Would schools look different? Would they be bigger, smaller, better kitted out with IT, better sports grounds, recording studios, better high tech labs, allotments to grow stuff in? Would there even be a school building at all, or has the idea of one physical enclosed space run its course? Would there be classrooms? Would you spend less time with books and more time with computers? Would you learn in virtual worlds? Would you do more in groups - more in the real world? Would you spend less or more time learning?

Would there be teachers? Are teachers the best source of knowledge still? Would you prefer to have more or less guidance? Would you get to make more decisions for yourself - would you design your own timetable and wear what you like? Exams - would you bother? If not, then what instead?

What would a revolutionised education do to help equip you for the world and make you wiser, happier, healthier, more powerful (in whatever way matters to you), and more satisfied? Would you learn more about life at large and less about verb declinations, or would you forget about life at large for a few hours and bury yourself deep in the subjects that fascinate you? What would those subjects be?

Would you have more time to be with friends? More freedom? If you had more freedom what would you do with it?

Does education need a revolution? Is it time? What do you think?

I remember reading a definition of teaching as 'producing an environment where learning can take place'. I think learning is very different than being taught and isn't compatible with any sort of 'National Curriculem'. I also hold that education should be about wholeness and helping to grow rounded and truly connected people.

One approach to answering this question is what inspired the California State politicians then in office to pass a Bill in 1992 which invited 50 applicants to propose starting new so-called Charter Schools (because the successful applicants were given 'Charters' by California to open new schools and receive funds from the State to operate them).

A key element in the legislation for choosing which 50 of the applicants (they got over 200) would win Charters was that they were to be judged by two Criteria.

The first was that the applicants would show Innovation. In other words, the California politicians were looking for 50 potential educational revolutions as models for inspiring educational results in California. Here it is interesting that the Charter School Bill forbade the existing California School Administration from competing for thee new schools - the notion being that they had already had years and years to offer innovation.

The second consideration for choosing the 50 innovators was the degree to which the proposed educational revolutions could be replicated. Here the legislators wisely said they were indeed trying to launch a spread of improved school systems.

Today there are over 6,000 Charter Schools all over America. And now the Conservative Party in Britain is proposing to use this revolutionary proposal. As in America, it is likely to come up against some resistance from local authorities who don't want to lose any control. That this resistance from 'the educational establishment' has been overcome in America is demonstrated by the huge number of new schools and their popularity.

Educational Revolution is happening with the system of learning but not with the meaning..