To follow up on a brief mention towards the end of my last post, I want to cover this topic which is essential to sovereign learning and an education that is, to hack Thoreau, not merely study but life earnestly. To begin, full disclosure here: my family was home-schooled for the duration of our lower schooling and, in so doing, we were gradually forced to capture sovereignty over our learning.

This culminated in some integrated curriculum I helped my sister create for her Junior and Senior years. Her Junior year was focused on a thematic/integrated study of Food.

We split the Food study into 4 categories:
1. Cuisine: Cooking Meals, Nutrition, Food Industry, Science & Anthropology, etc.
2. Agriculture: Gardening Practicum, Farm Science, etc. (Apprentice at Project)
3. Environmental History and Studies: Ethics, Politics, Philosophy, Science
4. Field Journal: Personal writing, drawing, reading, reflection, and field trips

She spent 5 hours a week on each section (the rest of her time was spent on subject matter not affiliated with the integrated curriculum). She learned about the Earth where food is grown and our relationship to it; about to grow her own food, and practice doing it; the problems and issues of the food industry, ethics, and science; how to cook her favorite cuisines herself; and spent substantial time reading nature writing, reflecting, doing her own writing, and responding.

While this study was not explicitly designed with a problem-solving goal, in a way it functioned similarly as the desired outcome was her fuller understanding and skill in the ways of Food. The problem she solved? Perhaps her lack of cooking skill and knowledge of all things Food. This study could have been viewed as preliminary on the knowledge map and set the groundwork for further study and the solving of specific problems in the realm of Food.

In the creation of this curriculum, we started with the simple question: “what do you want to learn?” and I helped her create the appropriate syllabus/knowledge map to accomplish that (more on this idea in the next post).

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In thinking about creating curriculum for a collegiate or personal study… How about we begin the founding of a course with these questions:

- what do you want to learn?
- what problem are you trying to understand and solve?

Framing a course with these questions necessarily helps improve sovereign learning and improves the contemporary relevancy of the content. If a student is not capable of deciding the actual content of a course, they can at the very least direct the focus. And, focusing a course around a specific problem not only lets students engage the study with their own lives, but necessarily causes the content to be contemporary; all problems are relevant today as they still require solving, reforming, and serving.

Let’s try an example: students, in response to the current/recent revolution in Libya want to understand why, and how it happened. The title of this study could, simply be: “The Libya Problem” This is certainly a bold and difficult problem to address, but why not? The content of the course could include all aspects relevant to solving the problem and culminate with student proposals on the problem. Student’s focuses could vary based on interest: - is a non-violent revolution possible? - how does a country rebuild?

An improved example would be a problem-focused course that had better local application. Student projects could be less theoretical and actually attempt actionable solutions. Issues of health, agriculture, politics, transportation, design, energy efficiency, environment, water usage, etc. etc. etc. would all make for fascinating and highly applicable problem-focused courses. In my experience, studies that are immediately applicable to real life and real work are the most engaging, rewarding, and important.

My “coursework” involved in the process of establishing The Saxifrage School has been far more complex, interesting, and valuable than anything I did in College. The problem I began with: Higher Education is far too expensive and ill-prepares its graduates. My study has required me to read over 40 books; countless websites, blogs, and news articles; watch some documentaries, TV specials, lectures, and panels; and have hundreds of conversations with students, graduates, teachers, administrators and other “experts”. In response, I have written numerous documents, scores of blog posts, a few formal essays; and, most importantly, have done substantial work in the creation of an organization to address the most pressing economic and academic problems. At the start of my work on this problem I thought I should begin by formal study, so I enrolled in courses at the University of Pittsburgh in their “Social and Comparative Analysis in Education” program.

I quickly learned it was not what I wanted and embarked on my personal study. I began my own program in “Higher Education Redesign”. My work for this program, I have come to realize has been more significant than what I might have accomplished in a traditional MA or PhD program. Although not credentialled, I have come to be fascinated with the idea of an “Open PhD” (more on this later). Although I would not (and probably could not) have taken up this work in a traditional program, I recognize–at this point–that my work would have been made much easier if I had better resources and experts to encourage me, critique me, and provide me with a steady stream of applicable resources. Much of my time was spent second-guessing myself (trying to be my own critic) and looking for the right things to read.

This role is what I imagine for The Saxifrage School; to provide sovereign learners with the resources and environment they need to best prepare for and pursue their life’s work.