Thanks for coming to the Summit!
Here is our welcome video highlighting schools from across the city - we hope you like it!
Summit: the place where you can simultaneously see where you have come from - and where you could go.
On Saturday, at City Neighbors we held the 5th Annual Progressive Ed Summit. Over 450 folks from across the city and state came together.
Dr. Howard Fuller launched our work Saturday morning. With a combination of conviction and humility, with fire and ease, Dr. Fuller lifted us, called us to action, provoked us to reconsider, and confronted our basic notions. He made the claim, “The purpose of education is to give children practice at being free.”
If that is our purpose, then our teachers and educators need that same call and those same opportunities. At Saturday’s summit, this practice at being free was powerful and present. Educators came together on their own volition to grow, connect, experiment with ideas, and reflect. Throughout the day, folks agreed and disagreed with passion and respect. Over forty-five teachers and practitioners used their voices to share their work, their strategies, and their ideals to make the collective stronger. Our authors – who have published their ideas – came to share those compelling ideas. The day was steeped in individual choices and individual pursuits, but all in a spirit of community, collective growth, and collaboration.
Thanks to all who came out: the workshop presenters, our featured authors, our volunteers, the many foundations who made it possible to offer this conference for free.
There is much work to do. There may always be so much work to do. But, surrounded by so many educators, parents, administrators, operators, and students, it was clear that we are forging a way forward that is rooted in seeing children as powerful, creative, loving, and worthy of the deepest respect. Standing at this summit, we could see where we could go - together.
So, let’s keep going! And, let’s check back in next January for the 6th Annual Progressive Ed Summit.
Bobbi and Mike