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Before we can take action towards improving education in Canada, we need to be sure we understand the problems at hand. We must take the time to re-examine the big picture: the history of education, the social changes of the past 100 years, the roles of community and family in schools, and what research has shown about how humans learn best. When we understand where we are and how we got here, we can begin to re-envision our schools and work to transform education to meet the needs of today and the challenges of tomorrow.

Problems in education can be seen in a variety of symptoms in our youth and in our society. How did we get here and why is it so hard to change?

Find ways to get involved and see what others are already doing.

Since public education became common, less than 200 years ago, the rate of change has accelerated exponentially. Education needs to come to terms with ongoing and increasingly rapid changes in society, technology, the economy and our world.

Human beings are literally born to learn. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution has given us a brain that is specifically designed to grow and develop in response to our environment. That means there are times and ways that humans naturally learn best and environments and circumstances that promote optimal learning and development. .

As we share best practices and synthesize existing research on how humans learn best, we can begin to collaborate on a vision for taking action for authentic educational change.

Learning is not restricted to buildings called schools. Children need the sport, involvement and interconnection of home, school and community to develop to their fullest.

Humans are a learning species designed to learn, Each of us is born with everything we need to ‘grow our own brains’ – but only if we get the right kind of interaction with the world around us, especially during critical periods of brain growth.