How did VISTA get started?

On February 17 and 18th 2006, a group of people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities, who have in common a deep interest in changing the nature of how education is conceived, and what kind of education is delivered around the world, met to discuss an action plan. These people are not, for the most part, high profile names or academics. They are people who have worked in business, training, e-learning, and schools and understand what will work in their countries and are ready to lead in making change.

The group was convened by Roger Schank, Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University and currently the CEO of Socratic Arts. Present were Sebastian Barajas of Learning Works in Spain, Magali Jurado of the City of Knowledge in Panama, Hans Konstaple from the Netherlands, Zaheer Kidvai of BITS in Pakistan, Dimitri Lyras of Ulysses Systems from the U.K. (and Greece), Steve Wyckoff of ESSDACK in Kansas, Bob Daugherty of Knowledge Investment Partners, and Mike McGarry of Socratic Arts.

The group agreed that at least six things need to be changed in order to create school settings that work for students who have difficulties in traditional school settings.

• The role of the teacher
• The contextualization of what is learned
• The relevance of what is learned to student’s goals
• The relevance of what is learned to society’s goals
• The possibility of real choice for students
• The measurement criteria

They came up with a proposed list of curricula, including the first four years of the VISTA curricula.