Written by: amadmin 11/24/2009 10:29 AM
Melia Dicker returned to her old classrooms and attended school during the 2008-2009 academic year. "I’m trying to understand how school influenced what I know and who I am, and to reeducate myself on my own terms," she says on Reschool Yourself, a website about the project.
Photo by Donna Presti
Last fall, Melia Dicker, 28, went to her middle-school dance. And to third-grade recess. And senior English. For her one-woman project, Reschool Yourself, Dicker revisited her childhood classrooms, shadowing students and interviewing teachers to figure out how school had defined her adulthood.
Dicker realized school had led her to overachieve, sacrificing health and happiness for goals that didn’t come from within. She spent the second half of the year learning simple skills she’d never gained in school—like how to slow down, join a community, plant an organic garden, play guitar, and make yogurt.
Dicker blogs at reschoolyourself.com and is now working on a book about her reschooling experiences.
Read more from Melia Dicker: Five Best Ways to Reschool on the Interweb