It is September 1 today and while I could bore you with hoary old tropes about the the chill in the air, the pitter-patter of little feet in freshly opened schools or the turning of the leaves we here at Unlimited try to stay away from the old cliche monster.

We knew we wanted to focus on education for September but I didn’t want it be the usual trite back to school stuff. I wanted to explore new ideas and concepts which are shaping the future of education. I was inspired by one particular piece of content.  A high school valedictorian and her particularly amazing graduation speech. For an 18-year-old she had some pretty interesting things to say.

School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

and

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us

I recommend you read it all the way through.

And when I was going through the stories that were gathered and written this month I was proud of the fact that we weren’t just exploring sexy new ideas or the latest gadgets. We examined concepts like open education and unschooling that aim to improve the educational experience. We also explored the new ways that teachers are educating children in our article Teaching 2.0 and the fun and informal ways that people learn in the articles How to Learn Without Trying and Welcome to Jughead University.

This month also has us experimenting with something new for us. We’re having an open debate on the merits of open education and we want you to participate. Both in formulating questions for our debaters and giving us your take on the questions that are asked.

As always I’d love to hear what you have to say about the content. Feel free to leave a comment or email me at dkinney@albertaventure.com

Cheers

-dk