http://perso.club-internet.fr/nicol/ciret/english/indexen.htm
Involvement with this group can be completely and utterly transformative. “The International Center for Transdisciplinary Research (CIRET) is a non-profit organization, located in Paris and founded in 1987. The aim of our organization is to develop research in a new scientific and cultural approach - transdisciplinarity - whose aim is to lay bare the nature and characteristics of the flow of information circulating between the various branches of knowledge. The CIRET is a privileged meeting-place for specialists from the different sciences and for those from other domains of activity, especially educators. The aim of our organization is fully expressed in our moral project.” The founder of CIRET is quantum physicist Basarab Nicolescu, whose latest book, Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity (translated by Karen-Claire Voss), was published by SUNY Press. Order from Amazon.com:
http://www.princes-foundation.org/foundation/temenos-b.html
Founded by Kathleen Raine, this organization is dedicated to studying “the learning of the imagination.” Temenos “reject(s) the premises of secular materialism, widespread at the present time, which deny the very ground of meaning and value.”
A site drawing
significantly on the experience of Gurdjieff's biographer James Moore, who has
been active in Gurdjieff Work for almost fifty years and who leads a small group
in London and Brighton. The site is a Gurdjieff source par excellence.
There are comprehensive sections on Gurdjieff's life, his teaching, music, and
sacred dances; and the enneagram. There are also links to related spiritual
and cultural sites, plus a chronology of Gurdjieff’s life, and an evaluative
reading list. Gurdjieff Studies are promptly responsive to
serious enquirers who email them at enquiries@gurdjieff.org.uk
http://www-ed.fnal.gov/ed_lsc.html
Nobel-prize winning physicist Leon Lederman has actually shown that children who had been considered unable to do anything resembling abstract thinking, children who were from severely socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, could really learn about science when taught using principles of play and the imagination. This site contains a Teacher Resource Center, Physics Games, and a section called Science Adventure.
http://www.artsonia.com/teachers/default.asp
This is a wonderful site for teachers and students. Those of you who are teachers can make arrangements to have your class’s art project (you choose the theme) put up on this site and for each child to receive a personalized e-greeting with their own picture to keep and/or pass on to friends and family. Children from many different countries have participated.
Recently founded by my long time friend and colleague, David Fideler (whom I have never actually met!) Concord Grove is in a beautiful setting in rural Michigan and seeks to provide “opportunities for higher education that are normally not available in academic settings.” The programs offered are incredibly rich. Recent events included “The Love of Place and the Alchemy of Education” and “Mornings with Magritte, Visionary Art & the Big Picture: An Evening with Suzi Gablik.” Upcoming events include “The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teaching & Poetry of Rumi” and a “Lute Concert with Jacob Herrington.” Even if you live nowhere near Michigan, there are plenty of rewarding links.
This is a “transdisciplinary networked learning community devoted to excellence in the development and study of learning.” The Learning Development Institute enjoys a close connection with UNESCO and is currently involved in formalizing that affiliation. It also works very closely with Learning Without Frontiers, an organization formerly administered by UNESCO.
http://www.unesco.org/education/lwf/
Their vision of an educator is radical and important. In the increasingly positivistic climate of the contemporary world, Learning Without Frontiers believes that “Educators will need to see themselves as involved in social and political change processes, and not teachers of information or knowledge.” Yes.
“The Open Center, the largest holistic learning center in the United States, presents over 600 programs annually on Society, Spirit, Psyche, Body and the Arts.”
“The Santa Fe Institute is a private, non-profit, multidisciplinary research and education center, founded in 1984. Since its founding SFI has devoted itself to creating a new kind of scientific research community, pursuing emerging science. . . SFI seeks to catalyze new collaborative, multidisciplinary projects that break down the barriers between the traditional disciplines, to spread its ideas and methodologies to other individuals and encourage the practical applications of its results.”
http://www.metanexus.net/entrance.html
It is hard to say enough about this site. They really care about what is important. One good example: they are putting on a conference (June 2002) entitled: Interpretation Matters.
Now this is important!