This was a wonderful experience. I was able to meet face to face many people with whom I had been corresponding for many years as well as my Aussie friends.
One of the things to come out of the conference was a strong desire to establish teacher training courses that rally suppported Democratic Education.
My next stop was Vancouver. This was to visit Windsor House School where I stayed for 6 weeks. I was made very welcome and met many wonderful people, some of whom I hope to meet again at IDEC 2003.
I was very busy during mystay as this extract from one of my emails home illustrates:
I'm at a talk on nonviolent communication on Monday night and then I'm moving to Meron and Mehdi Mazhari's house on Tuesday night. I'm at a school meeting on Wednesday night and on Thursday night I've been invited for dinner to another family's home. Yes life of the unemployed can be hectic can't it!! I'm off up the Sunshine Coast (British Columbia) early tomorrow morning for the weekend and am going dancing with people from school on Sunday night. I've been told it will be fun whether or not one can dance!!
yesterday i took a group of students aged from 5 years to 16 years to Science World (like Investigator Centre but housed in a stunning former Expo building). there were 34 students altogether and they had a fabulous day. Then today I sponsored a class called "Creating stories" which ended up lasting 3 hours because the kids just kept going until I had to go to take another class! Two boys asked if they could be in Creating Stories every day!! They are two of the most unlikely to want to participate in such things! The other staff were amazed not only that they came, but that they stayed for so long and wanted to come every day!
The next stop was Albuquerque. I really loved the colours of the desert here. It was just a couple of days and I visited the Bosque School.
My itinerary then took me to Nevada City California. Unfortuneately the conference was cancelled. I have followed this group for some time and had been looking forward to meeting some people face to face. Paths of Learning October Conference "Growing Healthy Selves, Families, & Communities" Paths of learning. So I had a few days of rest before heading to São Paulo, Brazil.
I had been invited to come and help set up Brazil's first Democratic School, Lumiar. What an adventure this was. Getting to learn a new language and living in a different culture. I was there for six months, until my visa ran out, the school started and I lived the last weeks at the school in central São Paulo.
In early April, I returned to Australia and am currently in Perth. However, I have received funding to go to IDEC 2003 at the Albany Free School New York in July.