This article was published in Intrepid Ed News on 16 February 2024. Life is a dance of opposites, each necessary to the other.—David Orr In the late nineteenth century, French writer and scholar Georges Polti wrote that all stories can be distilled down to a limited number (36, to be exact) of dramatic situations. In [...]
This article was published in IntrepidEd News on 6 January 2024. No two persons ever read the same book.—Edmund Wilson My grandfather passed away when I was 11 years old. He was a remarkable man, as I recall, and since I was raised by a single parent, he served as the most important male figure [...]
This article was published in IntrepidEd News on 28 December 2023. All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.—Friedrich Nietzsche I used to teach Global Politics. One of the throughlines of the course was the concept of power. We started the year [...]
This article was posted on IntrepidEd News on 23 March 2023. I sometimes wonder whether reading is the cause of my insomnia. Reading is often what people do to help them fall asleep, but in my case it wakes me up. I can’t remember the last time I slept past 5:15. That feels luxurious. Getting [...]
This article was published in a slightly abridged version on IntrepidEd News on 1 August 2023. No two journeys are ever alike, because no two pupils are ever alike —Daniel Quinn I spent the best two months of my life during the summer of 2019. I’m not suggesting it was the easiest or most relaxing [...]
This article was published in an abridged form in Getting Smart on 14 June 2023. It was also published on Intrepid Ed News on 5 July 2023. I'm not getting myself all worked up over how generative AI is going to revolutionize the world of education. I'm not spending too much time trying to find [...]
This article was published in IntrepidEd News on 5 May 2023. [T]he only true atom is the universe—that total system of interdependent "thing-events" which can be separated from each other only in name.—Alan Watts Regenerative practice can never be achieved or ticked off a list. Regenerative practice is just that, practice. Regeneration is dynamic and [...]
This article was published in Intrepid Ed News on 1 May 2023. Those who “believe” they have the answers to present urgencies are terribly dangerous.—Donna Haraway When we try to solve problems, when we see ourselves as change-makers, and when we endeavor to save the world, we play the role of a tinkering celestial watchmaker [...]
This article was published in IntrepidEd News on 2 Feb 2023. No one can tell from which infinitesimal traces things unfold, but it is certain it is not from chance— philosopher Jean Baudrillard Ideas are alive, not static or perfect. They never take a definite form because they are like a stream with infinite tributaries. [...]
This article was published in IntrepidEd News on 13 March 2023 under the title "Where do we begin and where do we end?" Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilisation. —Mahatma Gandhi Shortly after the birth of my daughter, I picked up one of those [...]
This article was published in IntrepidEd News on 13 Jan 2023. It was written in collaboration with Michelle Blanchet. Some years ago, the education world grabbed hold of this idea of 21st century skills. Experts and leaders identified and agreed on four “essential skills” necessary to succeed in the uncertain world of tomorrow. This brainchild [...]
This article was published on Intrepid Ed News on 30 Sept 2022. At the point of encounter there are neither ignoramuses nor perfect sages; there are only people who are attempting, together, to learn more than they now know. —Paulo Freire I find myself in awe sometimes of how smoothly and confidently some people speak. [...]
This article was published in Intrepid Ed News on 25 August 2022. Part 1 Part 2 Sometimes you just need a good ol’ crisis to shake things up, to get things moving. It’s like the story of the frog you put in tepid water and slowly turn up the heat. The frog won’t ever realize [...]
Our knowledge will take its revenge on us, just as ignorance exacted its revenge during the Middle Ages. —Friedrich Nietzsche In the previous article, I asked “What if schools’ primary purpose was to nurture thriving relationships?” I did so thinking about “21st-century skills,” which are so often pushed by industry and education. I am not [...]
This article was published on Intrepid Ed News on 27 July 2022. Quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg wrote, “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” I think the same can be said about what we look for in our students; it’s all about the questions we ask. When [...]
This article was published on Intrepid Ed News on 14 July 2022. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the previous four chapters, I have tried to bring to light the tension between the emerging infinite world—where the Metaverse may [...]
This article was published in IntrepidEd News on 9 June 2022. There is no distinction at all between the everyday world (samsara) and freedom (nirvana). There is no distinction between freedom and the everyday world. —Nagarjuna Futurephobia is not a word that we come across very frequently considering its potential impact. You’ll find only a [...]
This article was published on Intrepid Ed News on 12 May 2022. I ended the previous chapter with a teaser, one that I promised in this installment to explore: Can we really have learner-centered and competency-based education in our current education system? The thing is, this might be the wrong question to ask because it [...]
This article was published in Education Reimagined's Voyager on 4 May 2022. This article was the #1 read in 2022 in Voyager. No matter what happened during the pandemic, no matter how much we think the world may have changed, if we continue to hold the same values that make the old system thrive, nothing [...]
This article was published in Intrepid Ed News on 14 April 2022 This is the second installment of a longer series, a long conversation (Chapter 1 can be found here). It builds on the idea that there is no one future of education because we are all on our own journeys, and that includes schools. [...]
This article was published on UNESCO’s IDEAS LAB on 11 March 2022. While the UNESCO report Futures of Education came out with much fanfare and generated much excitement, its most powerful consideration has received surprisingly little attention. It’s not that the authors haven’t put this consideration front and center—on the contrary—yet somehow it has eluded [...]
This article was published in Intrepid Ed News on 23 March 2022. This is the first installment of a longer series, a long conversation. It builds on the idea that there is no one future of education because we are all on our own journeys and this includes schools. With not even one-fourth of the [...]
This article was published on Intrepid Ed News on 18 Feb 2022. I have been wrestling with a question for months, looking for clues to an answer in conversations, books, podcasts, and quiet moments of reflection. I’m not the first person to have posed this question, and for centuries it has created significant, sometimes bloody, [...]
For millennia, we have lived in two worlds: one imagined, the other physical. The Metaverse will make these two worlds smaller until they partly dissolve into one another. One of our worlds is shrinking and it will soon cease to exist. The other one of our worlds needs to shrink or it will cease to [...]
This article was published on IntrepidEd News on 4 Jan 2022. I can’t keep track of how many conversations I have had where at some point my counterpart declared that something or other I’ve proposed “will never happen because…” I’m not suggesting I’m some kind of soothsayer or that I’m the holder of Truth. I [...]
Coconut Thinking 