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Advance
Praise for
"When a Butterfly Sneezes"
"This
engaging guidebook is like a door to a precious sacred temple,
inviting us to step inside. It brings us a great gift-guidance
in fostering the love of learning in our children's lives,
and in helping them understand how they belong to the mystery
of an interconnected and independent world."
—from the foreword by Dawna Markova, Ph.D., author of
How Your Child is Smart and Learning Unlimited,
and co-author of Kids' Random Acts of Kindness
"In
this new century, education will increasingly mean the ability
to think systemically-in terms of relationships, patterns,
contexts, and processes. Linda Booth Sweeney offers us an
inspiring guide book to this kind of education, exploring
the meaning of ancient 'systemic' folk wisdom as it speaks
to us in timeless stories. This is an important and truly
delightful book."
—Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life
"All
the world's ethical traditions have their roots in stories.
Archetypal stories teach us to see the world in unique ways-as
an interdependent system where today's gains may presage tomorrow's
disappointments, where doing what makes sense for me may eventually
make everything worse for us. Many ethical failings of our
world today rest in the declining role of such stories in
raising our children. At the same time, research indicates
that children have innate skills in systems thinking and in
seeing interdependencies, most of which go undeveloped or
are even actively discouraged in school. Thanks to this wonderful
little guidebook, parents can now join the growing numbers
of educators in developing children's innate capacities for
systems thinking. Help your children discover the systems
lessons in many of their favorite stories and explore together
a way of thinking about our lives as interrelated with one
another and with nature."
—Peter Senge, best-selling author of The Fifth Discipline:
The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization
"Bravo
to Linda Booth Sweeney for making systems thinking accessible
to 'kids big and small.' It's obvious by now that facts and
figures are not enough to prepare us for this rapidly changing
world. We need the tools and the imagination to see relationships
between things, and to see the ways they interact to shape
our lives and our society. Recognizing that there's nothing
like stories to train the imagination, Linda Booth Sweeney
provides a guide to a good supply of favorites, along with
guidelines for detecting and demonstrating the systems principles
at play. This refreshing book will open not only children's
minds, but also the minds of adults who work with them."
—Joanna Macy, author of The Dharma of Living Systems
and Coming Back to Life
“For anyone who wants to find a fun and memorable way to help
children see and understand the world of systems all around
us. This guide offers powerful lessons about life—invaluable
for educators, parents, and anyone working with children.”
—Angeles Arrien, anthropologist, author of The Four-Fold Way
and Signs of Life “Since the time of Aesop, people have used
stories to illustrate important lessons about the intricate
natural and social systems in which we live. Today, it is
more important than ever that we all learn about the dynamics
of complex systems, and from the earliest age. When a Butterfly
Sneezes is a wonderful resource to do just that—rich with
important systems lessons and guidance to help teachers and
parents use these powerful tales to learn about our increasingly
interconnected world with kids of all ages.”
—John Sterman, J. Spencer Standish Professor of Management
and director of the System Dynamics Group at MIT
“Systems thinking and stories are both valuable ways of understanding
relationships among the seemingly disconnected parts of our
experience. Linda Booth Sweeney’s smart, funny, vivid book
shows teachers and parents how they can use story books to
help children of all ages develop their natural capability
to think about systems. Great reading for everybody who cares
about developing (and being) wise citizens in our global community.”
—Stone Wiske, director of the Educational Technology Center,
Harvard Graduate School of Education; editor of Teaching for
Understanding
“Systems thinking is a distinctly modern concept with ancient
roots. Linda Booth Sweeney’s ingenious When a Butterfly Sneezes
tells parents how to get children started on this important
area of development—and parents might learn a bit from it
too!”
—David Perkins, Harvard Graduate School of Education professor,
author of Outsmarting IQ
“How will humans learn to live peacefully with one another
and the living earth in a new millennium already shadowed
by violence? Begin with the children! Begin with storytelling,
that oldest of human teaching devices, to empower the already
active curiosity of children about ‘how things work.’ Linda
Booth Sweeney’s wonderful little book is soundly based on
the general systems body of thought that has evolved over
the past half-century. Delightfully, it opens the way for
any adult who interacts with children to enter a profound
discovery process—one that cuts through the cliches of modernity
and conventional thinking about power and the use of force.
Great for home-schoolers, but great for classrooms and playgrounds,
too.”
—Elise Boulding, professor emeritus of sociology, Dartmouth
College; author of Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of
History
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