Big ideas that shaped Connections:

• The future will be more complicated than the present. Old solutions won’t solve new problems.
• To solve problems, you need to make sense of the real world.
• In the real world, everything connects. You’ll need to understand “systems.”
• Because they’re the creators of all sciences and all arts, human societies are the most important systems you can study.
• Making sense of systems requires organized thought. School subjects aren’t very good organizers.
• Thinking about ways to organize thought improves how you do it.
• For sense-making purposes, the real, everyday world is a better “textbook” than textbooks about it.
• Everything you learn should be useful, right here, right now.
• Writing makes you think. (Keep a journal.)
• Dialog makes you think. (Work with others.)
• We’re not going to tell you much. We’re just going to give you a series of things to do and let you teach yourself how to make more sense of systems.

Marion Brady	Howard Brady