Being a Contribution to the Dream

In my dreams my children live and grow in a world more full of beauty than the world I was born into. My dreams have outdoor classrooms where children are seen as marvels of nature and the importance of teachers is recognized as the helping hand of a conscious evolution. My dreams have people of every kind living respectfully with the beauty that life is, respecting the rights of other people and the earth.

I believe that the function of learning is to create whole human beings.



It is my heartfelt desire to create an educational environment for growing children grounded in that intention.

My desire and enthusiasm for working with children comes paired with an enjoyment of discovery. I envision learning as a way to genuinely share curiosity with other people. I am committed to empowering them in affecting the world around them in a positive way. To this end I am pursuing a weekend training workshop through an organization called The Pachamama Alliance (link). Pachamama is rooted in the dream of bringing forth a Socially Just, Environmentally Sustainable, and Spiritually Fulfilling human presence on this planet as the guiding principle of our times.
















The Pachamama Facilitator Training (link to Awakening the Dreamer) engages in dialogue about our environment and our society while at the same time facilitating it's participants to put on their own presentations. The intention of the training is that by creating a new dream we can start to explore our story of the world in a way that empowers us. It's clear to many that the realms of Social Justice and the Environment (not to mention Health Care and Education) are incredibly important for the coming generations, it only makes sense to me that we prepare them with some tools for seeing the world in a positive and generative way. Having this dream, or this positive story of the world that empowers us, is all that spirituality really means to me. Many questions and problems, as well as wondrous discoveries, face later generations. We can't even begin to imagine what they'll face even in our lifetimes, so we must encourage them to imagine and to learn. Teaching the children how to learn, and looking for teachable moments has a lot to do with encouraging them to be people who relate their own story like it matters. I strongly believe that such a curriculum for children would have exponential affects upon their world (and it is their world).


If you are interested in contributing to my attendance at this training the total cost is 600$, which includes all my expenses such as food, lodging and gas (this does not cover books). I have put a down payment of 250$ on a training in Danville, CA from March 6-9 2008. Please mail contributions of any amount by February 28th to:
Kenneth Fischer
2218A Prince Street
Berkeley, CA 94705
(contributions received after this are still appreciated)
For Questions or comments please write to: kennethfis@gmail.com


The Next Step in My Dream

Pachamama currently has a 4 hour symposium for adults and teens. The Facilitator training is designed to empower the participants to get together in groups and present the Awakening the Dreamer symposium. At Pachamama, an NGO-501c3 non-profit with 18 full or part-time employees, there has been much interest in developing a program for younger ages from 5yrs old up. It is my belief that such an undertaking would require much more than a single presentation to really provide the children with a cohesive story about the world that surrounds them. On the contrary--with the children, being so much less jaded than us adults, they should be encouraged to invent their own stories. By exploring their own stories they not only get to know themselves, but by listening they learn the stories of their classmates. Does it really matter if the story is about a mermaid or superhero, as long as they author it? By exploring in a listening environment and sharing creative ownership the children start to experience what a community of peers is.