The 2021 Fall trimester begins today at The Seattle School. If my math if correct term marks the starting of my 53rd trimester at this school.
In the off chance that anyone needed a reminder of the impermanence of all things, given the wild years we’ve all been living through, this Fall is a complex mix of changes new beginnings and opportunities for growth.
Last school year (2020-21) most educational programs on the planet made the sudden and vital shift to pandemic learning. Almost over night in-person learning moved into digital spaces. Huge kudos to teachers, IT teams, school administrations & staff teams, and most of all to students all over the planet. We did it, and we did it together! Who knew we could do this?
Moving into this fall, we move beyond pandemic crisis education. We all have a somewhat clearer idea of what may be before us. At The School School we are beginning our first cohorts of low residency education. Meaning that for the first time in our school’s history a student will not need to move to Cascadia enroll in one of our degree programs… just a few in person trips to Seattle over the duration of one’s degree program. Two things really excite me about this low residency option:
Staying Present in Place
Freeing students from the need to relocate to Cascadia addresses some very straightforward issues, like: navigating the relatively high cost of living in Seattle; having to quit a job and find new work; housing too, is expensive and can be difficult to find. But more importantly this change means that a person no longer needs to dislocate themselves from their place, their communities, etc.
Local Context Centered in Learning
Educationally speaking a person’s place now can be drawn upon as a core aspect of learning. In some ways context could always be drawn on, but there is a different experience when a person is new to a place and trying to find their equilibrium, versus having lived in a place and have come to assume they know their place and its peoples. In a sense their local context can be engaged as a core text to listen to and learn with and from.
In addition to the inauguration of our low residency offering, we as a faculty we are finishing a significant curriculum review of our Master of Arts in Theology & Culture (MATC).
Life is change. Adaptability can invite openness, curiosity, and faith. Here’s to a new learning year!
Peace, dwight
