by Renee Owen | Dec 16, 2013 | Director's Blog, News
Look who came to visit! Nura Laird (formerly Ashrita Laird), blessed us with a visit in November. Ms. Laird is one of the brilliant women who founded Rainbow in 1977. She was executive director for the majority of the Rainbow’s first 14 years and an extraordinary leader and visionary. Rainbow simply wouldn’t be here without her. Nura has dedicated her life to education and spirituality. Nura and her husband John now live in California, where they are leaders at a Sufi university. It was a joy and an honor to show Nura and John Rainbow as it is today.
by mark | Dec 10, 2013 | Director's Blog, News
Bob Hanna Interview With Renee Owen
…and having a conversation!
Click on this link to listen to a Podcast from Asheville Fm’s Living Well program. Host Bob Hanna spends an hour with Rainbow Community School executive director, Renee Owen, interviewing her about her own fascinating history and her approach to education. She talks about her experience working with educators from around the World at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and explains why Rainbow’s inclusion of spirituality in the classroom is a key factor to holistic education.
by Renee Owen | Nov 11, 2013 | Director's Blog
Photo by xedos4
From a fellow classmate at Harvard, “The only way for humans to compete with technology is to become more human.” (From the Future of Learning, Summer, 2013)
As I have written lately, the more technologically advanced society becomes, the less humans are valued for doing jobs that can be outsourced to computers. So the question we educators are constantly grappling with is, “What do we need to teach the youth of today, in order for them to be competitive in our new high tech world?
The overly obvious answer seems to be “computer skills,” but life is much more complex than that! Mika, one of my classmates this summer helped us realize that being MORE human, and therefore, more HUMANE, was the solution. As educators, the moral curriculum is more important than ever.
by Renee Owen | Nov 11, 2013 | Director's Blog
…was my response to this video. Thank you, John Johnson, from Odyssey Community School for sharing it with me.
by Renee Owen | Nov 4, 2013 | Director's Blog
Jambo! I had an amazing trip to Africa! My parents from Minnesota, who are in their 70’s, and my sister and I traveled with an organization called VOSH (Volunteer Optometric Services for Humanity) to Marangu, Tanzania – a village at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, to provide eye care and eye glasses to people in need. We served over 3,000 people from the age of 3 to 103 – some of whom could barely see at all until receiving their first pair of glasses. You can imagine how emotional this experience was. Besides the 30 of us from America, 20 translators—mostly young college students from the Marangu area, worked with us. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to bond with people from a different culture. At the end of each work day, the translators were enthusiastic about bringing us into the village to shop, meet people, see a waterfall, eat, etc. Beautiful, welcoming people; beautiful place! I can’t tell you how many times we were asked when we are coming back!
After our work was complete, our group enjoyed a four day safari to the Ngorongoro Crater, Munyari National Park, and Tarangire National Park. When people ask me which animals I saw, I say, “All of them!” It was breathtaking. As much as I loved the animals, the fact that I am a people-person was evident. During safari, I was captivated with the Maasai people as much as the lions, giraffes, and elephants. It turned out our land-rover driver’s ethnicity was Maasai, so we learned a great deal from him about their fascinating culture. We had the pleasure of visiting a Maasai boma (village), and the privilege of taking pictures, meeting them, asking lots of questions, and even getting to go inside a few of the homes. It is remarkable how this tribe integrates with “civilization,” yet maintains their culture and traditional way of life. The Tanzanian government makes sure their nomadic lifestyle can be preserved through protection laws. Now when the first grade does their awesome Africa unit, I may know almost as much as they do about Africa! It will be an honor to work with first grade this year, and I brought back some cool artifacts for them to handle. I also brought back many intangibles to share – the best one being a little bit of the vibrant spirit of the African people and the beauty of the circle of life, which is so powerfully felt there.
While I was over on the distant hemisphere, I took advantage of the opportunity for a side-trip to visit my oldest daughter, Mesa, who is attending college in Grenada, Spain, this year. With that plane transfer, came a one-day visit to Amsterdam as well. In both places, I was struck by how wonderful it is to live in a large city when life isn’t overrun by the noise pollution, air pollution, and general disruption caused by automobiles! Few people own cars, so everyone walked or biked everywhere, and many streets had little automobile traffic at all – mostly just occasional delivery trucks. When people aren’t living their lives behind the windshield of a car, they have rich community. Despite the fact that European cities are more tightly populated than American cities, I realized that due to the pedestrian lifestyle, the quality of life is so much higher, in my opinion! I hope we can convince Asheville to move toward the pedestrian model as much as possible. There is always so much to learn from travel.
Of course, the best part about travel, is always coming home; but coming home to leaf season in Asheville and, in particular, to my beloved Rainbow Community, was a joy. I can’t fully describe the elation and gratitude I felt to see everyone again, especially the children. I love you all so much!
by Renee Owen | Oct 30, 2013 | Director's Blog
Grandparents: Do you look forward to attending Grandparent’s Tea? Please come to the grandparent event at the Princess Anne Hotel this Sunday, from 2pm to 4pm. Grandparents are an integral part of the community at Rainbow.
If you have attended Grandparents’ Tea
in the past, you know that we split grandparents into two groups and hold Grandparents Tea on two different days. Why the hassle of holding it twice? Simply because we didn’t have a room large enough for everyone. The multipurpose room could only house enough tables and chairs to seat about half grandparents who attend. Unfortunately, our space issues have escalated to such a degree this year that now there is no space for it at all! Therefore, Grandparents Tea is not being scheduled for this year!
As sad as that is, there is much to look forward to! By this time next year, we hope to be in a space large enough to hold a lot of great community events. Not only will there be enough space for all grandparents to be in the same room, but for their grandchildren to join them for tea and treats.
This Sunday, from 2pm to 4pm, is a lovely grandparent event we hope you will attend. The Princess Anne Hotel is hosting it, with a wonderful selection of wine, beer, and horse devoirs provided. There will be a short, entertaining presentation on Rainbow’s growth, and the opportunity to purchase of the West Asheville Church of God. It’s a great way to learn how to make this dream become a reality. Let’s make sure we have room not only for Grandparent’s Tea next year, but many other delightful Rainbow celebrations and events.
