The next book club

Saturday, 20 January 2024

Next weekend, our “book” club will be reading and discussing Egan’s proposal “Learning in Depth”. My ability to send links is famously cursed, but let’s try this again, why not — here’s a link to the proposal.

Imaginary Interlocutor: I bet it’s long and hard to read.

It’s six pages long, and most of that is pictures. Here’s the first page:

Imaginary Interlocutor: When is it?

Saturday, January 20, 2024
6pm Eastern / 3pm Pacific / 11pm Universal Time¹

The “book” club proper is just an hour; some of us may stick around for an afterparty, and which drinks will be served.²

I.I.: Is it on Zoom?

Yup! I’ll be sending out the link the morning of to everyone who’s registered.

I.I.: How do I register?

First, you have to have a paid membership — at the absurdly low price of $5/month.

Then, click the registration button below, and type in some jazz.

I.I.: Why might I be interested in talking about this essay?

“Learning in Depth” might be Kieran Egan’s most boots-ready idea. It’s audacious — randomly assigning first graders with a topic to study for twelve years. To the extent that it works, it promises to transform what “education” means to students.

And it’s been in practice, in some places, for years. This is one spot where we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

I.I.: I’d like to know more than is contained in this short article.

You might want to take a peek at the book of the same title that Egan followed this up with — it describes a lot of the nuts and bolts of how to pull this off. (Like why, for example, “mollusks” is a good topic, but “shoes” would be terrible.)

You also might like this list of good topics for Learning in Depth, or this quick video of Kieran talking about LiD.

And if you’d like to poke around yourself, here are essays by practitioners of LiD.

All in all, expect to have an intellectually energizing hour, and to sign off with actionable new ideas in hand (and maybe a new perspective on what education really is).

I.I.: I have yet another question.

Ask away in the comments!

1. Robin & Andy, I apologize that (1) this means we need to reschedule our scheduled get together, and (2) I’m only letting you know in this newsletter to more than a thousand strangers! Also, say hi to Linnea for me, will ya?

2. BYOB