I’m an advocate for education. I myself have been through the entirety of the education system starting with preschool when I was a cool 4 years old all the way up until I was 21. 17 long, long years of formally learning in a classroom setting. Even after I graduated college I was still learning in a rather “formal” manner. When I started working full-time, I balanced a development program alongside my 9-5. I had to sit through lectures, write notes, take exams, participate in case studies, and conduct research projects for another year and a half while I worked.
All this goes to say, I am very well aware and mindful of the fact that education has built me, shaped me, and carved out pathways for me in more ways than one. More ways than one hundred, if I’m being frank. I will always be grateful for the level of education I received.
However…
(There’s always a caveat with me😉)
In all my years of formal education, through every class I’ve sat through in my 17 years of attending school (being absent on a very rare occasion), I can only tell you about two classes that challenged me to think instead of challenged me to retain information.
One of those classes I wrote about in a separate blog, which you can access here.
The other class was called, “Ideas That Change the World”.
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This class was unconventional, if the name didn’t already insinuate that. It was the first unconventional course I had ever taken.
What do I mean by that?
One of the first days of class, my professor wrote on the white board, “big questions with no answers,” and we spent an hour and a half just talking about… big questions with no answers. I thought about how brilliant the last part of that phrase was: “no answers”. Every class I had taken before “Ideas That Change the World” had answers I needed to get right. I was either right, or I was wrong. But not in this class. This class actually encouraged me to not come up with concrete answers, which was so cool to me.
It made me think about what would happen if we allowed people, young people at that, to just think. To ideate. To ponder. To question. To explore their own ideas and opinions, not just someone else’s. To ruminate. To not worry about failing or passing with flying colors. What if we asked students to think instead of just instructing them to remember?
I can’t tell you how many classes’ syllabi I read where one of the many objectives stated “to use your critical thinking skills”. I always found that objective perplexing and comical. I would read that more as, “Okay, so in between all your homework assignments, class lectures, quizzes, essays, tests, and projects, I want you to learn how to think outside the box.” For me, that was NEVER the case. I was too overwhelmed with the vast number of assignments I had to complete and too bogged down with getting the answers right for me to ever stop and think. And of course I “thought”. Of course I had to figure out the answers, but I never thought on my own, per se.
And that’s where the problem was.
All the people I ever studied about in history. All the theories, formulas, and concepts, I learned about in all my other classes were once coined by someone with an idea. An idea so profound that we deemed it worthy enough to be taught in an educational institution. And I think that’s mega important, but I ALSO think it’s mega important to give students the tools to be those people themselves. Almost more important, if you ask me.
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“Ideas That Change the World” was one of those classes where I didn’t really contribute. From the outside, it probably seemed like I didn’t care to be there or that I was rather uninterested in the topics at hand, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. I still remember specific conversations that broke out during that class, even 7 years later.
I wrote a research paper in that class about how the media influences a “normal” American girl’s life. I submitted a rough draft of my paper, and my professor sat me down and asked, “What does ‘normal’ mean? You never explain that part.” My response was a direct reflection of who I was. She then asked, “Why is that person considered ‘normal’? Who set that standard?” I didn’t have an answer because I had never thought about it.
I left that conversation with big, life-altering thoughts. Her questions were never to insult me or tell me I was “wrong”. They were only to help push me past my then-perspective, which was never something I had been challenged to do before that.
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Sometimes we don’t even know the capability of our minds and how expansive we can think until we’ve been given the platform and space to safely explore what our minds can conjure up. I look back at the younger version of me who used to lie awake at night and think of the Earth in context to our universe. I would start with thinking of my body in my bedroom, and then I would zoom out, layer by layer. I would think of my house, then my town, then my state, then my country, and so on and so forth until my body in my bedroom was small enough to seem as though it disappeared from existence altogether. Looking back, I had the ability to dive deep into intellectual concepts, but that skill was always kept at bay. It wasn’t until I was encouraged to think beyond the means of a “good grade” when I let myself unleash from the straight and narrow educational journey I was on.
I never had a number score or a letter score in “Ideas That Change the World”. I understand some people may think that’s a load of nonsense considering the “real world” pins us all up against each other, and in the dog eat dog society we have created for ourselves, someone is going to be top dog, and someone is going to be bottom of the totem poll. I hear that argument.
But just for once, for one single time in my life, I was able to stop worrying about “getting it right”. When I stopped incessantly worrying about getting a good grade, I was able to really enjoy and digest what I was learning. And all I have to say for that is: that was the only class that taught me how to think for myself. How to challenge my own biases. How to take a step back, listen, question, and then formulate an opinion/idea.
Up until that point, I was a good student because I was obedient. I knew how to regurgitate mass amounts of information, and I didn’t question anything. I accepted everything my teachers taught me as “truth”, and I never thought to ever interject their lessons with my own thoughts. That’s what makes a good student. That’s what makes a good employee. That’s what makes a good citizen. That’s what we want out of our people.
But there is much more to life than stacking up as “good” according to a set of standards that rewards obedience more than individuality.
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I really couldn’t tell you which prominent figures in history we studied in “Ideas That Change the World”. I can’t list all of the topics we mulled over in class. My memory is a bit foggy when it comes to remembering what assignments I had to complete. But I sure as hell can tell you I changed after walking out of that classroom. I paid attention to the way I thought. What I told myself. How I interacted with others. I, for the first time in my life, realized my ideas and my thoughts and my opinions were valid, too.
All of us have ideas within us that can literally change the world. If we reframed the narrative surrounding formal education from “the rat race to the end of the semester,” what would our youth feel empowered to think, do… be?
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If there is someone young who you see potential in, please send them this blog post. Had I known someone with the ability to openly express their love for expansive thought when I was younger, I would have latched onto them like a leach.
Our future is sitting in the hands of the youth. We must recognize that.
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