It’s been a month since school started, and while it has mostly been intros and inductions to the workshops (wood, textile, 3D), I am already struck by how the learning environment feels so humane.
I have read and heard about the Fika culture (regular, unmissable coffee breaks throughout the work day), but I did not think it would still surprise me when it happened. The fact that it is culturally accepted and mandated that you take a break at 10 / 10:30 am and 3 pm every workday???! We start a typical school day at 9 am with lectures or introductions, and when 10 am comes around, our teachers will suggest, “Coffee? 20 minutes?”. But we only just started the day? We barely did any work? You mean I don’t have to work for my coffee break? How radical!
In these intro weeks, our teachers take turns sharing a short presentation about themselves so we can get acquainted with them, both as our teachers and as human beings. One of them started her intro session with a little check-in exercise where we were told to close our eyes and ground ourselves for a few minutes to really get in touch with our senses and check in with how we are feeling right now. We then broke into groups of 3 to share how we felt, each taking precisely 5 minutes, holding space, and sharing as much or as little as we wanted. I learnt that good intentions can appear cringe to sceptics (myself), but when the environment is low stakes (small group of students who don’t yet know each other well) and unforced, participating and engaging reveals the power and beauty in brief vulnerability. Whatever we shared stayed in the group. We were not expected to repeat it to the larger group. I deepened my relationships with my classmates very quickly over that short period of sharing. I don’t remember being in an educational setting where I felt so tenderly held.
I think about growing up in an environment like this and wonder about how that shapes a child. I think about the learning environments I am familiar with that are often hostile and rarely as forgiving, and wonder how they stunt the expansion of the human spirit. I don’t believe there is one perfect system/ place/ method. We are already questioning blind spots and biases, and I don’t think the answers will come easy or will ever be final, but I think this scene from Toys (1992) sums it up:
Thank you for being here! Stay soft!
This month’s play-list: