The Liminal Learning Portal

“Learning is life’s most important skill.” —Tony Buzan The Inner Development Goals of Education Ithas been emphasized, in my studies and elsewhere, in more ways than we can give justice to, that conventional education is too cerebral; too much focused on mental and cognitive capacities, and that it is often blind to learning goals that go beyond “left brain thinking”: the intuitive, the sense of wholeness and meaning, the creative, the playful, the experiential—the aspects associated with the “right hemisphere” of the brain (let us disregard for a moment the debate around the debate around the neurological appropriateness of this division

“Can we go from f*ck the system, to love the system? In China, the latter is being explored. The problem there, of course, is that it’s a system even less worthy of our love. For a system to be loved, it must merit our love. And a social system—educational systems included—merits our love by being generative of inner thriving and dignified relationships between us, the members of the public.” — Hanzi Freinacht (who sometimes makes up his own introductory quotes if he can’t find a suitable one) Breaking Away from the Industrial Education System In the previous article I discussed

“To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground”. — Stephen Covey Grounding Education in Human Interaction In a very general sense, education is a social undertaking; it is fundamentally about humans that interact in a manner that helps people to grow and to learn, building on the human capacity to play. Every time we meet and interact with another person, there is at least some aspect of play, and through that, we change. Each change is usually small; but over time, the interactions shape our inner worlds—until we come out as citizens, as members

“Technology is not neutral. We’re inside of what we make, and it’s inside of us. We’re living in a world of connections—and it matters which ones get made and unmade”. —Donna Haraway Turning the Tide from Disruption to Educational Potential Itwould be a bleak reality if technology offered only challenges and disruptions to education that somehow need to be accounted for. Yet more numerous are the voices that stress the potentials for improving—or rewiring—education in the 21st century, by the use of technology. But there is little reason to believe that such improvements to education will happen merely as the

“All things share the same breath—the beast, the tree, the man. The air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.” —Chief Seattle Keeping the Gretas in School As the Greta Thunberg movement of school strikes has put on display, the young generation around the world worries about their future in terms of ecological sustainability and the possible collapse of ecosystems and societies. It is not a farfetched question to ask: What might education and schooling look like if students of life were to feel that going to school (or other corresponding outlets of education), rather than striking, was the

“Culture arises and unfolds in and as play”. — Johan Huizinga, Dutch historian 1872–1945 A Time Between Worlds Zak Stein (philosopher of education) has famously noted that our educational system is stuck in “a time between worlds”. It’s a time that has begun to shed the Modern educational frameworks, but no Protopian or Metamodern framework has emerged to fill the void. (“Metamodern” can mean either the society beyond modernity, or the time between modernity or what comes after, depending on who you ask. I discuss this here.) There is today the opportunity to shape the development of Global Education for the

Some timely and practical clarity I’d like to share with you a recording of a live call I hosted last week on peace-building. Audio and video versions are below, followed by a couple excerpts and then at the bottom by a very short and important note to my readers. To Continue Reading Please Visit My […]

Why digital society brings forth cynicism and anxiety—and what we can do about it. [A very French piece of theory: READERS BE WARNED.] Would you say that life has become more or less “civilized” as societies have evolved? Let us consider only the last few decades of cultural shifts to get a handle on this question. Michel Foucault famously wrote Madness and Civilization. Norbert Elias identified the Civilizing Process. Where do we stand on how civilization and madness evolve today? I would claim that we need an updated version of these theories, one in tune with the advent of Internet Society: Digital Madness, that drives forth a… Pornographic Civilization.

Aubrey Marcus: “When it was recommended that I do a podcast with Rabbi Dr. Marc Gafni, I knew nothing about him. I dove straight into his body of work and my life will never be the same. This is perhaps the most paradigm shifting podcast I have ever recorded. It tells the tale of the greatest love story of all–the story of the cosmo-erotic universe Herself. In this paradigm shifting masterclass, we learn how a force he calls Eros is the fundamental substrate of creation all the way down to the first principles of subatomic matter. Gafni’s wisdom stretches back

There are still four tickets left for the advanced course on metamodernism starting April 10. The course is an intense deep-dive reserved for just 12 participants interested in a more intimate experience with Emil Ejner Friis as your teacher. This will be the last time Emil does this course this year. Here’s what he has to offer: This course is limited to 12 participants ready for a deep-dive into metamodernism, the latest emerging grand narrative of our time. It’s designed for those who’re already somewhat familiar with metamodernism, including the work of Hanzi Freinacht. References will be made to Hanzi’s