Learning to be Free
The Supercool Educational Philosophy
Short Version - Max Senges, June, 2008
Note: Philosophy is a discourse, a communication.
Hence this document is meant to engage readers in reflection and
discussion about education and how to live, work and learn in the
knowledge society. You are very much invited to comment and edit this
document. Please write to max@supercoolschool.com.
Employing the connecting forces of Cyberspace we give birth to a new educational institution. An educational institution that brings the opportunity to form learning communities and to go through the process from novice to master in your own pace and style. An institution where you, the individual, decides what to learn and when to learn it. An institution in which learning is enjoyable and social.
It is our mission to give positive personal freedom (Berlin, 1969) to the people. The freedom to create, identify and realize learning opportunities on all topics and all levels of expertise will foster entrepreneurial spirit within each of us. It is this entrepreneurial spirit that will have people tackle the vast challenges of our time. It is this entrepreneurial spirit that will creatively deconstruct our current broken learning practices, measurements and objectives and replace them with a system that is much more social, human and egalitarian, while at the same time allowing for a degree of productivity and individual liberty like we have never seen before. By exploiting Cyberspace for social learning we will unlock the true nature of the potential and essence of the knowledge society.
We believe that the institution we create has to be as open and diverse as the learners who cavort in it. We believe that there are infinite paths to knowledge and that to attempt to steer is to constrain and to forge new chains. Hence we believe that good practices will prevail naturally and that it must be our aim to provide an environment for democratic meritocracy amongst learners and their practices.
Thus, when proposing freedom as the motivation for learning, it seems important that learning is not about possessing knowledge but about understanding, and about being able to identify, select and pursue one’s life’s opportunities with an entrepreneurial spirit. Identifying, and understanding the meaning of opportunities is key in order to realize your life’s full potentials, and to contextualize choices within your life’s reality.
We believe, once education is understood as learning to make life more wonderful ((Rosenberg,2003) rather than to fulfill societal expectations, etc.), natural curiosity becomes an all-encompassing intrinsic motivation for self-directed learning. Subsequently, we believe it is the learner who knows best and ought to decide what to learn. Or in Holt’s words (1977): “Since we cannot know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.”
In this sense, Supercool School is in line with the de-schooling (Illich, 1971), unschooling (Holt, 1977), modern or free schooling movements.
At Supercool School there are no exams to pass and no test-scores to reach. We believe that what is understood takes the individual to the next level; hence progress is reflected through further learning and especially teaching activities.
Living and learning the Supercool Style means creative, self-motivated learning that empowers individuals to know more about themselves, how to relate to others, and how to make a living.
Living and learning the Supercool Style means to pursue positive personal liberty and to entrepreneurially embrace life’s journey as a series of learning opportunities.