Happy weekend friends.
It’s halfway through September and the back to school vibe is definitely in the air. Whether you’re in school or not, you can feel the flux and the newness.

So in that vain, here’s a few school/new start things from the internets lately.

1

This project is fascinating, devised and planned by a high school student in Massachusetts, The Independent Project is a semester-long session where eight students of different ages designed their own learning on a weekly and semester-long basis. The basic layout is that each student starts the week with a particular question in mind and takes the week to research their topic or hypothesis. They also undertake a semester-long project that’s not necessarily so much about academic development but more about life-long learning. The video is well worth watching; you see these eight very different people coming together to support each other and take a very active part in their own education. I’d be interested to see how it impacts their lives after they leave school.

2

During the 70s and 80s, teacher/photographer Joseph Szabo took photos of his students in an effort to connect with them. He built up a connection with them and in doing so, created some incredibly beautiful and iconic images of youth culture on Long Island at that time.

My photographs aren’t all idealistic. There are a number of images that express the inner life, the inner difficulties that teenagers have. I didn’t want to do a study on pain and anger, but I recognised it all the time

3

Thinking of starting a business? You have got to listen to this podcast. Or just for your general entertainment, listen to the first few minutes at least – listen to Asia Newson sell herself the way a hell of a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs would love to be able to do. It’s about selling the person and the enthusiasm behind the idea rather than the idea itself. Do you have the self-conviction to make it work? Well then, people will want to listen to you.
Listen to how it’s done, and then how not to do it.

(FYI – listening to this in public might make you look like a bit of a nutbag. Laughing out loud to yourself on your bike isn’t exactly what people expect to see.)

4

And a completely unrelated but equally fascinating podcast from this week – In the Dust of this Planet explores how a book (of the same name) about nihilism and Jay-Z really are totally connected…..

5

And finally finally, do you have a bucket list? Are they a load of crap or do they really have any value? After Obama knocked Stonehenge of his bucket list last week, the New Yorker takes a look at the pervasive pursuit of ticking things of a big long list. I don’t have a bucket list as such, but I definitely have a list of things I really want to do – some of them once-offs, some of them not so much. Is it of value or are we just playing in to the idea that by having ticked things off the list we’re somehow better people?

This is the YOLO-ization of cultural experience, whereby the pursuit of fleeting novelty is granted greater value than a patient dedication to an enduring attention—an attention which might ultimately enlarge the self, and not just pad one’s experiential résumé.