Reliving my schooling. Rebooting my life.
What is “reschooling”?
Reschooling means reflecting on how school shaped you into the person you are, and choosing to shape your own life from now on. “Reschooling yourself” means “schooling yourself again” by looking back at your school history and consciously deciding what it means for your future.
Reschooling yourself means appreciating the school experiences that empowered you, and moving past the ones that didn’t.
I firmly believe that it’s never too late to reschool yourself, whatever your age or circumstances. You don’t need to pull a “Billy Madison” like I did. You can use my Reschooling Tools to go through your own process.
Why is reschooling yourself important?
Most of us spend 12 to 20 years going to school. It has to have a major influence on the people we became: how we see ourselves and what we choose to do with our lives.
We all experienced things in school that affect our adult lives day-to-day. By bringing these memories to the surface and becoming conscious of them, we can be intentional about what impact they have on us as adults. See Why Reschool? for examples.
Is Reschool Yourself part of an organization or institution? Is it a nonprofit?
No, it’s a project of my own creation.
Why did you go back to your old schools?
A friend describes my approach as “The Slingshot Effect” — pulling back a bit in order to spring forward. I wanted to reboot my life, and because school was such a major part of my life, it made sense to start over where I began.
My immediate goal in going back to my schools was to trigger emotionally charged memories of my education, so I could understand them and move beyond them. I had regrets over the way I approached school, in large part because of the competitive structure that pushed kids to achieve. Those regrets left emotional baggage that continued to influence my adult life. I wanted to make peace with my educational past so that I could control the way it influenced my future.
My long-term goal is to help transform the way people think about education, questioning the practices in school that are often taken for granted, like grading, homework, and punishment and reward systems. I want to emphasize that I didn’t go into the classrooms to critique individual teachers or administrators. Instead, I’m reflecting on my own experience of the way that millions of teachers and kids “do school.” Based on what I remember and observe, I’m considering how this affects people’s character development, resourcefulness, self-management, and joy of learning.
What did you do at the schools?
In the early grades, I began by volunteering as a classroom aide, but I soon decided to take advantage of the rare opportunity to learn alongside the kids experientially. I found that being “just one of the kids” brought back my own school memories more effectively than volunteering as a grown-up. As much as possible, I did what the kids did. In the lower grades, I practiced handwriting, illustrated stories, or played games on the blacktop at recess. I did, however, take copious notes on what my adult mind observed.
In middle and high school, I shadowed a student from each grade for a few days each. I did whatever the students were doing, whether it meant taking a science quiz, running the track in P.E., or eating lunch in the quad. In class discussions, I answered questions if called on but didn’t raise my hand, to avoid being pegged as “that creepy super-senior.”
In college, I sat in on classes taught by my old professors in Philosophy, Psychology, and Classics. I participated as I was inspired and called on.
I’m always interested in other people’s perspectives on school, so I also talked at length with the teachers and students about their experiences.
How did the kids react to you?
The younger kids were just happy to have a big playmate. They fought over who could sit next to me at lunch, talked my ear off, and demanded that I tell them stories. I felt more popular than I ever did as a student.
I wrote in my post about P.E. class that the older kids tend to have a lot of questions for me, like “What are you doing here?” and “Can you you put me in your book?” Here’s an excerpt from the post:
You’d think that I’d blend in more with the older, bigger kids than the little ones, but the opposite is true. Whereas the younger kids just seem happy to have a big playmate, the older ones have a lot of curiosity about what I’m doing back at school and are constantly asking me questions. My favorite question was from one quirky boy, who approached me with a determined look on his face and said, “No offense, but are you a girl, a teenager, or a woman?” I was tempted to answer him by breaking into the Britney Spears ballad, “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman.”
When you returned to the schools you’d attended, were your old teachers still there?
Elementary: none. However, there were several teachers and staff who had been teaching at the time I was enrolled (they just weren’t my teachers), and they hosted me in their classes. I ran into a handful of my old teachers who now sub at the schools, and I spoke with one on the phone.
Middle school: a few. I participated in classes taught by my old math and drama teachers, as well as classes taught by other teachers who were at the school when I was a student.
High school: almost all.
College: many, whose classes I visited.
I got to visit my old classrooms even when they’re occupied by new teachers, and the physical space has triggered memories I’d long forgotten.
What do you write about on the blog?
Do you still maintain the blog?
Yes. I write about the things I’m still learning, and the ways I’m still developing.
How did you fund this project?
I am grateful to individual sponsors - readers like you! - for funding the project entirely.
Did you film your experiences?
I’d hoped to film some of my classroom reschooling myself, but it turned out that a) It was hard to film myself (big surprise), and b) My filmmaking skills leave much to be desired. As luck would have it, a young director named Kaoru Wang came across my blog and contacted me, wanting to feature Reschool Yourself in her documentary, The Killer App (previously titled Something Far Finer). It’s about envisioning the possibilities for 21st Century Education, and my Reschool Yourself story will be among several vignettes. As of this writing, the film is still in production.
Have you read the book Eat, Pray, Love?
The book was part of my inspiration for creating Reschool Yourself. In fact, I was so energized to start writing again that I put down the book around page 50 and didn’t finish it until months later — 10 minutes before attending an Elizabeth Gilbert speaking engagement. (I was sheepishly reading in the line for the women’s bathroom right before the talk began, feeling like a kid rushing to finish her homework before a quiz.) When Gilbert finished speaking, she’d charmed me and the 750 other women in the audience (as well as the 20-or-so men) into wanting to be her best friend.
Have you seen the Adam Sandler movie Billy Madison, where he needs to repeat grades 1-12 to inherit his dad’s successful company?
I often say that Reschool Yourself is Billy Madison meets Eat, Pray, Love. I have seen the movie more times, and can rattle off more ridiculous quotes (“That’s quacktastic!”), than I care to admit. I had Billy’s back-to-school song in my head throughout my reschooling. Check out the post “Billy Madison vs. Melia Dicker” to see how our experiences compare.
Are you writing a book about Reschool Yourself?
Yes. I’ve taken time between living the experience and writing the book in order to renew my energy around it, and to understand my narrative arc as a whole. I had to let go of the idea that I needed to write a book so I could write it because I wanted to.
What are you doing now?
I’m the Communications Director of IDEA, the Institute for Democratic Education in America; I also started a small creative agency with Darren called Creative Distillery, which does design, branding, and communications. At Creative Distillery, I write for clients and manage a small team of freelance writers.
Can I subscribe to your blog?
Yes, if you’d like a heads-up when I update the blog, you can subscribe through a blog reader like Google Reader, which will let you know when I post.
What if my question wasn’t frequent enough to be answered here?
Congratulate yourself on your originality and email me. I’d be happy to answer what inquiring minds want to know.
Updated 1.26.11
Laura
August 24th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Hi, I posted earlier on your middle school dance post, but I should have read this page first, it answered a lot of my questions!
Thanks,
Laura