There may be trouble ahead,
……Before they ask us to pay the bill,
And while we still have the chance,
Let’s face the music and dance.
Irvine Berlin, 1936
“There are three people in a vehicle. In this story, they all seem to have a foot on the accelerator. Not too far in the distance, and clearly coming into view, there is a noticeboard. It reads: ‘Brake hard or change direction! – Abyss ahead!’. As the vehicle continues speeding forward, the occupants react differently to the noticeboard. One has seen it coming for some time; in fact, she anticipated it. Her optician told her she had good foresight. ‘For goodness sake’, she says, ‘we must slow down and change direction while we can’. A second one, who has also been aware of the notice for some time, says ‘It’s certainly an interesting notice. Let’s deconstruct its meaning exactly, then we can develop our critical awareness and understanding, and decide what to do.’ The third person, who was much later in recognising the sign than the other two says, I don’t think there’s any danger ahead, and if there is – which I doubt – we’ll deal with it then’. Meantime, the vehicle is still getting closer to the notice, and stays on track….”
A metaphor of course, but perhaps illustrative of our collective predicament. We all – or nearly all – have a bit of our foot on the accelerator, whilst at the same time, increasing numbers are aware that braking, changing direction, and learning ‘our way out’ is critically important. At the same time, a significant proportion of the population and vested interests drive forward regardless, albeit with a growing suspicion that, in the words of the old Irvine Berlin song, ‘there may be trouble ahead’.”(Sterling, 2012 p. 511)
The above excerpt is the opening of Stephen Sterling’s wonderful Afterword to “Learning for Sustainability in Times of Accelerating Change”. The Afterword is one of the contributions that has been made open-access via Wageningen Academic Publisher’s website. Along with Juliet Schor’s Foreword and the Introductory Chapter to the book, some authors have paid the publisher a fee to unlock their chapter to allow everybody with access to the Internet download it for free for their own use. You can find the full pdf of the Introductory Chapter here: Introduction to L4S in Times of Change Wals&Corcoran
The book can be ordered at a discount when going to ‘books’ in the menu bar on top of this page.
Transformative learning 
I write a comment when I appreciate a post on a website or if I have something to add to the conversation.
Usually it’s caused by the sincerness communicated in the article I browsed. And on this article Re-orienting, re-connecting and re-imagining – learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change goes open-access! | Transformative learning. I was actually moved enough to drop a commenta response 😉 I actually do have 2 questions for you if it’s okay.
Could it be only me or does it appear like a few of the responses
come across like left by brain dead people? 😛
And, if you are posting at other places, I would like to follow anything fresh you have to post.
Would you make a list every one of all your community pages like
your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?