Thread by @aditipar

When I dropped out of school in Grade 11, there were many interesting reactions

A neighbor told her son to stay away from me

Newspapers published interviews about why I did this because what was *unschooling*?

My uncle said “you gave up on my hope that you’d go to Harvard” 😅

My friends were a mix of protective, confused and dismissive.

I’m not sure how much of what I did as teenager came off as “I’m cool and you guys are not”, but people were specifically assigned to make sure to call me out if I ever gave off holier-than-thou vibes

One family friend asked my mom “why would Adu ever give up the luxury of having a teacher?” - and this question has stayed with me for the last 10 years when at times, I have found the absolute freedom a burden. Easier to have someone tell me exactly what to do

All through, the greatest gift and anchor was my parents’ trust. We negotiated and discussed this dropping out business for months, and it came to fruition after I wrote a 5-page letter about

- why I’m doing this
- my plan, and benchmarks for how I would evaluate progress
- potential mentors and whether they’d agreed to guide me
- how I planned to stay accountable
- my guiding values

Regardless of where you are in life, inside or outside a “system”, I’d recommend everyone to be explicit about these things. Write them down. Talk through them with a trusted circle of friends/colleagues who can support AND challenge you to do good and get better

I talk about my journey from dropping out on this podcast episode

I’m planning to make it compulsory listening for anyone who wants to talk to me about education 😂

I have A LOT OF THOUGHTS ABOUT EDUCATION

https://twitter.com/aditipar/status/1351040929331871748?s=20

I know that I had a certain set of privileges to let me take this jump

And it took courage too

But many who did not make this choice still have painful, personal stories of how school wasn’t designed to help them learn, or grow. Or worse still, harmed any growth.

Feel free to share your stories here if you feel brave. It might release some of the pent up stuff and allow others (esp those in school right now) to know they’re not alone and that there are many roads to success. I’ll do my bit to keep the thread safe and non-judgemental.