Uninspired Inspiration

As I was sitting on my desk this average Sunday evening, I attempted to find reflection ideas for this week's blog. I thought and thought, only to find myself blank-minded, the few ideas I considered worth spreading seemed to be impossible to develop. 

I was in an uncomfortable position; both mentally and physically. My elbow was pressed into the wooden board of my desk table, head melting in the palm on my hand, I was rotting in my dullness while my mind acted as a magnet for solely mediocre ideas. As my thoughts seemingly drifted away, I began to look back to the past weeks of this semester. I started to recall the differences between this week and the ones before; why was it so hard to find my train of thought?  

It wasn't that these weeks were uneventful, learning did happen in a variety of ways. I finished my marketing micro-documentary project, received great feedback on it from both my peers and target audience (the owner of La Folie herself), I read and I wrote, but there was something missing. 

I I have never had to give a blog topic that much thought before, for me it has always been something naturally-occurring. As soon as I typed the first word it was as if the next few wrote themselves, but this week that didn't occur. As I started to piece things together I came to a conclusion, I had the ideas, I had the time, but I was missing the inspiration. When people are inspired, they can accomplish pretty much anything; and with this thought, I couldn't help but look back at the Ted Talk we saw a couple of days ago.

This speech was made by a boy called Logan LaPlante who took an unusual path towards education in order to increase his happiness and follow his passions. He decided to hack school by learning through real life experiences and homeschool-type courses.

Logan LaPlante's talk caused great controversy in our class, there were diverse personal opinions and people who wanted to share their thoughts. We must have spent an hour in the least discussing LaPlante's program, and sure, if we wanted to, there were several areas where we could 'poke holes' in, but there was one aspect that we all failed to recognize. I agree, maybe he was fostering a rebellious mindset and he may not be the best-prepared student for college life, but what LaPlante's program did succeed in was helping boys find their own inspiration.

Nowadays, school is known to kill creativity, to kill inspiration. We commonly see teachers making students write essay papers on topics that are clearly not of their interests. Students behave through extrinsic motivators like grades and reputations, not because of interest to learn.

Earlier this week I got asked by a peer about my plans for the future and if I ever regretted getting into the Innovation Academy. I thought about it for a while, but then I proceeded to explain that while the thought of joining IB did float through my mind every so often, I never really lamented being part of the IA. While I may not be sure about acceptance rates and applications, I am sure that the Innovation Academy cares about students finding their own inspiration. It is way too common for school to kill creativity and to undermine student's passions, which is why by joining IA I am taking a stand towards what I believe is the future of education.  

And as my mind slowly returned from its prolonged drift, I sat motionless in my desk this Sunday evening and realized that without even noticing, I had found my inspiration.