Village Learning
Outlining a new infrastucture for transformational education
Note: This and other articles in this publication has been made possible through the support of Perspectiva
A society’s educational system exists in both time and space. It represents the continuity of intergenerational transmission over time, and the institutional structures that have been put in place from the policy makers down through the local communities. A “whole systems” approach to change would be needed to enact a transformational philosophy of education. But how would a society pull this off? There is an alternative. A society can have two parallel education paths at the same time. There would be the “alpha” path, which is the conventional institutional structures and programs that are currently maintained by policy makers. Then there could be a “beta” path, rolled out over time. Zak Stein envisions this new structure as a “hub-and-network” structure. Small, perhaps overlooked communities, such as the highschool Gershman did her study on, could be selected to function as hubs that would anchor the beta path in places in many states across the country. Particularly interesting would be to choose communities that are already involved in public-private partnerships, such as the communities served by the various Centers for Resilient Communities — programs that are already embedded in several universities in the US: Idaho, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Rather than a policy-reform approach, the idea here is to envision the beta-path project as a nation-scale infrastructure development project rolled out over time. The idea is to think of the beta-path project as similar to Roosevelt’s $5 billion interstate highway system. Investment in the hub-cities would be associated with rural revitalization and downtown development. The first steps would be to rebuild communities as early childhood “village learning” centers. Entire communities could be transformed along with the educational system. This would appeal to educators and developers alike. Companies such as Google could be invited in to set-up powerful internet capabilities, essentially connecting all the learning hubs as one powerful network. Children could spend more time online with their communities of learning, even when at home, and less time online in harmful or addictive, and consumer-data driven sites.
This would require inventive, creative, disruptive design thinking. I am imagining pattern-design thinking along the lines of Christopher Alexander. The approach would not be to destroy the town to raise a village, but to revitalize the community to raise a learning village for families. Existing housing and storefronts, especially in communities where the neighborhoods grew organically, prior to urban planning and mall-sprawl, would be renovated into places of learning. Buildings that needed to be taken down, sit on lots that could be changed into gardens and parks. Existing houses could be turned into “school houses” — each designed for different areas of the curriculum, or specialized areas of learning. Malls could be stripped bare and transformed into gymnasiums, with pop-up classrooms modeled on Apple stores or Google campuses. Local cafes would be turned into “school eateries” and the Library would take back a central function in the community.
Everyday outings would trace a learning cycle, embedded in a larger curriculum. A local economy, backed by local currency “school coupons” would supplant the need for daily monetary exchange, but have the ability to track resource flows. A typical day “in class” would have the same sensorimotor stimulation of a typical day sauntering through a village, participating in the vibrant life of “well-placed” community, grounding the children in both a sense of belonging and place. The “signaling” happening here is that ordinary life and community are the places that afford learning, and freedom to move around and explore with friends and mentors are the best practices of education. It would “signal” that intersubjective exchange is not transactional, and there is no debt associated with the giving of one’s talents or the receiving of others’ gifts. It would be implicitly telling children a story of free participation in a community of meaning and practice.
Sources:
Gershman, Kathleen (2004) They Always Test Us On Things We Don’t Know
Stein, Zacharay (2019) Education in a Time Between Worlds
Update 9–26–2021
This is becoming a reality. See the Academy for Global Citizenship https://inhabitat.com/avant-garde-school-in-chicago-will-teach-kids-how-to-grow-their-own-organic-food/
