What might regenerative practice look like in education?

What might regenerative practice look like in education?

[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 ever-changing, so cannot be a place we land and settle comfortably. [...]

Let’s Not Try to Save the World

Let’s Not Try to Save the World

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 [...]

Agency is not to be owned; it is relational

Agency is not to be owned; it is relational

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. [...]

The Fuzzy Horizon of Learning

The Fuzzy Horizon of Learning

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. [...]

Meaning in times of crisis: New narratives 3

Meaning in times of crisis: New narratives 3

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 [...]

Ethics, Love, and the Primacy of Thriving Relationships

Ethics, Love, and the Primacy of Thriving Relationships

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 [...]

Chapter 5: From I to We—The Source of Becoming

Chapter 5: From I to We—The Source of Becoming

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 [...]

Chapter 4: Starting Small to Make Big Changes for a New Education Narrative

Chapter 4: Starting Small to Make Big Changes for a New Education Narrative

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 [...]

How Could Ethics Guide a New Purpose for Education?

How Could Ethics Guide a New Purpose for Education?

This article was originally published on 21 May 2021 in Intrepid Ed News. Every once in a while, a report comes out from a behemoth transnational organization that rings alarm bells, warning us about how the education system is not equipping young minds to meet the challenges of tomorrow. A lengthy document outlines the skills [...]

Bio Scale (A Response to Jason Preater)

Bio Scale (A Response to Jason Preater)

This is a response to Jason Preater’s thoughtful and considered article Human Scale. I am writing this in the same spirit as Jason; I don’t propose to “have the right answers and welcome your ideas.” I realize that many of these issues are addressed in superficial, generalized ways, but I am writing an article not [...]

The future of our planet depends on imagination, not academics

The future of our planet depends on imagination, not academics

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.—Karl Marx, XIth Thesis on Feuerbach. I was surprised by how many people failed to seize the satire in my last blog If academics are what matter, let’s just replace teachers with androids. In that article, I proposed that “in [...]

Will androids replace teachers? Maybe, if the system keeps valuing what it values

Will androids replace teachers? Maybe, if the system keeps valuing what it values

This is a satire and a warning. I do not advocate replacing humans with androids… though maybe in some classrooms it would be a good idea. A few months ago I wrote a piece on how a teacher’s job is to teach themselves out of a job. The concept is pretty simple: a teacher should [...]

Trying to measure learning is absurd because there is no dualism between the student and the world

Trying to measure learning is absurd because there is no dualism between the student and the world

"When we measure something we are forcing an undetermined, undefined world to assume an experimental value. We are not 'measuring' the world, we are creating it." —Niels Bohr, recipient of the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics and contributor to our understanding of quantum theory. Last week, I led a staff workshop to launch a new [...]