The Kansas City Restoration School is focused on creating cutting-edge systems for intergenerational learning that support self-directed education in a community of practice.
Our Board of Directors recently met to discuss the essential steps toward building a rehumanizing educational experience. The domains we are investigating are Relationships, Communication, Self-Care & Community Care, Environment, Learning Pathways, and Policy that correlates with Practice.
At KCRS, we are all lifelong learners, and our efforts to reclaim the nature of learning as an ever-present aspect of being alive, are getting attention globally. Our KC Timebank is one of the many ways that we are embodying all of our core values (Equity, Freedom, Reality) and leading by example in the international conversation about how can we "Raise the Value of Learning" through the use of alternative currency and time exchange. Our approach is completely unique. We have proactively designed our timebank to be a revenue stream that underwrites our sliding scale tuition plan. Our timebank is integral to how we build relationships and communicate our needs to our students and their families. Students will be well oriented to time exchange as a method for curating their own learning journey, as well as how they may band together to invite experts to come and "audition" to teach at our school. Timebanking is also a wonderful pathway for solving intractable community concerns, in partnership with other organizations in our city. The value proposition that we are offering our community is one of reciprocity that honors the interdependence of the individuals in the community.
Our organizational culture is built to be "healing-centered" which is to say that we are practicing trauma-informed resilience capacity development. Our restorative practices are each a pathway that supports and nurtures relationships through self and community care. Practices such as anti-racism, inclusion, mindfulness, sociocracy (governance by consent), circle process, restorative circles, peer support & mediation, Collaborative Proactive Solutions (CPS), and InterPlay are all ways that we are practicing our values of Equity, Freedom, and Reality. We are building a community that is about practicing ways of being that are embedded with deep collective skill-building and witnessing the individual's development of their own gifts and talents. To rehumanize education, we must destigmatize the difficulties that come with being a human on this planet right now, at this time in human history. With all that is before us, all of the problems to solve, the best we can offer to the world is a place for people to be who they really are: unique individuals who are inextricably connected to others; all longing to self-actualize and bravely endeavor to protect our collective humanity. This is a "no-coercion" zone.
This is who we seek to be together.
Will you join us? Now is the time for all hands to be on deck. How? Look below for the many ways that you can support & join our extraordinary community of practice.
