What if I can redo my education again

My personal Masters of Education program

As a 20 year old, education has occupied the biggest part of my life. Never in my 16 years of education journey have I reflected and evaluate my largest component in my life. I guess it is because education for me has always been just a goal, a goal to go to finish higher education. I followed the path that most people take. It has been the few constant in this ever-changing world, and I fear of it changing after I questioned it, going off a path that will lead me nowhere.

All changed until last year when I reached my goal: going to my ideal college. 16 years of hard work finally paid off. But between the meeting of new people, adjusting to new curriculum, experiencing new found freedoms, I was lost. While I enjoyed learning at this college a lot, I found no purpose in my education. My goal for education is reached. And as for the general view that you need an education to get a job and be an adult, I have done both before I even enrolled as a freshman. So what is left of education?

I spent the last year reflecting on my education journey, and I realized that, while I always thought I was walking on an ordinary path to college, I was always experimenting with my own education. I went to a primary school with no exams and put huge emphasis on project-based learning (back then no one cares about PBL) and reading. I went to a high school that strives to create a sustainable and peaceful future by gathering teens from 80+ countries (more about that experience here). I am attending a college that brings me to 7 different cities and structures education like no other (more about that here).

Even when I am not spending time on my own education, I am experimenting ways of educating others. I promoted STEM education through science exhibitions and hackathons. I created long lasting connections between young people in conflicting countries through a summer camp. I have even tried to build 2 schools in completely different environments.

It was the middle of this year, after a long period of retrospection, when I realized that education is something that I naturally gravitated towards, and I constantly love experimenting with. But with my educational goal met, I don’t have a good reason to come back to education, or experiment with it anymore.

But a question hits me:

What if I can redo my entire 17 years of education again, but this time make it perfect?

I know I cannot go back in time and redo it, but maybe through doing this thought experiment, I may be able to find another meaning of education for my own, that can guide me not just through the 4 (or 5) years of college, but the rest of my life.

I thought it would be a easy 5 day idea sprint. Come on, how hard would it be to think about my perfect education journey from start to finish?

I cannot be more wrong. I first approach this question by attempting to define what my “perfect” education will help me achieve. But even that, I fell into a rabbit hole of educational, personal and philosophical enquiries. Here are some questions I thought of as I tried to define what is my perfect education, so you have an idea how big of a rabbit hole I dug myself into

Does children know themselves before interacting with the society?

What is the line to be drawn between individuals and society?

Are all purposes equally meaningful to pursue?

Where can you draw the line between things to “tolerate” and things to “rebel against”?

Here is just a snippet of the questions I came up with

After looking at the mind map I drew while thinking about the “perfect” education, I decided to give myself a year so that I can have time to think, to read other educators, sociologists, philosophers, scientists, politicians thinking about education, and experience education in different contexts for myself. Think of it as my personal Masters of Education program.

To keep myself accountable, in the next 12 months, I will write 1 Medium article per month, each tackling one aspect of my perfect education journey. Coming soon: What defines my perfect education?

Here’s to a year of research, exploring and educating!