Fwd: The College of One

[John Gear]

Begin forwarded message:

****************  The College of One: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the DIY Degree By Rowan Hartin After watching the new Baz Luhrmann film Gatsby , I went in search of F. Scott Fitzgerald biographies and unexpectedly stumbled upon a jewel of a book on self-education. Journalist Sheilah Graham, who was Fitzgerald’s lover at the time of his death, published her 1967 memoir College of One: The Story of How F. Scott Fitzgerald Educated the Woman He Loved as a tribute to Fitzgerald’s private passion for self-education and his brilliance as a teacher. Graham’s own education had been cut short at 14 when she aged out of a British orphanage, and she was embarrassed by her perceived lack of ability to converse intelligently with her professional peers. To give her the education she so wanted, Fitzgerald designed an intense and highly personalized two-year course of study for her that he saw as equivalent to a full four-year liberal arts degree. The Curriculum The curriculum that Fitzgerald created revolved around a list of 200 books on the subjects of poetry, history, literature, politics, art, music, philosophy, and religion. He used “The Outline of History” by H.G. Wells as the backbone for his curriculum, giving her small daily increments to read and approaching different historical eras as “mini-courses” to focus on for 6-12 weeks at a time. During each “course” he had her read a variety of related non-fiction books and analyze specific novels, plays, and poetry from the time period to connect dry history with living literature. He also wrote out extensive “course guides” for each era that included historical overviews, reading schedules, quizzes, and lengthy personal thoughts on the readings.   Graham carved out two hours a day for these readings in addition to holding a full-time journalism job, and each night before dinner the lovers would dedicate two hours to discussing the readings in detail. The best elements of this book are the descriptions of this ongoing conversation and the deep enthusiasm for learning that Fitzgerald was able to transmit through his teaching strategies. He referred to his own engaging style of tutoring as “The College of One.” The book’s unusual depiction of Fitzgerald as a gifted educator is reason enough to read it, but I would recommend it to anyone who is considering the idea of a DIY degree.  It gives me hope to read about a busy journalist like Graham managing to pursue her commitment to serious intellectual growth despite the demands of the daily grind. The Takeaway: Six Lessons For Planning Your Own Curriculum 1. Decide what you think a “real education” would look like in your life F. Scott Fitzgerald had strong opinions about what a real education involved, and it wasn’t the accumulation of historical facts. He felt that the purpose of education was clear: “The best that any education can do is to add understanding of the past and present, to gird one for the future, to sharpen the intelligence, to enable one to evaluate whatever comes along, to listen, to learn, to question, to be interested in what is going on, to be involved, to believe “this concerns me,” and above all to keep the mind alive.” What do you feel is the purpose of your self-education? What skills and experiences do you want to gain in the next year of your education? What do you think that a 21st century “graduate” should be able to do? Use these answers as the foundation of your learning plan, not a list of classes that represent a traditional degree plan. Your unconventional degree should have a creative and unconventional transcript to go along with it! 2) Schedule dedicated time for your learning Time management is one of the biggest challenges for self-directed learners, but dedicated study time can be carved out of even the busiest schedules if it is planned in advance. Your daily time commitment does not need to match Sheilah Graham’s  2 hours a day, it only needs to be deliberate and consistent. Even 30 minutes a day of focused reading can get a lot of books under your belt in a year. So work backwards - decide how much time you can commit each day and then and then break down your learning goals appropriately. 3) Flexibility is key when building your education Fitzgerald started with a very detailed outline of classes, but he adapted the curriculum as they went along to stave off boredom. He and Graham never spent more than 12 weeks on any given subject; they also switched modes often and spent time reading plays out loud, watching films, and taking field trips as part of her education plan. The curriculum grew organically based on her interests and what resources they could find for those interests. You should have a basic set of educational goals, but be flexible about how you reach them. You don’t have to plan out everything at once! Don’t force yourself to a stick to a specific plan - be flexible, use what you have, and move on if you are bored. Experience of any kind leads to unexpected opportunities and side roads you never could have expected. 4) Design your curriculum around skills, not an accumulation of facts. The facts are not what you will remember. Graham wrote that 26 years after she finished the curriculum, she could not remember much of the factual material that they had covered. But through that material Fitzgerald focused on teaching her how to write well, and she built a long and distinguished career on that skill.  You won’t remember everything you learn, so focus on the skills learned in the process and document them in a portfolio - the point is to lay the groundwork, to learn how to think. Decades later, this was her evaluation of the education Fitzgerald created for her: “It gave me a key. It widened my horizon. I know where to look, I know how to evaluate. I am curious. I am open to new ideas and facts. The politicians and biased historians cannot fool me anymore. To understand the present and future, you must know something of the past. I can related today to yesterday. I am involved. I can make up my own mind. I ask questions.” 5) Find others to learn with Sheilah Graham’s education didn’t stem from the books she read, it was built out of the deep conversations she and Fitzgerald had about the readings. Learning with others is absolutely vital for a full education - you can’t learn to evaluate ideas deeply if you discussing and debating them with others who may have a different viewpoint. As you develop your personal learning plan, include people and groups who can be your learning partners. Find a study buddy, start an in-person study group, or create an UnCollege meetup. Look for any way to create a regular opportunity to discuss what you have been reading and learning with other self-directed learners. 6) Be a self-education role model for others! Graham pointed out that a good self-education also benefits the next generation. She felt that she had passed on Fitzgerald’s passionate love of learning, and her children built lives around both traditional and non-traditional educations. Her daughter got a PhD, and her son Robert Westbrook created an UnCollege experience for himself. At the time that her book was published, he was a 21 year old self-directed student in the midst of traveling after publishing his first book at age 17. He went on to become a professional editor and the author of ten published novels.   One of the reasons why I loved this books is that it lets the reader see one person’s process of building and maintaining an educational plan. Your DIY degree plan can become a helpful template for others who are on the same path, so share the process of education-building that worked for you. Publish your curriculum if you have one, and blog about how you made decisions on what to learn next. The appendices of College of One contains the full curriculum that Fitzgerald created for Graham; you can read the whole book at Open Library here or access the text of the book minus the appendices here.