Thanks for the comment. I am amazed daily by this sense of connectivity gchatting with my friends in Ghana and Ecuador. Sometimes it seems like the biggest barrier to working together is the time difference. Check out the TED talk in my latest post, although its less about the global community and social media, it paints an interesting picture of democratized capitalism.

Charlie

The connection I was making to ‘unlikely allies,’ though, had to do with the example of charter schools inviting adults to spend time with students more as equals than as mentors. The success of the program inevitably comes from the sharing of divergent perspectives in group settings.

Thank you for your comment and for passing along the Wired article. Although we are talking about similar things, I recognize one key difference. Structuring education so that “geeks are cool” still creates a hierarchy – a situation with winners and losers. I believe that education and inspired learning is the goal, but perhaps there is a way to do this without a vertical social system. When I talk about unlikely allies I am saying that there is great potential in each individual that can be best realized in group settings. When we bring in diverse perspectives, instead of creating hierarchies, we create valued roles.

best,

Charlie

Eight charter schools in San Diego County use this idea of unlikely allies to break the standard of a youth-owned high-school culture: “A big chunk of the school experience is having [the students] hang out with the adults they could imagine becoming.” Building dynamic advisers is important to the success of any program — whether in the nonprofit sector, education system, or elsewhere.