Obituary for The Socratic Experience

In the year 2050

What do you love? A daily 30 minute class I teach on Purpose and Well-Being at The Socratic Experience (TSE):

TSE transformed how people think about education.  It successfully transformed the perception of K12 education from a matter of curriculum transmission to the cultivation of virtues leading to lifelong happiness and well-being.  As a consequence, not only at TSE but across thousands of schools impacting millions of lives, young people in the late 21st century were radically more purpose-driven and flourishing than were those in the first half of the 21st century.  

Prior to TSE, and sadly still in some schools, education was understood as meaningless curriculum coverage that forced students down a one-size fits all path.  Perhaps 25% of young people played the school game well, it validated their egos, they were relatively unscathed by the process (though most had limited horizons because of the process).  But 75% were permanently damaged by thirteen years of schooling.  The millions of young people who were abused, anxious, depressed, and suicidal as a result is truly tragic.

That was a dark period of human history in which the adolescent mental health crisis was at its peak, mental health and substance abuse issues were at their peak, celebrity culture and shallowness were at their peak, and there was every reason to believe that these trends would continue to become worse.  There was widespread concern that AI would eliminate the value of human work and AI would control humanity, possibly resulting in human extinction.  In general, people were pessimistic about the future, and sadly the data supported their pessimism.

TSE established the fact that young people could learn self-mastery in a joyful environment while pursuing their own understanding of the true, the good, and the beautiful.  As a consequence, they developed a meaningful interior world for themselves based on the social community of TSE in which they were immersed.  This deep experience of connection, community, meaning, and purpose proved that the cultural catastrophe of the early 21st century could be resisted and overcome by means of the 16,000 hours which used to be devoted to K12 curriculum coverage.

The pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful as a foundation for life resulted in a more scrupulous set of standards for truth which helped pave the way for a solution to the epistemological crisis of the early 21st century.  The pursuit of the good, even in its diversity, resulted in a steady focus on how to lead a flourishing life with a positive impact on others.  The pursuit of the beautiful resulted in a greater individual and cultural appreciation of art and experiences that elevated the human condition and led to greater aspirations to be our best selves individually and culturally.

As TSE grew in scale to more than a million students virtually, with many hybrid programs, it also created an open source platform that allowed millions to create their own versions of TSE locally.  Many of TSE's competitors in the agency based learning space, such as Montessori, Acton, Prenda, Alpha, and others began emphasizing their own cultivation of virtues.  Meanwhile the classical school movement, which from the beginning had emphasized virtue cultivation, began to become more open to agency based learning and more diversity of thought and belief (some had been more or less dogmatic).

TSE led a global movement that extended to education at all levels.  It was a revival of Paideia, the Greco-Roman tradition in which the cultivation of virtues had been the core of educational experience from roughly 300 BC to 500 AD.  But it was thoroughly modern, providing a foundation for an entrepreneurial and creative, meaning and purpose driven professional life while simultaneously reviving a healthy personal life for young adults in their mating phase while also a template for happy family life after they had transitioned to that stage.

We are finally beginning to see a world in which AI and robots are engaged in the least interesting activities, and human beings are focused on engaging creative and entrepreneurial human interpersonal experiences throughout their professional lives.  We are now seeing a world in which most of us, most of the time, spend our lives joyfully making the lives of others richer, better, more enjoyable, and more meaningful.

TSE, and its many competitors, spin offs, imitators, and its more extended cultural influence has fundamentally changed the world.  The dark ages of government scripted adolescence from 1950 to 2050 are finally over.  The future is bright for all of humanity.  Thanks to TSE for paving the way forward.

TSE is seeking $300K in investment in its bridge round. See deck below for more details, contact me at michael@socraticexperience.com if you are interested in learning more.