what are the origins of unexpectED?
my interest in education [thinking, learning, and teaching] resulted from a series of failures in my youth. my failure at school. school failing me. my parents failing to understand me. and the lingering feeling of being a failure that haunted me due to the challenges of school, watching my peers succeed where i couldn't, and the pressures of familial expectations. don't get me wrong, i wasn't a complete failure. in many ways, i was an average student. but what i seemed to excel in was mediocrity. at least, that was what i was taught to think of myself.
by the age of fourteen, i had had enough. i dropped out of school. at least for a few months, until i found a democratic alternative school somewhat akin to summerhill. during my three-year tenure at this alternative school, i learned something about myself. when left to my own devices and curiosities, i was one hell of a learner. with the right amount of positive mentorship and guidance, i found a passion for learning. i learned that i was something of an autodidact (i was very comfortable and found a knack for teaching myself).
my experience in alternative schooling led to a lifelong passion for learning. later, i completed university and became an unlicensed teacher who taught in alternative schools, art centers, galleries, activist spaces, and other non-academic spaces. much later, i would move to mexico and continue my journey as a teacher. after teaching in a wide array of schools and spaces i again became disillusioned with the entirety of traditional and much of the alternative landscape of teaching practices and learning spaces.
so after nearly a decade of classroom teaching, i quit. however, my passion remained. during the pandemic, i completed a master's in education. but still left with a lack of inspiration i moved, after the pandemic, in another direction for work. i still can't see myself in the classroom and it would be my preference never to step into one again. that doesn't mean i have lost my passion for thinking, learning, and teaching. far from it. this blog/zine is evidence of that.
i no longer want to teach based on a curriculum or courses based on a set of knowledge (facts to be memorised); rather, i would like to write and talk about learning: how to learn and how to teach oneself and mentor others. i want to write and talk about the desire for understanding as an art. i want to write and talk about thought as poetry. so here i am, at the beginning of something. a little bang.
this blog/zine is primarily about three things: thinking, learning, and teaching. but within these topics is an entire universe to explore. i hope you will join me in thinking about learning and teaching from the outside in. this is an experiment in lifelong learning which aims to teach not only how to learn (of which there is no prescription), but how to maintain an appetite for knowledge and know-how (how to remain curious!).
below is a quick list of themes that will be explored:
- self-education (autodidacticism)
- self-understanding/knowledge (metacognition)
- mentorship + mentoring
- deschooling
- unschooling
- traditional and alternative schooling
- collaborative or cooperative learning
- community building
- systems of care
- cultures of learning
- the love of learning (philomathy)
- the politics of learning and teaching, and much, much more ...
i hope you come to enjoy this space and find it useful and/or inspirational. for me writing is a meditative and healing act. it is my hope that in your reading of my words, you can feel at home in the ritual of our communication and take something of my thinking with you. welcome to unexpectED.