From Faces of Learning, which gathers stories from learners of all ages: 

Faces of Learning is a national grassroots engagement initiative that aims to help everyone — young and old, educator and non-educator, Democrat and Republican — see more clearly what powerful learning actually looks like (and requires).

Convened by the Q.E.D. Foundation, we are a decentralized, collaborative, story-driven, nonpartisan, solution-oriented network of individuals and organizations.

We envision a world where all people understand their strengths and weaknesses as learners, and where everyone expects and demands high quality learning environments throughout their lives.

Our mission is to help build the capacity needed to support those high-quality learning environments. We do this by creating virtual and physical spaces for people to reflect on four essential questions that are, alarmingly, almost completely absent from the current national conversation about school improvement:

1. How do people learn?

2. How do I learn?

3. What does the ideal learning environment look like?

4. How can we create more of them?

Check out Al Franken’s Learning Story:

Early on in my campaign, I received a note from my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Molin. She said she thought I might be the Alan Franken she’d taught way back when, and that I was always a smart kid. She wished me the best and sent me a check for $25. It was the sweetest note I’d received yet. So Mrs. Molin and I got together, and she was as wonderful as I’d remembered her, and wound up being a major hit on the campaign trail. So I asked her to be in my first tv commercial, and she agreed. She was terrific, and I couldn’t have had a better cheerleader. But the best thing to come of it was completely unexpected. Mrs. Molin’s old students started using our campaign to contact her, and send her letters about what an amazing teacher she’d been and how she had touched their lives. I received one that was so touching, I read it several times, and have committed almost to memory. It said: ”Dear Mrs. Molin, You were my favorite teacher. I wasn’t a very good student. I had a hard time with math, and your spelling tests were hard! But you saw that I liked art, and I remember you staying after school one day to paint a window with me. You made me feel special (loved). Now, I’m a teacher too. I teach special ed kids. And I try every day to make them feel the way you made me feel. And I just wanted to say thank you.” Teachers like Mrs. Molin are an inspiration. I know what she did for me when I was a student, and it’s obvious I’m not the only one. We need to make sure today’s students are able to learn in that kind of creative, nurturing environment, so they can find their own passions, and become strong, well-rounded adults. In today’s crowded classrooms, with test-driven curricula, it’s hard for teachers to do what Mrs. Molin did – to be able to identify how to reach a child and then spend the time doing it. I want to make sure that students today have the same opportunities that I did, and that teachers today have the same opportunities as Mrs. Molin.