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"How do you train an Innovator? We are born curious. We are born with imagination. The first challenge is to ensure that these very human qualities are not schooled out of us, as Sir Ken Robinson says. Beyond that, in my research, I identified five essential education and parenting practices that develop young people's capacities to innovate: 1. Learning to work collaboratively (innovation is a team sport!). 2. Learning to understand problems from a multi-disciplinary perspective. 3. Learning to take risks and learn from mistakes. 4. Focusing on creating versus consuming. 5. Reinforcing the intrinsic motivations of play, passion, and purpose versus the extrinsic carrots and sticks."

* Better cafeteria food with real ingredients * No school busses - nearly every child mentioned the bullying of bus rides as one of the reasons they hated school * More choice in their assignments or projects * Replace grades with feedback and portfolios (like we did in our class) * Staggered start and end times so that the school would "feel smaller" * More alternative sports in addition to the traditional ones * Off-campus community service once a week * Job-shadowing for one month of the year * A monthly educational field trip * iPads, netbooks or laptops in classes - they even brought up some interesting ways to raise money for these devices * More freedom in terms of leaving to use the restroom, eating a snack or getting a drink of water * More electives - while most of them agreed that we need math, they suggested that maybe they could choose pre-geometry or pre-algebra or in reading, they could have reading classes geared toward certain topics * A school garden