Change
I've gone quiet for longer than I said, and that's because I've been thinking about why I've been feeling stuck in a rut with On Learning.
We all have our idiosyncrasies and quirks. They’re the things that make us special, and if we get a handle on them (by which I mean, we become comfortable with them and therefore confident in ourselves), they become our superpower, allowing us to move and act with joy and openness in the world.
But in this world of ever-increasing educational standardisation and pressure, there is less and less room for our idiosyncratic quirks. The system seeks to smooth them out in the name of excellence and achievement - which cannot be left to chance. A bland, conformist mono-purpose is pervasive. Sure, we may have cracked the recipe for achievement for those who fall in line, but growth and personal flourishing for all, in all its idiosyncratic glory … hmmm.
And I’m not just talking about learners. Teachers are being smothered too. Schools are being starved of personality and life. People can’t be, they have to perform.
But, with a few tweaks and a subtle reframing of what’s seen, a classroom can become a place of idiosyncratic flourishing even in the driest of contexts.
Those tweaks I have found fall under these three categories:
Dispositions unite the disciplines, broaden skills, and grow our unique style.
Playfulness injects joy, adventure, and the chaos necessary for discovery.
Relationships grow care, respect, and inner knowing.
I was tempted to add a fourth - environment - which would have given me a vowel that I could have used to make some kind of zingy pseudo-word like DEPR that I could have claimed made a clever association to a big idea, but that felt a bit too tech-bro-zeitgeisty and so I decided against it. Plus, three just feels way better than four.
Instead, I’m changing the focus of On Learning, and with it, its name. From now on it will be called The Idiosyncratic Classroom.
I’ve had enough of being ‘on’.
If you wish to stay subscribed, there is nothing for you to do. From now on, you’ll receive (on an idiosyncratic schedule1) posts exploring those three categories.
Equally, feel free to unsubscribe if this doesn’t sound like you. No hard feelings.
This means the daily short thought is no more, nor the fortnightly learning letter. I realised with these I was trying to use structure to solve a voice and idea problem. It ultimately became uninspiring to me and was limiting what I wanted to say.
Same! It feels good, like the seriousness has gone. I’m looking forward to playing with the new focus.
Fantastic! Bravo! Looking forward to it.