Kirsten Olson

Kirsten Olson is interested in how education in this country may be changing, and helping to push along some much-needed changes. To write books she likes to listen to learner's stories--stories about how people of all ages learn both inside and outside of school--and lately, to understand better what makes learning pleasurable and go deep.

To write Wounded By School she sat with hundreds of people, listening to their recollections of learning in school. She found that many of us have very negative or self-defeating learning stories based on our experiences in school, and she asked why? What purposes do those stories have? Whom do these stories serve? Is your learning story serving you?

Kirsten is principal of Old Sow Consulting, an educational consulting group based in Boston, Massachusetts. Old Sow Consulting works with schools and teachers and students all over the country who are trying rethink what places of learning ought to look like and feel like, and whether they should be "places" at all.

Kirsten is writing her next book, and wants to know: what is your learning story? Where and how do you learn best? What makes learning pleasurable and (good) challenging for you? Let us hear from you.