Back to school.

Emma's Notes #55

Hey,

Hope you had a great first week of ‘back to normal life’. Or at least for me this week has been all about that. Spaniards take their holidays very seriously (as they should), which means that in August it’s hard to get anything done here. In September however, it’s back to business.

I love seeing all the kids with backpacks being dragged to school by their parents at 8:50. Not only are the various parental strategies very entertaining - my favorite one was a dad passive aggressively singing a happy song to make his kids walk faster - but also I feel like one of them.

Last week my classes at Minerva began. This semester I’m taking a class on Cognitive Science, one on Political Science, and an Ethics course. In the Political Science class, our professor asked us to consider the values we want to bring into the classroom. And that made me smile. First of all, it’s nice to be treated like an equal and an adult. Even though the traditional setting of the school and a classroom might confuse you into passively receiving whatever the teacher says. Then it only got better when we were all made to share our learning goals.

Before giving us a minute to write down and share our answers, the prof asked if anyone knew the intention behind this exercise. Of course, I jump to any opportunity to be a nerd about learning.

‘Because learning is ultimately a social process. It’s great that we have a prof as an expert in the room, but if we know what our fellow students want to learn it’s easier to learn together. Basically, we are making learning demands visible, so we can identify people to learn with. On the supply side of learning the same happens. Seeing what other people want to learn, might make you realize that you already know that - which makes you an excellent expert for those people to learn from.’

If been in so many learning environments where it would not at all be appreciated if I told the teacher that it’s nice that he’s here, but we might learn just as much from our peers. Now the professor was the one pushing us to be each other’s teachers.

Doesn’t it feel great to feel like you’re at the right spot exactly? Wishing the same for you.

Have a great week,

Em