A couple of weeks back Jen Wagner tagged me in the Meeting of the Minds meme that originated with Ryan Bretag.  My blog was down for a bit (host issues) and then well life got busy.  So please excuse the tardy post, Jen.

What 10 people would you want President Obama and Secratary of Education Arnie Duncan to engage with in a Meeting of the Minds focusing on the state of education, a vision for education and education reform?

Ponder your vision for education and what people you would want before doing the following

1. Write a blog post that lists your 10 people
2. Optional: Explain why you selected each person
3. Tag at least 5 bloggers of interest
4. Optional: Link back to this blog

I am not sure I know the specific names of 10 people I would want at the table but I know what their expertise should be.  So here is my list, in no special order.

1.  An expert in how we learn.  Having read Brain Rules and similar research I want someone at the table who understands what effects learning (nutrition, stress, sleep, exercise, etc).  These ideas cannot be left out of the discussion on learning education.

2. Educational Historian.  Most of what we discuss about educational reform has already been done. If it was a mistake before, it might be one again.  I think having someone who can speak to past reforms and it success and failures might help keep things in perspective.

I would want some advocates for helping a child reach their full potential not just their academic potential.  These would be people who seek to develop creativity, the arts, invention. Individuals who cringe when people say “the role of education is to produce a productive workforce”. Personally I strive for more and I think most of us do. So to meet that need I would include:

3.  Sir Ken Robinson, he speaks very elegantly and passionately about the need to foster creativity and allow children to develop their strengths and potential.

4-6. Parents of a new born, an elementary age child and adolescent. There are no better advocates for children then their parents.

The final group I would include are practitioners in the art of education and learning.  These would include teachers, administrators and students. Now my scope of choices in limited because I only connect with a few hundred educator and learners, but from my network these are some of my recommendations.  There will be more the four people in this list because I just can’t narrow it down.

7-10.      Alan November
Hall Davidson
Chris Lehman
Maria Knee
Michelle Kjoller a special education teacher in my district
Doug Johnson

Now I need to tag 5 others to share their comments.  This is always the toughest part of the blog.

Liz B. Davis
Lisa Parisi
Lisa Duff
Alice Barr
Fred Delventhal