Documentary: “La Educación Prohibida” – D11

After a long and exhausting week, we decided to watch a documentary called “La Educación Prohibida”. We haven’t finished it, but it is about the traditional educational system and what it does to the students. Do we really learn and get educated on school? Is there another way to learn? A better one? A student-centered one? Now a day, most of the teachers don’t know their students, so how could they decide which method is best for their learning? We are in a culture in which we expect to receive everything, specifically knowledge, from someone else and always wait for an authority to tell us how things are and how they should be. We have stopped thinking! Is that sustainable or by any means good for mankind? We have to create spaces were people actually think; places were the teacher is only to help in the process of learning but not to teach what he or she wants or was told to “teach”. Instead of getting worried about what they would “teach” us and what to think, they should be worried about teaching us how to think by ourselves. It was an excellent end to the week.

*Here is the link to watch the documentary: La Educación Prohibida

Make your Bike Road trip – Dialogue with Daniel Herbruger – D8

Today, Daniel visited us and talked a little about him. He is working at the Acton Academy Guatemala so he is familiar with the MPC. He talked about “dropping” college on his last semester of journalism for several reasons, some very similar to those of mine for getting into the MPC. He also talked about his passion, bike riding, and how we can achieve our dreams. People have this notion that you can only do certain things when you either have the time or money to do them, but Daniel thinks differently. He fulfilled his dream of make a bike trip crossing several states from the U.S.A. and told us how he managed to do it without the average amount of money needed to do those trips. I think he didn’t pay for that trip! The lesson is that money should not be an issue for not fulfilling your dreams. He encouraged us to meet who you admire, go to a concert of your favorite band, and do what you always wanted to do. The only condition is for you to not waste your time and start doing what makes you happy.

*Here are his blogs if you want to know more about him!

• Dave Ramsey Says
• Dan's Idea Depot

Culture of Learning and Unschooling – Dialogue with Dale Stephens, D3

Is the actual educational system good? Is college the only way of learning? This is what the MPC is all about. It is about finding new ways of learning, of creating a new culture of learning, a student-centered and self-directed learning. The traditional, teacher-centered, educational system is becoming more obsolete every day that passes. So, what is the future of education? That’s what we are trying to change at MPC. It is about learning how to learn, becoming a self-learner. On Thursday, we had Dale Stephens, a Thiel Fellow, as a guest on our dialogue. We discussed his new project, UnCollege, and his upcoming book, Hacking your Education. He thinks college is not the only way to become an educated person nor that college is the best way to do it. He is in favor of unschooling, of letting oneself discover and learn by life experiences.