Dif­fer­ent learn­ers learn dif­fer­ent­ly. Stan­dard­iza­tion is being replaced by per­son­al­iza­tion. One place we can all find com­mon ground is in want­i­ng to learn about what makes us curi­ous and excited.

In the U.S., his­to­ry class­es are only just now begin­ning to dis­cuss the geno­cide of the Native Amer­i­cans at the hands of Euro­pean col­o­niz­ers. They’ve also only recent­ly start­ed using his­to­ry lessons about slav­ery to show the con­nec­tion between that treat­ment and the insti­tu­tion­al­ized racism in con­tem­po­rary Amer­i­can soci­ety. For too long, class­rooms have most­ly been hid­ing ugly truths. They must now cor­rect that pat­tern with hon­esty and respon­si­bil­i­ty. The past must be con­front­ed in order to begin a con­ver­sa­tion about how to repair social rela­tions along socio-eco­nom­ic and racial lines.

Edu­ca­tion cov­ers our basic need to acquire knowl­edge. But what are the costs of allow­ing it be direct­ed by insid­i­ous forces inter­est­ed in things beyond the pure pur­suit of knowl­edge? How can we exchange knowl­edge as a less priv­i­leged man­ner than the cur­rent high­er edu­ca­tion­al sys­tem? How can edu­ca­tion become more inclusive?

Locat­ed in var­i­ous base­ments of Ams­ter­dam’s night­clubs, Nel­ly Ben Hay­oun has cre­at­ed a tuition-free Uni­ver­si­ty of the Under­ground, a new insti­tu­tion that offers an accred­it­ed Mas­ter of the Arts (MA Design of Expe­ri­ences) to any­one curi­ous enough to pur­sue such an off-the-road degree. The pro­gram “exists at the nexus between crit­i­cal design, expe­ri­en­tial, the­atri­cal, filmic, semi­otics, polit­i­cal and musi­cal prac­tices” and “aims to teach stu­dents how to engi­neer sit­u­a­tions, to design expe­ri­ences and events to best sup­port social dream­ing, social actions and pow­er shifts with­in insti­tu­tions, com­pa­nies and gov­ern­ments.”²⁹ The University’s “100 Years of Edu­ca­tion Cam­paign” com­mits to long-term crit­i­cal think­ing and social dream­ing toward a more sus­tain­able and diverse course of lead­er­ship. We believe in the abil­i­ty of these types of ini­tia­tives to bring about last­ing change. If the peo­ple in lead­er­ship posi­tions rep­re­sent a more diverse range of back­grounds and per­spec­tives, and if those same lead­ers wield their influ­ence to help oth­ers — much like the role of a teacher — then we will soon cre­ate bold new research agen­das for empow­er­ing discoveries.

A new age for edu­ca­tion means access to for­ma­tive and trans­for­ma­tive teach­ings for all stages of life. But learn­ing can come with seri­ous chal­lenges to over­come. For peo­ple suf­fer­ing from chem­i­cal imbal­ances or addic­tion, they can turn to Lin­da Star Wolf at Venus Ris­ing Insti­tute. Wolf teach­es peo­ple how to “awak­en to the big­ger pic­ture, embody their own inner Vision­ary Shaman, and step into a life of pas­sion­ate pur­pose.”³⁰ In addi­tion to breath-work and chan­nels of heal­ing arts, the Venus Ris­ing Insti­tute also ordains a glob­al asso­ci­a­tion of min­is­ters among The Shaman­ic Min­is­ters’ Glob­al Net­work. At the cen­ter of these stud­ies is a cen­tral shaman­ic con­cept about the end­less cycle of death and re-birth. Accord­ing to this center’s belief, the abil­i­ty to become con­scious­ly aware of this fact is what allows one to see their own life from a broad­er perspective.

“We move from data to infor­ma­tion to knowl­edge to wis­dom. And sep­a­rat­ing one from the oth­er… know­ing the lim­i­ta­tions and the dan­ger of exer­cis­ing one with­out the oth­ers, while respect­ing each cat­e­go­ry of intel­li­gence, is gen­er­al­ly what seri­ous edu­ca­tion is about.” — Toni Mor­ri­son, The Source of Self-Regard

In every phase of prac­tice, edu­ca­tion must account for social and emo­tion­al growth. The aim of all edu­ca­tion is to cre­ate expe­ri­ences that expand per­spec­tives. We believe that the con­ver­sa­tion around inno­vat­ing edu­ca­tion can ben­e­fit from look­ing for ways to fur­ther devel­op dynam­ic teach­ing, and sup­port var­i­ous learn­ing styles with a long-term per­spec­tive. We feel it’s essen­tial for edu­ca­tion to com­bine ancient wis­dom with emerg­ing fields of study. In this way, a greater bal­ance can be struck between tra­di­tion­al meth­ods for shar­ing knowl­edge and an explo­ration into a new van­guard of human expe­ri­ence. To this effect, the inclu­sion of psy­chos­pir­i­tu­al and meta­phys­i­cal stud­ies, as well as indige­nous sto­ry­telling, can play a sig­nif­i­cant role in cre­at­ing new lesson-plans.

Most peo­ple learn best when their edu­ca­tion is dynam­i­cal­ly tai­lored to their spe­cif­ic needs and back­ground rather than adher­ing to a strict and sta­t­ic mod­el. The edu­ca­tion­al approach of “inves­tiga­tive learn­ing” posits that stu­dents are ‘not receivers of infor­ma­tion, but shapers of knowledge’.31

The process of learn­ing every­where must enable stu­dents to devel­op stronger self-aware­ness, resilience, and the abil­i­ty to man­age com­plex chal­lenges. From this per­spec­tive, a teacher is best posi­tioned as a guide rather than an author­i­ty fig­ure. We feel that this per­spec­tive can enable stu­dents to lead their own learn­ing and lives fol­low­ing their intu­ition toward their own edu­ca­tion­al betterment.