I’ve been interested in new kinds of universities ever since I dropped out of one. There never was a complete vision of how one could work — until recently.
There are many problems to consider:
– When? How can a working adult fit a learning class in their week?
– Who? Who is interested in learning things? What kind of things would one be interested in learning?
– What? What could we even teach? Aren’t there schools for everything? What different could we offer?
– Where? How can we fund an actual place (a building in the real world) that can host us?
– How much to charge? Who will teach? How can we be high-quality? Marketing? Accreditation?
Accreditation plays an important role in multiple dimensions. On the one hand it’s an official state stamp that says “this educational institution is at least getting the basics right”. On the other hand I find myself in disagreement of what the basics are. I was especially disappointed when one of the best schools I have attended, Founders and Coders, got a low score by the official government educational inspection body.
In any case, we cannot immediately dismiss the social structure of academic accreditation but what we can do is explore alternatives. Exploration of alternatives means experimentation, which implies the possibility of failure. Yet failure is associated with low quality, not high. We respond to this with our value of craftsmanship: we aim to become better at what we do. We don’t expect us to already be good, only to want to become better.
FractalU
FractalU served as primary motivation for starting Shoshin College. FractalU is an improvised college which offers low-cost in-person classes in New York City. From to their website:
We're a community aspiring to learn, conduct research, and do great work together. Join as an instructor, a student, or both.
Their course list spans a diverse array of disciplines, which has inspired us to do the same:
TeachLab (a workshop for educators to become better)
Quantum Mechanics: Foundational Concepts
Intro to Motorcycle Repair
Urban Cycling 101: How to Bike NYC
Basics of Computational Biology
The Gift of a Lifetime
In addition, to FractalU, the Fractal Collective also offer Fractal Bootcamp, a three month intensive software engineering bootcamp.
More inspiration
Here’s a list of schools that have inspired us in starting Shoshin College. If you know of any other experimental learning places please tell us — we’d love to discover more!
FractalU in NYC
Newspeak House in London
Mimbres School for the Humanities in New Mexico
Recurse Center in NYC
Index in NYC
Minerva University in SF
42 in Paris
Let Me Think in NYC
Antiuniversity in London
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