Online Meeting for Paid Subscribers, July 12

This will be an "ask me anything about" meeting. Here you can vote for the topic.

Dear friends,

I was not able to hold a Zoom meeting in June because of inability to find a date that worked for me. Our next meeting will be Saturday, July 12, beginning at 2:00 pm US Eastern time.

A month ago I asked paid subscribers to suggest topics they would like to discuss at future meetings. The responses were very helpful and I have taken them into account in my proposal here for future meetings.

I would like to experiment with a new format, which I’ll call “Ask Me Anything About…” With this format, at each meeting we will have a topic that is within the realm of what this substack is about, and those who join the meeting can ask me anything about that topic. I will not pretend to know all the answers, but will not hesitate to share my thoughts and whatever facts I do have at hand. Also, I hope it will not just be Q&A. Attendees will have the opportunity to share their thoughts regarding questions that are raised.

On the basis of the topics suggested a month ago, I propose the following five meeting topics, but not necessarily in this order:

Topics for “Ask Me Anything About…” meetings.

1. Self-Directed Education. What is it? How does it work? For whom does it work?

2. Public-School Reform. What are the primary problems with the American school system (and similar systems in other nations), and what improvements can reasonably be made, which would be acceptable to the public.

3. Higher Education. What, ideally, are the purposes of a university education? For whom is college useful and why? How can professors meet the challenges posed by today’s students, who have been stunted by lack of opportunity to take charge of their own lives and learning?

4. Adult Play and Playfulness. How can we adults take a more playful approach to life? How would that improve our lives and those of our loved ones?

5. The Needs of Teenagers. Why are teens suffering at such high rates today? What happens to play as kids become teens? What do teens need to help them in their transition to adulthood? How can we provide for those needs?

If you are a paid subscriber and are interested in joining any of these meetings, please respond in the comments by rank-ordering the topics in accordance with your preference. You can do this by using listing the numbers associated here with each topic in your order of preference. Thus, you might list: 3, 5, 4, 2, 1, which would mean that Higher Education is your first choice and Self-Directed Education is your last choice. If you don’t really have preferences, it’s OK to just say that.

Whichever topic gets the most votes for first ranking will be our topic on July 12. I will announce that topic about a week from today (July 7) with a new post, and in that post I will provide the code that paid subscribers will need to register for the online meeting.

A few paid subscribers have mentioned that they would like access to recordings of meetings they cannot attend. If you are a paid subscriber and would like a recording of one of the previous meetings, you could let me know that in the comments here and I will try to make it available.

With respect and best wishes

Peter