Why regular education sucks and 4 ways to create better learning programs.

I’m going to be honest with you. I never thought I’d end up in education. I got suspended many times in high school and finished my master’s degree with a 6.5. I love learning, but many aspects of school just did not work for me.

I will never understand why we train kids to stop following their curiosity, their longing to co-create and cooperate, to fight and make up, to use imagination and fantasy. It does not make sense to me to isolate 35 sweaty teenagers of the same age between four walls and tell them to shut their mouths, sit still, and listen. Why do we spend a lot of time reading a gazillion papers in university, but learn next to nothing about their practical adaptability? Why does no one teach you anything about life as a young and wild adolescent?

So although almost all of my 60 family members are in education (it’s actually kind of crazy), I did not actively pursue that career. I’ll save the story for another time, but surprisingly here I am: passionately creating educational programs and absolutely loving to learn together with people. I’m driven to make education respectful of our human nature. And to regain those lost parts of ourselves that makes us a full, deep, passionate, wise and sensitive human being. At Hatch we create programs that sparkle your intuition, courage, creativity, and curiosity. Our goal? To learn how to lead, cooperate and communicate better, and build a society or organisation that deepens and integrates our full human nature.

So, let’s spread that mission and let me give you some easy tips on creating and facilitating learning spaces that are just that bit more human:

1. The right theoretical coat hanger or golden thread for your session.This way, you can use storytelling, anecdotes, and build upon the same metaphors. Participants can deepen their understanding of your content, make their own connections, and the imaginative visual stimulation makes learning stick.
2. The right hemisphere of the brain is associated with creativity, intuition, and holistic thinking, while the left hemisphere is linked to logical reasoning, analytical thinking, and language skills. We absorb and process information a lot better when we activate both hemispheres. So after a time of analytical thinking and processing information, try a small meditation, music, integrate nature, or do a deep reflective or connective exercise.
3. Information without embodying it is baggage. As a trainer, within a content block, you want your participants to start doing something different after your training. Therefore, they need to understand in which daily situations this occurs, how they are doing it ‘wrong’,  and what the effect of that is. Then, you want them to understand how it can be done better, which precise steps there are for that, and then practise. So they walk out convinced, and they walk away trying. All other information, models, content, little exercises and other beautiful fluff can become baggage. If you don’t get to the chore (that funnily can feel ‘simple’ or ‘boring’), your training starts to lack depth.
4. Cut your content in half. After you find that topic that hits home and you’ve sketched your first draft, kill your darlings. We want too much. Always, too much. And we wildly underestimate the power of breaks. So if you have too much time [hit me up when that happens though, because for me that has NEVER HAPPENED]... take a break.

Let’s spark more curiosity, creativity, and meaningful connections. Whether you’re an educator, a trainer, or just someone passionate about learning, you have the power to change the way we approach education. Education is the heart of growth, and that, dear friends, is essential to our humanity.

Thanks for reading, and happy learning!

Aafke

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