You know how those “life purpose gurus” suggest that you ask yourself what you would do for free, simply for the joy of it? My answer, without hesitation, would be to “learn & share what I learn”. I’m a learner and explorer at heart and, more painfully, a teacher without a classroom for the very reasons you outline.

I didn’t play well in a system driven to spit out those compliant workers of which you speak. I taught a “compulsory” course and went in trying to find new ways to facilitate learning and foster a love of learning in my students, only to be shut down by an administration so overworked and indoctrinated in those ‘traditional solutions’ that they couldn’t entertain anything outside the norm. I was exhausted, frustrated and angry.

Now I can empathize; time and distance allow for hindsight and the depth that comes from reflection.

Seth, your altMBA looks like a fantastic program for those driven to achieve business leadership stardom. Students of that ilk will happily enroll and engagement will be a given. If they have to, they’ll even go into debt to do it (sound familiar?).

But, let’s travel back in the timeline a little. Back to the years of middle/high school … maybe even primary/junior school … to locate that ground zero event that destroys the love of learning.

We humans are born learners; it’s instinctual and, from an evolutionary perspective, it’s no surprise that learners (aka “adapters”) were the ones to survive and perpetuate the species. So, when does our current system squash it?

More people need to ask that fundamental question, as opposed to criticizing the giant that is modern industrial education. Really, as right (or wrong) as that bigger conversation may be, it won’t solve anything ‘on the ground’.

It’s about restoring a love of learning, the desire to know and the passion to explore. It’s about reviving that toddler-like joy of first words and first steps.

Speaking as a life-long lover of learning I can say unequivocally that, because I’m doing what I love when I’m learning, the technology and/or pedagogy is just more icing on the cake. I can’t help but wonder how the conversation would change if more of our young students felt the same.