Dear Student,
It’s strange that school is the chief occupation of young people, yet they aren’t included in much discussion about education. We endorse critical thinking and self-reflection, but neglect this valuable opportunity for it.
Maybe young people aren’t ready to consider the issues of education. Maybe they aren’t ready to understand their best interests, or do for themselves what others try to do for them. But this perspective (held long after it has merit) has left many young people dependent and directionless, unprepared to manage their education on their own. It’s not enough to plan an educational path for young people and hold them to it; this is a good start, but eventually they should ask: Who am I? What is the right path for me? And they shouldn’t have to address these questions alone, or discover that they’re important by chance.
Young people (adolescents in particular) are in need of self-determination, authenticity, competence, and purpose. I believe they’re not only hungry for these things but capable of taking the responsibility to acquire them—a belief shared by a respected tradition of brilliant minds. It certainly is difficult to strive for these values, and they may seem unlikely considering how young people often behave. But I also believe that young people want to demand more of themselves, and will do so, given meaningful opportunity, capable support, and expectations that respect their true potential.
The purpose of this course is to help you further your educational goals (and help you choose good ones). The material we would study isn’t arbitrary or irrelevant; I believe it’s essential to a fulfilled life. No one will force you to be here or do work you don’t find valuable. The traditional motivators you’re used to won’t be present here, just as they aren’t present for most of adulthood. In the absence of these forces, what will become of your education? Will you learn and improve your mind when no one is making you? Will you be responsible for your growth when no one else is?
This is a challenge we all face, one that has significant bearing on the quality of our lives and the world at large. That being said, one of my goals is to help you rise to this challenge. I hope to help you find inspiring reasons to educate yourself throughout your life, for your own sake and for the world you will help shape.
This course is an opportunity for you to consider your best interests and make an autonomous choice on your own behalf. To prove wrong those who would say you’re too immature to know what’s good for you. It’s an opportunity to work for yourself and to earn genuine self-esteem. To enter into a culture of more noble values, to give yourself permission to read, write, speak, and listen as skillfully as you can. To find joy in discovering knowledge for yourself, to feel pride in the use of your mind, and to come to value this kind of satisfaction above so many lesser pleasures. To have someone interested in your education as a whole, now and into the future. To appreciate the good fortune to have a liberating education—to be able to shape your learning so that you can flourish as a free, responsible human being. To find those voices from the past and present that speak to you most directly, to find solace in their gifts, and to lovingly cultivate your own.
This course is an opportunity for me as well, to fulfill my responsibilities as a teacher. To offer what I’ve found to be some of the most essential lessons and useful ideas. To continue my own education, and conduct the inquiry that’s central to my ongoing learning: What are the best ways to help young people (and adults alike) assume the responsibilities of education?
One of the premises of this course is that you are more capable of assuming these responsibilities than you think (and often more than your culture has enabled you to be). But building this competence takes practice, and some resolve. There are understandable reasons why you might show reluctance toward this course and the effort it would ask, and there are similar reasons why a culture might not enable the best in you. These reasons are the subject of discussions we would undertake, if you wish (topics such as “Why might it be difficult to assume the responsibilities of education?”, among others). Confronting the obstacles that inhibit learning and teaching is vital, to the improvement of our institutions and our personal lives.
I understand that you may be weary of teachers, and doubt the usefulness of their lessons. But I’m not a teacher like many of those you’ve known. There’s no bureaucracy controlling my methods, no standardized test determining my curriculum. There’s no external force compelling you to be here; for this I rely on the power of the material itself and your ability to tap into that power. I teach what I love, what has enlightened me, and what I believe will benefit you most. I require that you be here voluntarily because it would be an injustice to force it on you, to rob you of the opportunities for autonomy mentioned above, to devalue the material because of resentment or distracting incentives.
I understand that other obligations and desires may leave you little time and energy to work for yourself. It is, and will always be, difficult to prioritize the responsibility of education above other things. But, I don’t believe it is an exaggeration to say, your very life is at stake. No one is going to make sure you know many of the most important things you should know. No one is going to deliver to you the knowledge that will enable you to comprehend your intricate mind, develop and apply your unique powers, raise a healthy family, build a prosperous society, or reveal the deepest wonder and complexity of life. There are plenty of wise teachers to inform these pursuits, but it falls to you to seek them. This searching, this responsibility, however challenging, is one of the most rewarding and meaningful human endeavors. For as you learn freely, under your own direction, you give shape and substance to your self, and you give rise to a culture that is more likely to enable the best in everyone.
I look forward to beginning this work with you.
Sincerely,
– Thomas Cook