People consider Labor Day the unofficial end of summer, and with good reason. Growing up, it marked the beginning of the school year, the shift from high temperatures to cooler autumnal nights, and the beginnings of apple-picking season, bringing with it plenty of apple-flavored goods and the hint of Halloween right around the corner. Now that I’m older, it still marks the start of the school year — though that’s shifted into August now — and a hope for cooler temperatures, but it also offers a bit more reflection on the role that schools play in our lives.
Over the years, as I have learned more about the psychology of learning and how people develop a love of reading over the years, it’s striking to me the stark disconnect between what research says works and what people believe works. When you ask a researcher, they will likely tell you that love of education stems from making it fun; it’s not about memorizing facts about an author’s life, but learning how to appreciate the details in their art that makes people want to engage more deeply with it as time goes on. This makes sense if you think about what children naturally gravitate towards: the interesting, novel things that sparked some sense of awe or joy when they encounter it.
However, most schools are set up as if the only purpose of education is to get a good job. It’s a survival instinct more than anything: the ability to get a job ties directly to ROI by quantifying the salary you can earn after completing a course of study, justifying the investment in tuition or time. It makes sense from the student’s perspective too; there are so many conflicting headlines about the job market and what skills are in demand, that it’s comforting to think that if you complete a specific course of study, you will ultimately find your way to a job that will help you pay the bills. Given that the proliferation of Large Language Models has muddied the waters further about the viability of any skilled profession, it’s understandable that students want clarity on what the future holds for their job prospects, and they are asking teachers to fulfill the role of soothsayers to offer it.
However, education has never truly been about offering that certainty; it was meant to teach students how to wrestle with big ideas, doubt, and uncertainty in the face of a life that offered no guarantees. Religious scholars used to attend universities as a way of testing their arguments for God’s existence, and it feels like that may offer some insights into where the future of education might offer the most value, because even though knowledge has progressed far since the 15th century, uncertainty about the future has only grown. We may not focus as much on religious questions as a society, but with multiple crises hitting society at once, it can be hard to imagine what may occur next week, let alone far into the future.
Labor Day can still be a celebration of what unions and working people did to shape the better parts of the society we have today, but as the changes to the world accelerate, it’s worth thinking about how labor will look in the future too, and that may involve far more management of uncertainty than training for job skills that may not be relevant by the time students graduate.
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A Feel Good Place
A Lebanese Restaurant Whose Design Chops Help It Stand Out
On a visit to Fishtown with my wife, we had the opportunity to enjoy a meal at Suraya, a Middle Eastern restaurant that’s been operating for quite some years in the area and has won a handful of awards. The experience of the place evoked some of the establishments you find overseas, where the atmosphere of the space — the lighting, the physical layout, and the rest — become an integral part of how you remember the experience.
As I delved into the story behind Suraya, there were several things that struck me about it. Among those are:
How meticulously the lighting and space design worked to compliment the experience
How it was started by a brother and sister duo to honor their grandmother
The unique way they use partnerships and complimentary business models to grow their business
From the Bookshelf
THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY BY ALIX E. HARROW
January Scaller, a ward of her father’s employer with a penchant for adventurousness that leaves her feeling out of place among the high-class set of the New England Archeological Society, is searching for her father, Julian. Allegedly, he died some years back, leaving January in Cornelius Locke’s care, but something isn’t adding about Julian’s disappearance or the fact that Locke keeps insisting a door she opened to the scent of sea and spice was merely a figment of her imagination.
For Casual Readers: The book will likely appeal to anyone enjoys reading about a strong female protagonist, or stories that deal with the value of creativity and literacy.
For Writers: The book offers a great example of how to integrate elements of history and myth into a story without making it the main focus of the narrative or relying on traditional tropes of academies and isolated research to accomplish it.
What Comes Next
Enjoyed this issue? Here’s what you can expect from the next newsletter:
A reflection on what writing books means in the modern age
How a chocolate company stemmed from a career treating cancer
A review of the second book of The Poppy War trilogy.
As always, while this project may be a space where I share some of the things I have been thinking of, I also want to make sure it delivers value for you. So if you have feedback on what you would like to see, let me know and your recommendation may make it into the next issue.
