Today’s Sonoma Index-Tribune features a follow-up article to the piece published in September, during the project launch. Emily Charrier-Botts gives an overview of my experience in the classrooms last fall and includes answer to some of the questions that I’ve gotten frequently:

  • Why did you go back to your classrooms, and did you get what you came for?
  • What did you learn from the experience?
  • What kind of work do you envision doing in the future?

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that achievement has not made me happy,” Dicker said. School was always a place where Dicker excelled.

From elementary school through college, she did everything right. But after stepping out of the education system, she began to wonder if fulfilling every educational expectation had really brought her to where she wanted to be. “I sort of lived the American Dream of education. I did it all really well, I played the game,” Dicker said. “I thought I’d come out on the other side happy and fulfilled and that just wasn’t the case. I wanted to go back (to school) and find out why that happened.”

As Dicker wrapped up her time revisiting her education, she felt she had faced a lot of the personal hang-ups she had held over from her school days. “In school, the idea is to stand out, whether it’s in sports or academics. But learning to compare yourself to others is the best way to set yourself up for disappointment,” she said, adding that “Reschool Yourself” has changed her view on what’s important. “The word achieve has been replaced for me by empowerment.”

Read the full article here.

If you’re new to the site and would like an orientation, visit the post Reschool Yourself in the News. You can navigate by category using the right-hand sidebar. Note that there are several pages of listings for Elementary, Middle, and High School.

The best ways to get involved in the project are to comment on the posts, spread the word, or make a donation. If you use this link to shop Amazon, a percentage of any purchase will go to Reschool Yourself. Pass it on!

Here’s a selection of posts from the fall that will give you a good sense of the project:

School:

Personal Development:

One of the most popular features has been Remember This?, where I post a photo that I think will trigger readers’ school memories and ask them to comment.

I post to the blog several times per week, so if you’re a new visitor, I hope that you become a regular one.

Thanks to Emily Charrier-Botts for the article and Robbi Pengelly for spending the afternoon photographing the film shoot at Altimira.

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