Page 14 of Through Quick and Quinn
I took a moment to glance over at the boy. I was almost certain that I had caught him watching me meditate on more than one occasion. I sensed that he was watching out of curiosity, rather than judgment, so I chose to smile at him once. He quickly turned away, but I could have sworn I saw a reciprocation as he did. The tables had turned, though, as I became the curious one. Who was this profound Quick character?
Mr. Erickson ended his first class that day with a reminder of his philosophy: He was not there to teach us what to think. He added on to it at that point by stating that he didn’t even feel it was his job to tell us what to think about. With that, he gave us our first homework assignment. We were to brainstorm a list of topics that we as individuals were curious about, things we had always wanted to learn or better understand, things we wished we could learn about at school.
I left that room feeling more heartened and more emboldened than ever before. Mr. Erickson was undeniably going to push me to live inspired.
+ + +
Hey,
So much for me being invisible. I don’t know what came over me, but for some reason I decided to speak up on the first day of my history class yesterday. I don’t even know how it happened. I just started talking. And not just talking. I dropped a majorly deep thought bomb on an entire classroom and not only did everyone hear it, the teacher made a huge deal of it afterwards. He’s cool though. His class seems like it will be cool, too. Like it will make me think.
For years now, I’ve been cynical about school. What is the point of it all anyway? They tell us that everyone “is an individual” and “learns in their own way,” but yet we all have the exact same path for the first eighteen years of our lives? And that path is one that beats us into submission, killing our intrinsic motivation and destroying our imaginations. All we do is test, test, test so you can rank, rank, rank? Bells and desks and regurgitation of facts. It’s not like I don’t love learning. You know I do. But I don’t really know what the purpose of “schooling” is, unless of course, our educational system is designed to create meek and compliant workers who will continue to perpetuate the world as we know it. To benefit the elites. Just sayin’.
But… This history class? This teacher? He seems different. Get this. For our first assignment we had to come up with topics that we want to learn about. Anything we’re curious about. Seems kinda cool, right? Like I’ll actually be able to dig for homework? Sign me up.
But…then today in class he had us write down our top three so he can look at our submissions and pair us up with people who have a similar interest. Ugh. I hate group projects. All good though. I only wrote down one topic and I went with the most obscure thing I could think of. Guarantee you no one else wrote down that they were curious about the science behind vibrational frequencies killing cancer cells.
Loophole! Ha ha, I win.
Love you.
-Deck
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Note to self:
I’m beside myself! I have never been this excited about a class, or this thrilled to have a particular teacher! Mr. Erickson is so inspiring. He’s a bit quirky and awkward, but it is clear as day that he is heavily invested in our learning. In our thinking!
I believe all teachers are heavily invested, though. Or at least the great majority of them. I really do. They choose to go into this line of work because they love children, knowing all the while that it is sadly underpaid/undervalued. They care about our futures, both as individuals and as a collective. But the longer I’m in school, the more I think the teachers become burdened with state standards and testing, and before they know it, there’s no time left in the classroom to do the inventive and inspiring lessons they want to do. Honestly, I think that’s why Mr. Erickson strikes me as a little sad. Like he’s been beaten down a bit. But then I see him muster up enthusiasm, like he’s picking himself up by his bootstraps and willing himself not to give up.
Today he told us about a new program he designed that he is trying for the first time. Basically, he wants to give us the opportunity to follow our own interests and to form educated opinions based on research, and then practice having civil conversations if differences of opinion arise. This is the guinea pig year for what he named REED. It stands for Ruminate, Excavate, Educate, Deliberate. I love the acronym!
We just finished the rumination stage, where we had to really think about questions and curiosities that we have. I struggled with that one. I couldn’t come up with very much, but that’s okay. Mr. Erickson mentioned in class today that our imaginations may be a bit rusty and that we are going to oil the gears this year. I even got a little notebook to carry with me, so when I have a curious thought, I can write it down straight away. Maybe in the hustle and bustle of life, most of our curiosities become fleeting thoughts?
Anyway, today we started the excavation part. We were assigned a partner—I’ll get to that later—and we now need to research our topic, of course citing multiple sources and such. From there, we create any sort of digital presentation to share our findings with our peers. That’s the education phase, when we learn from one another. Deliberation comes when there is a REED topic that naturally lends to a discussion, if there is an organic desire to debate the research among the class.
It’s brilliant! There was such a buzz in the room today, too. I think we’re all kind of excited. I can’t even imagine all of the things I am going to be exposed to this year, how many new thoughts and interests I may have. I heard the partner pair next to me talking about nanotechnology and I have no idea what that even is! And as I was walking out, I heard someone say something about weather weapons? What the heck is that? I guess I’ll find out soon enough! I need to tell Mr. Erickson how grateful I am for this opportunity. I mean, we can all do this on our own, but what teenager would?
Ok, so back to the partner part. Apparently I have to work with this boy named Quick for the next week. I was shocked when Mr. Erickson told us that we had submitted similar interest ideas. Beyond shocked. I turned in my slip that said I was intrigued by vibrational frequencies, and apparently Quick wants to learn about the possibility of healing physical ailments with vibration. So like, curing cancer with frequency lasers or something? I don’t really get it. Yet. Anyway, I thought for sure I’d be working alone, but I think I still might be. Quick doesn’t seem like the “group project” type. I guess we’ll see how class goes tomorrow.
Super excited. (And nervous?)
…Q
+ + +
Hey,
Dude. I got paired up with the meditation girl in history class.
-Deck
Quinn:
Frequencies
The first Thursday morning of my junior year, I entered Mr. Erickson’s class with the most bizarre blend of conflicting feelings: excitement and reluctance, hope and doubt, eagerness and dread. I was keenly aware that I was wading into uncharted waters. Working with a stranger on a project that had the potential to really divulge some personal aspects was honestly causing me some anxiety that seemed to keep creeping up no matter how much I meditated in the previous twenty-four hours. I had no idea how this project or how my time with Quick was going to unfold, nor did I have any control over it. All I could do was try my best on my portion of the research and focus on what I wanted to learn.
