Reinvention Lab Audio Experience: Season 2 (a tiny season!) In Season 1 of the Audio Experience, we shared a lot of activity - who we are, who we rock with, what all of us are doing on our own and in partnership.  This December, we rest.  And as we shift our focus, we will share our learnings with you here. First, learnings from a September experiment on rest. We hope that you find some time to rest as the year comes to a close. About This Poem from the author (Colleen Keating-Crawford on the Reinvention Lab team) How we are is so deeply intertwined with where we are. During the Reinvention Lab’s Weeks of Rest test, I created spaciousness to physically and metaphysically return back to my origin places - the where of my younger, freer self. When I did this, my proverbial muscle memory of how to be that freer self came more organically. Ways of being - like playing, building, dreaming, and being productively unproductive - poured forth a new layer of compounding gifts such as refreshed creativity, connections, ideation, and insights. These built upon each other to take me to an entirely transcendent plane from where I was before the Weeks of Rest. Returning to the long grass to reconnect to my play is primal to my personhood. If I cannot regularly return, I cannot continue to be. Yesterday I Sped Past the Long Grass by Colleen Keating-Crawford Yesterday, I sped past the long grass Next to the tall oak trees that reached so high branches touching the clouds the ones we used to climb where we sat and talked without time but not lost found in the company of what matters in the long grass where we were once free The long grass next to the rocky ravine where we used to play where we built forts and made believe quarreled and disagreed into the late eve and never once worried about what could or couldn’t be found in the long grass where we were once free The long grass next to the open meadow where we ran with outstretched arms and open hands where the long grass brushed our palms as the breeze tickled through the tree leaves and the sun warmed our backs found in the long grass where we were once free Yesterday, I sped past the long grass on my way to a place I want to be but I am not truly me and I am not fully free A place where I sometimes enable crowding and noise of all sorts a place where expectation anxiety performance and fear control me they hold me they whisper I am dear if I do what they say if I obey if I play it their way Play Play I forgot how I play how I do it my way I allowed them to toss out my play left in the long grass to be lost in the long grass alone and away So I ran back to its place past the tall oak trees up the hill from the rocky ravine through the meadow There it was My past my freedom my future my play I retrieved it brought it back to me Found in the long grass where I can, at once, be free

Jeff Imrich is Co-founder of Rock by Rock. After 20 years in education, he and his business partner Sung-Ae Yang launched Rock by Rock as an education design and consulting company.

With a background in Education and English, Natalie started HomeWorks with the idea of replicating the boarding school experience (without the bureaucracy, high fixed costs and scalability issues of a school) for girls in marginalized communities around the world

In this episode of the Reinvention Lab Audio Experience, we chat with Rajan Patel, Co-Founder and CEO of Dent Education. More importantly, Rajan brought two Denters, Shay and Zhadyn, with him! Hearing from these young people was amazing. Check out all the cool things they're up to at Dent.  

Episode 3 of this season is a Reinvention Read called The Future of Democracy led by Gen Z. It was written and read by L'Oreal Thompson Payton.  Reinvention Reads are read versions of written material from the Reinvention Lab. You can read the original piece here. 

Mike Yates runs the Network at the Reinvention Lab. He shared his experience with k-12 schooling with the Reinvention Lab Audio Experience. This is his story. 

Welcome to the Reinvention Lab Audio Experience.  This. Is. Us.