What if education actually served the expansion of the consciousness of whole human beings?

What if students' creative freedom was expanded rather than crushed by systems of learning?

I was a “sensitive” child, eventually identified as “gifted,” and I absolutely hated school.

Why would a child who loves learning as much as I did end up hating school? As one genius famously commented, “school isn’t a place for smart people.” I would refine this: institutions are not generally a place for creative people. Schools are institutions.

Later, I found myself teaching in them.

Is education simply a tool for increased wealth, a fancier car and bigger house? The key to a “more successful” life?

The problem with this mentality is that with it, we reduce ourselves and our children to the status of tools.

So I ask my students: Are we tools, or tool-users?