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December 07, 2004
Life's Curriculum
So I was reading this essay on the unschooling movement called "Schoolaholics Anonymous" and the author talked about how he's been attending The University of Planet Earth. This is his curriculum with a few changes and additions by me:
Live in a different place every year: DC, Oakland, New York, LA, a farm, and somewhere in the South. Play a different sport every day of the week, preferably with a different ethnic group: Basketball with blacks, martial arts with Chinese, capoeira with Brazilians, soccer with some of everybody, pool with drunks, tennis with the white middle-class, etc. Every Sunday attend a different place of worship. Every day get to know someone new. Volunteer, attend lectures, talk to strangers on the street. Seek out hundreds of role models and mentors. The rest of the time, read and save up enough money to travel to a different continent every year; otherwise work as little as possible. Do that for five years. That is the freshman survey course. Then you'll have a better idea of what to do as a sophomore.
...Now I'm not saying I don't want to go to a real college, but if you put a graduate from the UPE next to a graduate from a UCD, who do you think would be a more interesting and educated person? Just a thought.
Posted by Tom Bodhi at December 7, 2004 02:36 AM
Comments
Hmmmmm... Seems somehow familiar. You on something when you wrote this?
Posted by: gian at December 30, 2004 11:56 AM
Even though I work for a college, I do believe that people need to combine book-learning with experiential education. A truly motivated person could do this without enrolling in a college program, just studying what he or she was really interested in and looking for opportunities to put those ideas into practice. Sometimes a college degree is necessary for a particular job, but in many cases, what is more needed is a qualified person. It's sad, but true, that college-educated people are often lacking in practical skills since they haven't had real life experience. A person who knows how to read and write, or knows how math applies to engineering problems, may be able to create their own job or business, or rise quickly to the top in a company, because of their practical experience not their degree. I applaud you, Bodhi, for making a commitment to travel to other countries, to live in other cultures, and to find your own vision.
Posted by: emma cornell at December 31, 2004 12:03 PM
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