From Word To Word

Dave Humphrey just directed me to a post by Seth Godin on how unemployed college students might create for themselves a kind of informal post-graduate program.  I love this idea, even if my own such program would differ substantially from Godin’s in its content.  I am very enamoured with the idea of engaging in a program of intentional learning that does without the institution and without grading and without imposed curriculum, though I would detach this program even further from the necessity for employment than Godin does.

In any case, I thought I might list the elements that I would myself include in such a program.  Feel free to suggest things that you think I may have missed.

1. Volunteer for a local non-profit organization.

2. Have a regular walk through your neighbourhood. Try not to avoid eye contact with your neighbours. Explore the shortcuts and the back alleys.

3. Organize and facilitate a regular community event: an art tour, a pick-up sports night, a film festival, or a knitting bee. Keep at it, even if nobody comes at first.

4. Begin practising one new skill: gardening, cooking, sewing, woodworking, or whatever. Do not start by taking a course. Just begin and learn as you go.

5. Read at least one non-bestseller book a week. Operate on the no-crap principle. Read slowly. Read well. Think and talk and write about what you have read with someone else. Do this over coffee in the morning or over wine in the evening.

6. Watch at least one non-Hollywood film a week. Have it replace your normal television screen time. Do this with someone else if possible.  Have an actual  conversation about what you are watching.

7. Create at least one polished piece of writing a week, whether it be a letter, a blog post, a newspaper article, a poem, a shortstory, or a contribution to your favourite wiki. The goal is not to publish. The goal is to articulate your thoughts clearly and artistically.

8.  Apprentice yourself to someone part-time for free: a butcher, a stonemason, a chef, or a landscaper.  Keep at it for at least a few months.

9.  Have coffee or dinner weekly with someone who you could call a mentor.  Listen attentively.  Say only what is necessary.

10.  Have coffee or dinner weekly with someone who would call you a mentor.  Listen attentively.  Say only what is necessary.

11.  Start doing without some indulgence.  If it is easy, start doing without another.  Repeat until you start to feel at least a bit deprived.

12.  Try to begin a correspondance with a well-known figure whose thinking or art  has inlfuenced you.  Assume that this is possible until you learn definitively to the contrary.

Well, there you have an even dozen elements that I would include in a post-graduate unschooling program.  I may post other elements in the comments if they come to me.  Feel free to do the same.