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September 19, 2006 Issue 78


“In every out thrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is a story of the earth."
—Rachel Carson



SAVE TODAY!
Reduced rate extended! Register for the Pegasus Conference by September 29 to secure your place and save $300 off the standard price!

40% OFF!
Sustainability Learning Package

Use Priority Code LP78 when you order and take another 10% off our already deeply discounted Sustainability Learning Package to get a total 40% off the list prices! Purchase the entire package for only $116!

 Sustainability Learning Package
Order #LP0601, only $116 (regularly $193.40—a 40% savings)
The Sustainability Learning Package includes the following 8 items. Click on "Order" to learn more about each item. The price for each item when sold separately follows the item description.

• Growth on a Finite Planet DVD
Order #VONE003DI, Color, NTSC, 47 minutes, $125.00

• Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update
Order #OL027, Softcover, 338 pages, $22.50



• Overcoming the Seven Sustainability Blunders (PDF Format)
 Order #140501, article, $6.00

• Creating Sustainable Organizations: Meeting the Economic, Ecological, and Social Challenges of the 21st Century (PDF Format)
Order #IMS008E, 20 pages, $10.95

• The Natural Step: A Framework for Achieving Sustainability in Our Organizations (PDF Format)
 Order #IMS005E, 15 pages, $10.95

 • How Attractive Can Our Communities Be? (PDF Format)
 Order #130105, article, $6.00

 • An Economy Designed to Sustain the Environment (PDF format)
Order #130706, article, $6.00

 • Sharing the Bounty, Stewarding the Planet: Systems Thinking for Emerging Leaders, (PDF format)
 Order #150903, article, $6.00


PDF items will be sent to your e-mail address.

Diana Fisher Book Set—
Teacher's Guides for System Modeling Assignments in High School

Purchase both books at 20% off!
Set of 2 books only $158.00
Order #OL02829SET

Included with each book is a CD-ROM that contains student lessons in PDF format, and an installer that will enable you to put the models and/or a copy of the STELLA® Runtime software (produced by isee systems) onto your hard disk.

Modeling Dynamic Systems: Lessons for a First Course
This book captures the system modeling assignments that Diana Fisher created and used to teach a year long course in system dynamics modeling at the high school level from 1992 - 2005. The guide contains introductions to each unit and answers to each problem.
Order #OL029 Softcover, 262 pages, teacher’s guide, $99

Lessons in Mathematics: A Dynamic Approach with Applications Across the Sciences
This teacher¹s guide captures the system models/assignments that Diana Fisher created and used in various algebra, pre-calculus and calculus courses at the high school level from 1991 to 2005. The guide contains introductions to each unit and answers to each problem.
Order #0L028 Softcover, 342 pages, teacher’s guide, $99



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Pegasus Communications provides resources that help people explore, understand, articulate, and address the challenges they face in the complexities of a changing world. Since 1989, Pegasus has worked to build a community of practitioners through The Systems Thinker® Newsletter, books, audio and videotapes, its annual Systems Thinking in Action® Conference, and other events.
 



FACE-TO-FACE
 Not Instant Orange Juice—Educating for Sustainability
An interview with Jaimie Cloud

PEGASUS CONFERENCE UPDATE
 • Final Brochure Now Available!
 • Striking a Collective Keynote
• Two New Concurrent Sessions
—Building the Future By Hand
—Honoring the Student Voice in Our Learning Community
AT ANY RATE
The Dynamic Lifecycle of a Musician 
 



FACE-TO-FACE
Not Instant Orange Juice—Educating for Sustainability

Jaimie P. Cloud is the founder and president of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education in New York City. The Institute offers curriculum development, organizational development, and professional development for educators focused on helping young people and their teachers adopt new knowledge and new ways of thinking in support of a sustainable future. In a recent conversation with Leverage Points editor Vicky Schubert, Jaimie touched on the strong systems thinking perspective at the center of their work.

LP: I assume it’s hard to bring new thinking to school systems whose politics, finances, or history make them resistant to change. How do you manage to stay enthusiastic and keep this work moving?

