Lynn Rasmussen - Learning Strategist

 We Obama people have been pregnant, enduring an enormously long gestation, and then a painful labor, until, finally, Joy! we gave birth to a wonderful new being.

We’re not sure yet exactly what to do with it. We crazy about this new being but it’s a lot of responsibility and demands a whole different focus and set of priorities, and we’re not sure what those are yet.

My conception started with  Barack Obama’s speech at the DNC in 2004. I read his books, followed him on tv, and voted for him in the primaries. The day after watching Sarah Palin accept the vice presidential nomination, I called the national Obama campaign office and told them that I could do anything and go anywhere. They sent me to Ohio.

I spent 6 weeks in Ashland, Ohio campaigning for Obama. I became part of the community-organizing, data-collecting, goal-setting, goal-making, heart-wrenching, focused, dedicated network that was a movement. My husband joined me for 2 weeks and went door to door, called, and even entered data.

I came home a couple of weeks early, feeling the need to get back to Maui for the final event.  We made calls to Nevada from our house and then watched the fabulous (!) win (!) on Election Day with our neighbors.

The morning after the election, after months of living by my instincts and my gut feelings, of not knowing what I wanted to focus on, of letting my book, coaching practice, my life at home go, I woke up with a new idea.

I woke with a vision of how to completely evolve education as we know it. A way to reschool school. Community-based, data-driven, networked, self-organizing and scalable. But most of all, like the Obama campaign, respectful, inclusive, and inspiring.

I think, Oh, Lynn, are you sure you want to write this?  It’s weird. It sounds egotistical and manic. It’s too big. And then I think, No. It’s not me. It’s the idea. It will work. Everything I know points to it.

I’m going to start small, with people who get it, and work my ass off. There is absolutely nothing more important.

Yes, it’s possible. Yes, we can.