I admit it. I’m a TEDTalk addict. And I’ve really, really, REALLY wanted to go to TED. I even want to speak there. I want eighteen minutes to tell that audience what I think our schools can be… how SLA is a step in that direction… about what a school can achieve when a group of motivated educators, students and parents (and a museum) come together to build something.

And then Whitney Hoffman forwarded me this: Dave Eggers’ Once Upon a School Challenge.

Dave Eggers’ TED Wish:

Dave Eggers, 2008 TED Prize winner, wished to collect 1,000 stories of private citizens engaged in their area public schools. He called upon every adult to bring their time, skill, and energy to bear on the lives of students. In collaboration with teachers and schools around the world, people are making his wish a reality.
Now it’s your turn…

The challenge

Design and implement a new and innovative project for local public school students. Collaborate with a dynamic teacher or school to determine the best use of your skills and passion. There are no limitations to what is possible.

Participate by telling your project story

Tell us the general idea of your project, how you shared and employed your particular expertise and creativity. Discuss how you planned and executed your project. Describe the results, how your efforts made a teacher’s life easier. Please include photos or video!

Find out more information at OnceUponASchool.org. The three top projects get to go to TED2009.

Tags: TED

We lost one of the good ones yesterday. U. Utah Phillips — folk singer, poet, Wobbly, storyteller and believer in the goodness and power of the working men and women of America and the world — has passed away at the age of 73.

Utah Phillips words and songs were a history lesson and a rallying cry. He, like Pete Seeger and others, would never let us forget the struggle that has been America, and yet, even a protest song was, in Utah’s deep baritone, an invitation to join, rather than an attempt to divide.

Utah Phillips’ words will live on, and all of us who were touched by his stories have an obligation to pass them — and the ideals behind them — on to the next generation.

[First seen on Tom’s blog.]