A Cosmic Education is where I put all the ideas, skills, concepts and philosophies that the modern education system did not teach me and that I believe are worth knowing for every carbon-based homo sapiens life form upon the sphere of rock you are most likely currently on called “Earth”. It is a dynamic and evolving resource that contains nearly every useful thought swirling around in my head in a concise and hopefully easy to read and understand manor. The idea here is that the education system I grew up in was based on a design from the industrial revolution that intended to create factory workers. In other words, employees that would show up to work on time, and perform a set of instructions without asking questions and without getting creative. A critique of this system is nothing new, I will just be putting my own interpretation on it and ultimately forming a new curriculum fit for live in the rapidly evolving and fast paced 21st century.
This is by no means saying that everything the education system taught me is useless, far from it. There are countless invaluable skills I learned in school that I use everyday. And in many ways I’m sure that I don’t even fully realize the depths that this goes. The ability to read, write, communicate with others, perform arithmetic, learn independently, socialize, work with others, solve problems, manage my time, and stay organized are all skills I learned in school and for which I am forever in debt. However, there were also (how shall I say this?), less than useful skills learned that were a waste of time, and in some cases were counterproductive, reversing my development. But most importantly, there were at least 1000 separate topics that school did not teach me that are in my opinion, essential for operating as a fully functioning, and developed adult human in the modern world.
I will start out by listing 1000 things school didn’t teach me. This does not mean that I believe all 1000 of these things should have been taught in school, many of them would be better off learned in adulthood, but many of them I firmly believe (and perhaps controversially) absolutely should be taught in school, and the fact that they are not is to the complete detriment of our society.
To be clear, I grew up in Canada and I am defining “school” to be the formal education every child receives up until the year the student turns 18. In Canada this last year of school is known as “Grade 12”. This might be slightly different in depending on the country or region. If the exact age a student graduates differs by a year or two depending on the student and country, I am not too concerned. Here I am mainly focusing on the content to be taught and learned.
This will be controversial. I do get opinionated. And to some, what I write in this blog will be downright offensive (such as learning Shakespeare and cursive writing is a waste of time 😛). You have been warned! I welcome criticism, and more importantly I welcome open discussions as we all strive for a a deeper, more full, inclusive and nuanced understanding of life and the world we live in. Ultimately, ACE is really a vehicle for understanding reality at as fundamental a level as possible. I don’t know how to get there without causing controversy and being flat-out wrong sometimes, so please let us not bring each other down in a mutually destructive hurricane of menial judgement, but let us grow together, as our incredible, but frustratingly slow and impulsive brains attempt to understand the most complex systems in the universe.
I hope, not just to inform, but to entertain. My intent is not to write to be boring, but to write because I find the world and learning fascinating. Hopefully that manifests as an engaging, charming and interactive blog.
As alluded to above, the ultimate goal of ACE is to create a completely revamped curriculum that will be used to teach students until roughly the age of 18, the skills and ideas needed to succeed and be happy in the world of now, not the world of 100 years ago. I will be forming this curriculum along with the blog and will unveil it sometime after the countdown from 1000 completes.
And lastly, one of my many loves is astronomy and the name “A Cosmic Education” alludes not just to the “cosmic” scale of everything I believe should be taught in school, and not just the “cosmic” scale of everything there is to know, but to the cosmos themselves which I allude to in a scientific and spiritual sense throughout this blog.
I hope you enjoy. I welcome comments, feedback, and general letters from my readers, if you would like to get in touch, please refer to my contact page.
Happy ACEing!
-Sean