Back at It: Same Story, Different Setting

I am back in school full-time, finally.  I imagined this would happen 25 years ago, and I intended for graduate school to be a means toward a career where I could make my mark on humanity.

This is much different.

The goal is still the same, but the context is ‘refreshed’. I suppose my course, to date, exemplifies the phrase “life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” I am a connector, a dreamer, a manager of both ideas and implementation: an engineer, of sorts. I am marrying both my skills and experiences with my thinking, and dreaming, about how humans could learn more, do more good and be happier (content, fulfilled) at an earlier age* if only we – the adults around them – could put aside our sense of the world as it exists and just imagine.

(*maybe not struggle with a mid-life crisis after years chasing a dream constructed from illusory ambitions/wants/needs.)

Just imagine if learning didn’t have so many constraints …

• what would the world be like if a two year-old who could read wasn’t considered an anomaly, and a child who doesn’t read until age 7 or 8 wasn’t considered delayed.
• how much more could a dyslexic child learn early in life if we considered their gift to be an extra-ability instead of a disability
• what could children from impoverished backgrounds actually accomplish if they had caring knowledgeable adults focused on their personal success
• what could students who are not ‘academically successful’ accomplish if there were real options for them to take the time they needed to learn deeply; to succeed based on goals set for them personally, not rely upon standard measures; to engage in their communities to apply their knowledge and passion in a genuinely connected way, and to learn from the experts in the field rather than from a text or other passive resource?
• what is the upper limit of accomplishment for any child before they attain adulthood?

How would the world be different:

• if a child wanted to stop and learn something deeply and had the time, space, environment and support to do so
• if mathematics learning were not fraught with phobias, misconception (on the part of adults) and ‘other’-ness?
• if teaching were valued as a commodity and not as a public good
• if learning took the form of an individualized program of study that traversed many different environments, topics, questions, projects, required multiple mentors/teachers
• if youth knew who they were and what their interests were before they applied to college, and if the measure of their potential didn’t rely upon a standardized test, a canned essay, a set of extracurricular activities that scored well.
• if every child succeeded and no child was left behind for real.

These are the questions, ideas, curiosities that swirl around in my head as I return to the role of full-time learner, social/educational engineer and dreamer of a future unburdened of the past.

Visit my VT Blog – not a whole lot there at the moment …