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Here is the beauty of this kind of institute--a place where, like Serendip, there is room for a diversity of stories and jumping off points.

Just because our stories --where we teach, who we teach, what we want out of the institute, our persectives on education, parents, curriculum, testing, etc... are not the same --it doesn't mean that we don't have important things to share with each other.

I can only be responsible for my story, but I hope that in sharing my story, having others consider my story, and in listening to the stories of others that I can have space to be skeptical of my own ideas as well as the ideas of others.

I'll use an example from the Brain and Behavior Institute. My project asked if we should be teaching grammar in the upper elementary school. My story includes the agency to research a topic like this, take it back to my school and affect change in our curriculum. I understood that when I asked fellow participants to look at my work and respond in the forum, that most of them taught in school districts where the curriculum was set in stone and not open to change by teachers. Still, I needed them to suspend their initial "I can't" to contribute to my story. The idea being that I have some ideas that I have to treat with skepticism (so that I am open to change and growth), they contribute some stories that I treat with skepticism--everyone in the room engages in the same sharing with skepticism and out of the group process emerges a new understanding.

I appreciate your comment, "It feels as though some may view my goal as limiting since it surpasses an overall goal of  "fixing current educational practices."  I do not think that prioritizing this goal hinders the development of new ideas." It reminds us all to own our stories and jumping off points and to not feel judged by anyone having a different story or jumping off point. Each of us has different perspectives and goals in the Institute...the questions we ask, the alternate stories we pose are as much a way of testing what the other person is saying as they are a way of testing our own perspectives.