, Gift Culture, Learning, Localism, Money, Pioneering Leaders, Uncategorized, Walk Out Walk On /by deborah

Last week, I spent a few days at Kufunda Learning Village in Zimbabwe. Here are just a few of the many activities that were going on:

In the herb lab, Patricia and Enock are blending tincture of Artemisia with lemon juice and raw honey to help a neighbor who is suffering from chronic asthma. They will provide a month’s supply of this remedy for free. Patricia dreams of opening an herbal clinic in town where she would work four days a week so she could spend the fifth at the Kufunda clinic and keep it free.

Meditation on the merits of doing nothing

January 7, 2013/1 Comment/in Food, Friendship, Learning, Play, Uncategorized, Walk Out Walk On /by deborah

It is my tenth day in Mozambique, and the wind is howling through our thatched home. Rain poured in sideways through the night, dampening our beds and pooling on the concrete floor. Fifty feet away, three teenage boys are bailing out their fishing dhow, hoping to spare it from the sunken fate of its neighbor—though both boats will be dry enough in a few hours when the tide goes out.

More Evidence That We Walk Outs Need Each Other

August 23, 2012/0 Comments/in Community, Friendship, Learning, Pioneering Leaders, Social Media, Walk Out Walk On /by deborah

Last week, I participated in my first Tweet Chat. This was a four-hour, pre-arranged Twitter session using the hashtag #wowochat to link tweets together in a virtual conversation. Fellow Walk Out Walk On-er Aerin Dunford and I decided to co-host an inquiry among Walk Outs involved in learning and education. Our invitation was this:

Many educators unsatisfied with our current school systems are walking out of institutions and limiting beliefs about what’s possible. These brave folks are walking on to create new learning spaces outside of formal educational infrastructure; to challenge attachment to grades, diplomas and degrees; and to convene breakthrough conversations.

During this Tweet Chat, we’ll explore questions like:

What has compelled you to walk out of mainstream education?

How do you integrate your fears as you step into the unknown?

What are you called to walk on to now in your life?

Is it possible to create the new without engaging dominant institutions?

The restoration of citizenship: Is Occupy our opportunity?

November 9, 2011/1 Comment/in Community, Emergence, Learning, Uncategorized, Walk Out Walk On /by deborah

Last night, I attended a forum at MIT to reflect on the significance of the Occupy movement. Pete, one of the Boston Occupiers who coordinates the medical team, was sharing stories about the challenges of daily life in Dewey Square, which alongside activists and protesters, has attracted drug dealers, sex workers and the homeless. According to Pete, the Boston police have essentially handed Dewey Square over to the Occupiers, requiring that they police themselves.

Walking Out isn’t about abandoning institutions. It’s about abandoning beliefs.

June 14, 2011/3 Comments/in Emergence, Learning, Walk Out Walk On /by deborah

In my May 21^st blog, I bemoaned the decision to shut down more than a dozen schools in the Boston public school system—most of which serve low-income neighborhoods. I wondered what “walking out” of this system might look like, and went as far as suggesting “…that might mean pulling our children out of the school system and turning to one another to create neighborhood learning spaces which replace schooling with discovery.”

Doomsday comes and goes. How come we keep falling for it?

May 21, 2011/0 Comments/in Community, Learning, Walk Out Walk On /by deborah

It’s Doomsday today… again. Bostonians must be a cynical lot—or at least uninspired by the Rapture—because the only sign I’ve seen of the impending end of the world is three vans careening along Charles St. with “Judgment Day” and so forth emblazoned on their exterior.