On filters, campfires, and leaps of faith

Designing a learning community

Hi all,

The School of the Possible is currently in the early stages of design and development. Here is a diagram of the current state of things, employing a kind of biological diagrammatic rhetoric, similar to the drawings and diagrams I used in my book, The Connected Company. Let’s call this the connected college.

In this drawing, each node is a person, a potential Possibilitarian. Prospective students enter from the left, and prospective teachers from the right (path shown in red). The School is in the middle, made up of courses and a collaboratory, a social platform (similar to Facebook or LinkedIn, but private) that makes it easy for the learning community to connect, share, hatch projects and so on.

The Collaboratory isn’t open to anyone, because the school isn’t for everyone. It’s for people who share a common Possibilitarian philosophy. There are filters in place to ensure that the right people get in.

For teachers, we are designing an application process. Teachers will be vetted to ensure they have the skills, expertise, enthusiasm and positive energy we want to cultivate in the school. They will also be demonstrating their commitment by supporting the platform financially. We are capping the faculty at 20 people while we get started. If you’re interested in teaching, please apply here.

The filter for students is to take a course. Signing up for one of our courses and engaging with a teacher as well as the other students will ensure we are building a network of people who are committed to investing in themselves and their own personal growth. There are no courses available yet, but we will start announcing them this fall. One of the first courses will be my course on visual frameworks.

Think of how it feels when you attend a conference where you meet up with people who share your interests and passions. One of the things that makes these kinds of events special is that everyone has made sacrifices in order to be there. They have paid a conference fee, figured out all of their travel and logistics. They made an effort.

The filters are there to keep out the stuff we don’t want. But what about what we do want? We want to create a creative learning community, people who care about and support each other. That’s what the Collaboratory is all about. It’s a common cause around which people can gather. A shared purpose: Design a better school to create a better world. That shared purpose is like a campfire.

A campfire generates warmth and light, a shared space around which people can gather, tell stories, and imagine possible futures. It is a beacon to anyone who feels lost and alone, out in the darkness. That is the kind of energy we want to create in the School of the Possible. The number of people may be quite small at first, but the number of people matters less than the energy and enthusiasm they can generate.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

— Margaret Mead

Pragmatist (and possibilitarian) philosopher William James observed that “faith in a fact can help create the fact.” Sometimes all it takes is a leap of faith.

Thanks for being here and thanks for listening.

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