Salon Evening in Korling's Kitchen - What is Education?

The perfect set up for a Salon evening begins with an ideal location.  Imagine a group of nine people sitting cozily in a small living room, in this case, in Stockholm, surrounded by stacks of books, the smell of soup simmering on the kitchen stove and an open view of the waterfront. We were fortunate to be invited by Anne Marie Korling as guests to share an evening of conversation focused on education, home made soup and good company.
Spending a few hours discussing everything from what makes a good school, great, what should schools teach, how should we teach and how the design and structure of school buildings limit the imagination of what is possible. Imagine we said, if schools did not have buildings, if learning was not restricted in time and place.

A great school is a place of authentic learning, where students and teachers alike, are in a process of constant growth, change and risk taking. For what is learning if it does not involve more failure and few successes. We need to help our students tolerate being uncomfortable, for it is often in that state of discomfort where true learning happens. Who ever said learning should be easy?

Our discussion centered on what is worth teaching and how curriculum both liberates and constricts what children are asked to learn. The buildings we use as schools were built to meet the needs of a different time period, in the post industrial age, where teachers reigned supreme as the holders and receptors of knowledge. How different a time we live and learn in now,  except schools have not moved with the changed times. Learning today through technology is not restricted to what certain people know, information is readily available to anyone who asks the question. Perhaps we need to teach our students to ask more questions.

The power of Anne Marie’s insights on learning came during an unexpected moment when discussing  ‘just what was the apple of Eden?  What did it taste and look like? Her words made the apple appear before each of us, feeling its texture, crispness and colors. Imagine biting into the apple for the first time. Anne-Marie had the capacity to make  the ordinary, remarkable.
As educators we too need students to look more closely, to use their macro lens to see, to pause, reflect and discover the remarkable in life.
also contributed by Marta Guevara, Think Global School teacher