Metabolic ontology begins from a simple observation: nothing lives by remaining what it is. Existence persists only through continual transformation, through the conversion of decay into the conditions for further life. Entropy is not disorder but the movement that makes order temporary. Biology calls this metabolism: the exchange of matter, energy, and information that maintains [...]
Lately, as artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes our world, there’s a growing chorus urging us to protect and celebrate what makes us uniquely human. We hear calls to huddle inside some metaphorical fortress, defining ourselves by a laundry list of traits: creativity, emotional connection, love; everything AI supposedly can’t replicate. But in doing so, we risk echoing [...]
Mastery- and competency-based assessment are the same old sorting and ranking system just in sheep’s clothing.Both start from the same ontological delusion: that something can be mastered, that we stand apart from knowledge, that learning is a discrete event that can be demonstrated once and then carried across every context. It’s the fantasy of decontextualization, [...]
We aren’t going to change the system. We can’t. The very idea that we can change the system is what keeps it intact. It feeds the illusion that we stand outside it, looking down like engineers or gods, swapping one system for another. But that separation is false. We are not outside. We are the [...]
There’s a difference between reform and experiments in schools. Reform legitimizes and justifies schools as existing structures. Experiments exploit cracks, creating flows that wash away sediment and make space for new worlds to emerge.Reform means to “take new form,” but only within the logic of old forms. It sees cracks and tries to patch them [...]
What if we stopped talking about neurodiversity and started considering bodymind complexities? This shift might help us avoid superficial labels, honor the agency of relationships, and recognize that it’s not all in our heads.Let’s break this down.Diversity suggests there are many different kinds of people. Of course, that’s true. But let’s not be reductionist. Framing [...]
Regenerative education rejects the old ways of assessing students as individuals, considering skills as ends, and allowing projects to languish on the Google drive. Instead, it invites us to listen deeply to the voices in our community (human and other-than-human) who have engaged with and been affected by each project. Regenerative education calls for new [...]
The idea that tariffs are bad is so deeply ingrained, saying anything else sounds absurd. We are so bought into the dominant narrative that we don't question this. Yet tariffs might just be what help create regenerative futures inspired by Nature. I am not saying that Trump's blanket tariffs make any sense or are designed [...]
Many of us think of sustainability as finding equilibrium. Let’s be carbon neutral. If we take stuff, we need to make sure to replenish materials. Let’s leave the planet in as good condition as we found it. Sustainability often means shooting for zero. The Brundtland Commission’s 1987 report Our Common Future, popularized sustainability as “meeting [...]
This post was published on IntrepidEd News on 26 August 2024. My family and I travel to Paris every other year to visit my mother. We spend a week there, then take the train to the West Midlands in England to visit Charlotte’s parents. These trips are a mix of the familiar and the new: [...]
This article was published on IntrepidEd on 18 May 2024. The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed—William Gibson We might find comfort–even some excitement—when we witness schools unveil and roll out their sustainability programs. We hear about fresh new solar panel installations, commitments to reduce printing by 50%, the deployment of [...]
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 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 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 [...]
by Charlotte Hankin As I type these words on my laptop, I am sitting in a wooden chair at my dining room table. I am not ergonomically positioned and as a result, I sense a dull ache in my lower back. I hear the gentle whirring of the fan trying to cool the room down. [...]
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 [...]
Coconut Thinking 