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I wholeheartedly agree with Ian's thoughtful comments. I also appreciate the frankness and openness with which everyone in the room voiced their opinions and shared their difficulties from where they sit. I wanted to reiterate Natsu's comments about the option of encouraging inquiry-based learning outside the classroom. She has expressed in a very concise manner what has worked for many kids and adults in an overly structured education system. If the goal is to preserve the curiosity and therefore, freedom of mind for all of us, adults and children alike, then any opportunity where we can do this will add up! We, as members of society, "teach" by what we say and do. And as the NetLogo experiment shows, small preferences in each individual can create a massive outcome. So institutional pressure or not, we CAN do inquiry-based learning in our daily lives and 'buck' the system in practical terms.

Now, a question: can we, as caring members of societies, bring like-minded people together - perhaps as an outcome of this minisymposium and make things happen?? I'd be interested in an action plan. We all have plans of our own, but wouldn't it be nice to put our efforts together and row in the same direction and go somewhere??