Decision Day marks the end point of the college application process, when high school seniors let colleges know where they are heading. It's not uncomplicated, though. This moment is the outcome and fruit of so much striving, and an event on which we've pinned a heck of a lot of hope. "Miss, I just want to hide in a corner," one student told me. And he was happy, proud, about where he was admitted. A flurry of articles are published around now about how to help seniors get anything out of the remainder of the school year. One NYT's article focused on where we lose sight of the learning process along the way and how to help seniors reinvest in themselves. Or maybe reinvent themselves, and how they think about themselves. Yes, We Could ALL Value Process More In theory, I totally agree. One of the major issues we face in education is that the learning process is not necessarily valued for itself, but only for where it might lead. That's capitalism right there, friends. But beyond that, from pre-K applications all the way to college applications, we're always telling our students to keep their eyes on the horizon- what's NEXT? Where -or what--will this get you? But how about: where am I right now? What's of value right now? What if there is more than the future that we're totally missing out on? Take, for example, my students. My middle school students at The TEAK Fellowship are some of the brightest in their public school classes. They have joined a fellowship that invests in them as future leaders, armed with the "best education money can buy." (And their financial aid packages subsidize the cost). But there is a(nother) cost: these students have, for themselves and their families, been trained to think far into the future. Everything they do is for something that comes later, hopefully. But what if you get hit by a bus? The value of "later" evaporates. Do we understand what "rewarding" really feels like? So why is it so Continue Reading …
education
Claim Your Education
Claim our Education? What you talkin' bout, Willis? In common speak: we go to college to "get" an education-- yes? And sometimes we "get" our knickers (don't cringe: it's a cliche) brains in a bunch trying to figure out where to do that. This school or that school? OMG this University? Or OMFG THAT University? Butter side up or butter side down? I don't know and neither do you. But I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what it means to get an education, and how you know when you've gotten one. And one little word-- a shift in semantics-- could change how we think about all this-- and ourselves. Claim = Call Out Adrienne Rich, poet, activist and teacher, cautioned in her commencement address, "We are not here to receive an education, we are here to claim one." I love this. But what's the difference? If you've read much here, you know I have a long history as a Classics nerd and scholar. So when I look up the etymology to consider WTF Rich means, "Claim" --> from the Latin "clamare" = "to call out." So I think about what people do from rooftops on New Years. The exhilaration and breathlessness and leaning into the next thing, hoping for things to always be getting better. Education is not a thing. It is an action; it is something-- poor fool-- that you do. It's not something you "get." It's not, actually, a product at all. Even though the consumer can be baited, education is- or should be-- beyond capitalism. You can sit down with a wise person anywhere. You can teach yourself almost anything online, thanks to the Glory of Youtube. You can even teach people how not to get their knickers brains in a bunch. Education is a long, mystifying process of ingesting knowledge. Then, a longer process-- that keeps happening far far beyond graduation-- of turning that knowledge into who you are and how you operate. So it is not just part of your resume, but your raison d'etre (I use French when I need to be taken seriously). Tall Continue Reading …