People-Based Learning Project Stories
Join us in telling your story
This post feels so special to me. Would love to hear if it resonates for you. Click the ❤️.
A few years ago, I was sitting in a small, noisy café across from a new friend. We were sort of situational friends, in a class together and grabbing tea afterwards. But somewhere between the second sip of chai and the story she told about growing up in a multigenerational household, something shifted.
She described how her grandmother taught her to listen, not just with her ears, but with her whole presence. To pause. To notice what someone wasn’t saying. And then she paused, looked me in the eye, and said, “That’s what real learning is, isn’t it? Letting someone else’s experience change you a little.”
I walked out of that café changed. Not by a curriculum or a credential. But by a human being. A quiet, unassuming moment that embedded itself in me like a seed.
I’m collecting stories for the upcoming People-Based Learning book (due out in 2026), and we’d love to include yours. If you have missed the details on the project, you can check out a few posts here, here and here.
The goal is simple, but powerful: to create resources that help people learn to engage others as vital sources of knowledge and inspiration.
Your story can make a difference.
To participate, answer the prompt below and upload the recording to this form.
Your Prompt:
Think of a time when you learned something impactful from another person, a mentor, a peer, a friend, or even a stranger. What made that learning experience stick with you? What skills did you use/develop through it?
It doesn’t have to be fancy—just record on your phone and share your story.
Your recording will be uploaded to Cortico’s platform for human-led sensemaking. You can read more about it here.
We can’t wait to hear from you!
Not sure what to share?
Check out these stories from our Human Library of People Based Learning.
On ancestors/families.
On living life.
On aging.
On immigration.
Simplicity of every day life.
In addition to books, and every other way I could connect with someone’s else’s understanding who didn’t happen to be in my geographic location, I’ve been focused on learning with and from people and learning from experience for my whole life. It’s so refreshing to find your thinking here, Jane.
I’m doing something right now that kind of dovetails with your philosophy… I’m teaching elders how to tell stories from their personal experience, using their own words and pictures in short simple multimedia e-books as a way to share lessons learned and connect more deeply with their adult children and their grandchildren after their bonds were damaged by Covid. It’s my intention to get elders more deeply activated inside their families as an education resource as AI comes flooding in. I’m not against AI in anyway, but I’m strongly supporting elders to take their place at the table of learning with their friends and families instead of just entertaining themselves until their bodies wear out. I’m going to be following you with great interest. I’ll fill out your form in a little bit. Your book looks like something I would really enjoy reading and I’m gonna wish you great luck getting it made.
I only now discovered this. Resonates very much with me. To state the obvious, it seems to be the way children learn, even in learning institutions... and we do, too, all of our lives, if we're lucky. Thank you, I'll be very interested to follow your steps...