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@ soma
2025-04-02 19:31:27
## **"It Takes a Village"**
…But what if the "village" is a system that prioritizes obedience over curiosity, grades over growth, and rigid curriculums over real-world learning?
For decades, we’ve accepted a model where kids spend hours a day passively absorbing information in classrooms, where their worth is measured by standardized tests rather than their ability to _think_, _adapt_, or _create_. Meanwhile, the tools to revolutionize learning - technology, connectivity, and decentralized knowledge - sit in our pockets, dismissed as "distractions" rather than leveraged as liberation.
**The Paradox of Progress**
We live in an era of unprecedented access to information. Yet, our education systems cling to industrial-era ideals, villainizing screens instead of teaching **how to wield them wisely**. Yes, mindless screen time harms—but so does _mindless schooling_. The real failure? **Not preparing learners to navigate, critique, and contribute to the world they actually live in.**
**A different approach**
soma is an experiment in **self-directed, community-rooted learning**. It asks:
- What if education _integrated_ with life instead of interrupting it?
- What if "success" meant **mastery driven by curiosity**, not compliance?
- What if technology connected learners to mentors, resources, and real-world problems - not just apps that mimic worksheets?
This isn’t about abandoning theory or expertise. It’s about **flipping the script**:
- **Empiric learning** comes first (doing, trying, failing, exploring).
- This is where physical spaces thrive - **quilombos**, workshops, community gardens. Where we take responsibility for our shared world.
- **Theoretical depth** follows _when the learner chooses it_ - fueled by a desire to go further.
- This is where our virtual spaces shine to guarantee accessibility: **as tool, not a privilege**.
- Tech is **recreation, not a crutch** - the spice, not the meal.
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**A call for villages, not factories**
soma imagines communities where learning is **an act of devotion** - to exploration, to curiosity, to the sacred cycle of trying, failing, and trying again.
Where you learn **because you want to - to better your surroundings**, not because you were told to.
> Where a child’s obsession with ants leads them to a biologist’s fieldwork _and_ a poet’s metaphor - because both are natural extensions of wonder.
> Where a teen building a game pursues storytelling, math, and ethics **on their own terms**, stitching knowledge together like patchwork quilt.
> Where we see learning happening in parks, in makerspaces and on screens - used intentionally.
This is education **returned to its human rhythm**: urgent, messy, and alive.
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**Join the experiment**
This is just the start. soma is a **provocation, a prototype, and an open invitation** to rethink how we learn.
**Let’s stop preparing kids for a world that no longer exists.**
➡️ _Follow updates, share your ideas, or tell us: What does your ideal "village" look like?_ nostr:npub1hgmdpalp9tz37vh9kxx49fm5pl75w6vwek2r80r20x2stnvq9jaq705r99
#longform #article #education #elsalvador #communities #decentralized