FAQ: Orientation and Beginnings
- What is the philosophy of SelfDesign?
- What is the praxis of SelfDesign?
- What is meant by the term "SelfDesign"?
- Q. What is the philosophy of SelfDesign?
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The philosophical tenets of SelfDesign reflect those of the parent organization, Wondertree Foundation for Natural Learning. We believe that learning naturally and optimally unfolds for all children in a context of support, love and enthusiasm. Essentially, the work of SelfDesign is to value and validate children's learning as it emerges in conventional and non-conventional (but equally valid) forms.
Brent Cameron, founder of the award-winning Wondertree learning program in Vancouver, Canada, in 1983 and co-founder of SelfDesign in 2002, first documented the principles of SelfDesigning in his Master's thesis (Simon Fraser University, 1989). An award-winning book, SelfDesign: Nurturing Genius through Natural Learning by Brent Cameron and River (Barbara) Meyer, was published in the fall, 2005 (Sentient Publications, Boulder). An additional Masters thesis (SFU, 1997) was completed on the innovative and award-winning "Virtual High Learning Community," a Wondertree-style program for teens (Vancouver, 1993-1996) by Michael Maser.
SelfDesign philosophy is original in nature and owes a debt of gratitude to the work of John Holt, A.S. Neill, Ruth Benedict, Gordon Neufeld, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Jean Leidloff, Buckminster Fuller, Seymour Papert, Edith Cobb, Howard Gardner, Martin Seligman, Mel Levine, Nel Noddings, Douglas Harding, Humberto Maturana, Gregory Bateson, Ashley Montagu, John Grinder, John Dewey, Johann Goethe and many others. In 2005 we were also delighted to learn of the important insights by researcher Dr. Daniel Janik (Hawaii), who has correlated significant neurobiological attributes and distinctions with "enthusiasm-based learning."
- Q. What is the praxis of SelfDesign?
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SelfDesign learners are not put in classrooms. They are free to learn whatever they want to learn. Although we do have a documented curriculum based on the development of our organizational principles and a variety of current learning theories, we do not impose a "curriculum" on learners in the way that traditional schools do. We believe in the intrinsic value of understanding and engagement of learning as a rich, valuable and meaningful experience in itself. Our "curriculum" reflects this.
Much of what goes on in schools is about their need to organize and make the teaching process as efficient as possible. In SelfDesign we focus on, and provide specialized support to, individuals enthusiastically learning what they are most interested in. Accordingly, we support each child crafting his/her own curriculum based on interests and efforts in collaboration with parents and a SelfDesign Learning Consultant. Overall, we do not conform to many common schooling conventions, believing them to be poorly matched to the natural learning proclivities and neurobiological attributes of all children.
In SelfDesign we do not grade our learners. In school classrooms teachers do not have time to individualize the learning of 30 learners and cannot provide meaningful records of their learning, so they need to grade the learners comparatively. In SelfDesign we do create individual observations tracking the learning of each learner throughout their year.
We do not test our learners. In traditional schooling, one of the ways teachers can find out if a student is paying attention is to give exams and tests that illustrate at least that the child remembers the facts that are being taught. In SelfDesign we track the enthusiastic interests of each learner, therefore getting an accurate record of what they are "attending to" - i.e. our "attendance" is neurologically determined and does not simply reflect that a child is seated at a desk.
Ensuring a successful future is more determined by ensuring a happy and meaningful present. A child living in enthusiasm learns to be enthusiastic. Children who do not enjoy or find meaningful or relevant the schooling experience, but who instead learn to postpone their rights and interests to some future time, end up living for the future never to return to the present. In SelfDesign, we appreciate that we can and only do live in the present and that the quality of living in the moment is a sacred trust to be sustained by parents and mentors for every learner. SelfDesigners demonstrate learning based on interests, and in our experience over many years learners who learn based on enthusiasm live life as an enthusiastic experience. They are more likely to enjoy and continue learning about all subject areas lifelong.
- Q. What is meant by the term "SelfDesign"?
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Since 1983, Brent Cameron has worked with children and youth, beginning with the launch of the Wondertree Learning Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. Gradually over these years of research and development, Brent and others working with him began to understand the process of natural, holistic learning that was being elegantly demonstrated by learners in Wondertree and in parallel Learning Community projects (Virtual High, SelfDesign).
During the Virtual High program, between 1993 and 1997, Brent was significantly influenced by the work of Dr. Humberto Maturana and the work of cybernetics and systems theory. Working from the neuro-biological concept of "autopoesis" from Maturana's work, Brent coined the term "SelfDesign." This composite word describes both the identity and the process of being human. Each human being is a learning entity unto themselves and is engaged in a lifelong transformative process of learning, learning as a creative and design-based process bringing our awareness of self into play with our ability to learn.
SelfDesign is an educational methodology that works in harmony with human nature, in harmony with each learner, by respecting their enthusiastic desire to learn and create meaning in the world.