JC: Our children are in those schools. One thing that is critically important to remember about working with schools is the amount of time they have with the children. We know the kids are there for 13 years. That amount of time can be a huge leverage point in changing the consciousness of a nation. This kind of stuff—systems thinking and sustainability education—it’s not instant orange juice. It’s a way of thinking, a series of habits of mind; it’s being able to transfer what you know and apply it in other areas; it’s about asking better questions than the ones that have been asked of you—these are things that take time. And kids are great paradigm shifters. They have everything to gain by moving toward a sustainable future and everything to lose if we don’t. That’s why we keep pushing.

One of schools’ biggest challenges is that they are required to cover certain things and they only have so many hours in a day in which to do so. We have to understand how schools work and demonstrate that what we’re offering actually meets their needs and adds value. When the material helps kids become better people or learn how to think more critically, I’ve never seen a teacher turn away. Systems thinking is perfectly suited to supporting kids in meeting state and national learning standards.

Continue reading this interview...

Suggested further resources:

The Systems Thinking Playbook by Linda Booth Sweeney and Dennis Meadows

Sustainability Learning Package (use priority code LP78 to save an additional 10%!)
 



PEGASUS CONFERENCE UPDATE
16th Annual Pegasus Conference
Leading Beyond the Horizon: Strategies for Bringing Tomorrow into Today's Choices
Westin Waltham-Boston Hotel
Waltham, Massachusetts, November 13–15, 2006

Register by September 29 to secure your place and save $300 off the standard conference price!

Final Brochure Now Available!
With a detailed schedule and updates on the latest additions to the program, this final overview will help you get a jump on your conference planning.
Download final brochure.

Striking a Collective Keynote!

Risking Your Significance
Dawna Markova—Now Joined by Rachel Bagby and Andy Bryner!
It’s one thing to talk about new ways of thinking and acting; it’s another thing to actually start doing so. We’re excited to announce an enhancement to bestselling author Dawna Markova’s keynote presentation that will energetically and engagingly bridge the gap between theory and practice. During Tuesday morning’s plenary session, Dawna will be joined by spirited vocalist Rachel Bagby and acclaimed composer Andy Bryner in a new kind of conference experience. They will use stories and sound to create the conditions for us to think beyond the limitations of the past and begin to move toward the future we want to create.

Two New Concurrent Sessions!

Building the Future By Hand
Bongile Funani Mkhize and Kelebohile Marjorie Maleka, Soweto Mountain of Hope Project
Begun with no funding in the early 1990s, a community initiative in South Africa addresses poverty and pollution by turning discarded newspaper, plastic, and glass into economic assets. The Soweto Mountain of Hope Project has burgeoned to include after-school sports and environmental programs. Hear from members of this thriving learning center, and participate in the “upcycling” of waste materials into useable treasures.

Honoring the Student Voice in Our Learning Community
Les Omotani, Superintendent Hewlett-Woodmere School District

Young people are often more open to what is emerging and less attached to outdated mental models than adults are. Their facility with systems thinking coupled with a natural interest in longer-term outcomes make them vital partners in any conversation about shaping healthy futures. In this session, participants—young and old—will interact with each other and practice hearing the voice of youth in a new way. Explore with students how they are learning about systems thinking and servant leadership. Then consider how the Pegasus Conference can be better structured to optimize youthful participation in a way that benefits the whole conference community.

To learn more about these and other program highlights, check out the conference website.
 



AT ANY RATE
The Dynamic Lifecycle of a Musician
by Bill Harris

This month, after an interlude of nearly 3 years, we're pleased to offer a new "At Any Rate" article and accompanying web-based model. This model, by system dynamicist Bill Harris, draws upon an article by musician and orchestra management consultant Drew McManus about business cycles in the professional classical music field ("The Natural Cycle of Things," The Partial Observer, December 5, 2005). With conservatories and schools of music graduating more music majors than ever before, what impact will the increased competition for positions in professional orchestras and other groups have on the field? Enjoy the observations in the article, and then try the associated model to explore its ideas further.

The "At Any Rate" column seeks to enhance the quality of dialogue about important topics and to increase the level of systems thinking capacity in the world by demonstrating how such skills can be applied to everyday issues. For an archive of previous models, go to the Pegasus web site.

Read the article and explore the model.
 



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