“People say what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive…so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive”. Joseph Campbell

We have gotten very good at living but have forgotten how to be alive.

We our masters at tending to most of our daily needs. For much of the world transportation is fast and far reaching, food is plentiful, water is clean and free flowing — yet many are disconnected and disenchanted.

Despite our remarkable achievements in the external world, as we pass one another on the street, it becomes evident that the pace of modern life, driven by technology and ambition, has left little room for the profound and innate experiences that make us truly alive.

A smile with a stranger. A crisp breeze on our skin. The sun shining in our eyes. We have lost our expectation of enchantment. The capacity to be enchanted by the so-called mundane, I think, is the mark of someone who is truly educated.

I had the pleasure of learning from philosopher and educator Kevin Bartlett about his new curricular system that, among other things, seeks to align who students become with what they are taught. The system acknowledges that we ought to care about what concepts students understand, what skills they become competent at performing, and what kind of character…