Future Serious Schools

Of all the books and posts and videos and podcasts that I’ve consumed over the last couple of years, that quote from Vanessa Andreotti’s Hospicing Modernity has stuck with me the hardest. It’s not just that were in huge mess that few in education (and elsewhere) seem to be willing to acknowledge. It’s that we’re in a huge mess of our own making.

And so here…I’ll say it:

Education is complicit in creating and adding to the very big and in some cases existential challenges that we currently face in the world.

From climate to politics to inequality to a growing sense of illiteracy (and more)…we in education have been unable (unwilling?) to evolve along with the changes in our world and the needs of our students, deciding instead to hold on to status quo thinking and practices, increasingly lapsing into irrelevance as a result.

So what do we do now, in this critical moment, when education, while part the problem, is also certainly at the center of any hope we have of changing the current arc of our world?

What do we do, as the author Dougald Hine asks, “when we stop pretending?” Pretending that the narrative isn’t breaking. That we can just carry on. That we can just keep looking away. That someone or something else will come to save us.

That it will all be ok.

These are the types of questions that will animate the discussions we’ll have in this six-session series that will build our capacity to rethink the purpose and experience of education in a time of complexity and increasingly likely collapse. Obviously, this won’t be for everyone. We’ll dive into some challenging spaces that will no doubt elicit frustration, sadness, and fear (among other feelings.) And we’ll be driven by radical inquiry. (If you’re looking for answers, this isn’t the place.)

But if you show up, I promise a safe and supportive space where you can lean into those uncertainties that you are already feeling (and that are likely growing.) We’ll learn, reflect, and design together. We’ll get clearer on what we’re facing, and what we need to do, both personally and professionally, to navigate what’s coming, and we’ll dream together about the experience of education that we aspire to for future generations.

Regardless of whether you attend just to listen and think, or to you come to question and play a more active role, I’m inviting you to join us. You don’t have to make every session; recordings will be available. And while I’ll be curating and sharing some powerful resources in between sessions to stoke our discussions, it’s enough if you bring only your attention and sense of urgency to our live get togethers.

This is a critical moment in the world; there’s no way to sugarcoat it. And education is at a critical juncture. It’s high time we who care about education start to, as Vanessa says, “face this systemic shit together and learn to compost it collaboratively.” That is the challenge now, and I hope you choose to join us to begin that work in earnest.

Will Richardson