letters to self-education
how i created a curriculum to learn on my own for myself - not for grades or credit, but just because i want to learn.
the concept of self-education
aurora blythe wrote an article called the one about getting comfortable being smart again and self-education. She began the article by referencing another one, Self education, college reading lists, and my academic goals by marianaownroom.
In Aurora’s article, she wrote about her plan to educate herself, writing, “What I realized is that a formal education doesn’t work for me. A classroom with a professor explaining the subject doesn’t inspire me, it bores me. And I think that is true for a lot of people as well, especially for neurodivergent people. Believe me, Einstein isn’t the only neurodivergent who hates the educational system.”
This article gave me so much inspiration. I did well in school, both high school and college, but only because I had a mentality that I had to get through it as fast and as well as possible. In high school, I wasn’t hustling to learn, I was working hard to be able to leave my abusive home and small town that I grew up in. It was pure survival. When I was in college, I was hustling to graduate with a job lined up, not to experience the joys of expanding my mind. In fact, I don’t even know how much knowledge I retained.
A lot of my classwork was about working smarter, not harder. Or rather, working more simply and being able to get five hours of sleep every night, not about learning things. I was taking 18 credit hours a semester, on top of working 20-35 hours a week, on top of doing theater, on top of working in a lab, on top of doing internships in my field. I was 100% using Quizlet when possible, skimming my books, or even better, using SparkNotes and YouTube videos to tell me what the books were about so I could write an essay about them. I was memorizing facts that I would forget after I turned in my tests.
I graduated with a decent GPA in three years and started my job in my field two weeks after I graduated. In that job, I learned more than when I was in school. Since then, I have learned more through the books I actually read, the films I can sit down and ponder, the YouTube videos on things I am curious about, etc.
I work at a university where I would get tuition remission if I chose to go back to school. I have toyed with the idea of starting various Master’s programs before, even applying and doing 1-2 classes in two: a Master's in Program Management and then a Master’s in Organization and Information Leadership Sciences. But I stopped, once because COVID started, and I never picked it up again, and the other because my mother passed a month after I started.
I thought that if I went back to school, it should be because it would help my career. The topics that interest me, like philosophy, English, creative writing, history, or women’s studies would not do much to enhance my current job or the positions that might come after this one. And if I was paying out of pocket, I would keep that mindset. But my job would pay for school, so why not go back this time and do it for me? Experience the immense privilege that is education for the sake of learning that I never had the first time around.
Even that, though, would be for someone else, or towards a tangible and linear goal. I would take classes to get another degree. In those classes, I would be doing assignments for grades, letting someone else grade my opinions. I would have no say in things I didn’t agree with or just didn’t feel interested in. If something came up at work in my life, I wouldn’t be able to just skip a week and come back to it.
So, I decided to follow this path of self-education and learn purely for myself. No grades, no certificates, no proof, even. I might decide to go back to school officially and do an Associate’s, or a Bachelor’s, or even a Master’s in something else, but I want to experience what it feels like to learn without someone else’s approval attached to it.
“I’m very excited about this because I’m feeling like I used to as a teenager. Learning doesn’t feel scary anymore, it feels like something I can and want to do. I’m already predicting that I’ll get a lot of obsessions about new topics in the future, so buckle down because we’ll have a lot to talk about! I can’t wait to be a reading machine again. This is what I like the most about myself: To be passionate about things.” - aurora blythe, the one about getting comfortable being smart again and self-education
how I created my education plan
I looked at the University I went to and still work at’s degree plan for a Bachelor’s in Psychology, which is what I got. I decided what my primary focuses were: literature, writing, and philosophy. I called these my “majors,” even though, of course, if someone had three majors, college would take forever. My “minors” are history and burlesque/pole. Because at my college, minoring in burlesque, rhinestoning, pole tricks, and performing is possible! Hey, it pays to be the dean, advisor, chair, and professor of your own college!
With reference to the degree plan outline I made and with assistance from actual degree requirements from the same University for these areas of study, I created my own plan. It has eight “terms,” each lasting three months, with four “classes” each term. So far, this has been working great, although I suppose it has only been a week. If this plan or timing becomes too stressful, I’ll simply alter it. Again, I am completely in charge!
Here is my “degree plan:”
Term 1: March-May, 2025
Intro to Literature: Literary Periods & Movements
Writing: Poetry
Intro to Burlesque / Pole
Core Branches of Philosophy
Term 2
Intro to History: Banned & Censored Histories in the U.S.
Foundations of Sociology
Writing: Fiction Workshop
Elective: Leadership & Communication
Term 3
Elective: Film, Theater, Art
Writing: Creative Nonfiction Workshop
History: Colonialism, Imperialism & Its Legacies
Burlesque / Pole
Term 4
Literature: Genre Studies
Historical Periods in Philosophy
Burlesque / Pole
Media / Critical Thinking / Pop Culture
Term 5
Key Topics in Sociology
Burlesque / Pole
Media / Critical Thinking / Pop Culture
Writing: Capstone
Term 6
Literature: Literary Theory & Criticism
Writing: Capstone
Burlesque / Pole
Elective: Women’s Study, Gender, Sexuality
Term 7
History: Genocide, War Crimes & Forgotten Conflicts
Elective: Intro to Race, Class & Ethnicity
Writing: Capstone
Feminist Philosophy
Term 8
Burlesque / Pole: Capstone
Literature: Special Topics
Writing: Capstone
Contemporary & Applied Sociology
My plan is to round out each term’s detailed curriculum at the beginning of every term. Some resources I plan to use include: Yale's open courses, Harvard's free courses, EDX, Coursera, Kahn Academy, local workshops, books, and my own University’s course catalog and their CE classes and workshops. I would also recommend checking out aurora’s article about this as well!
term 1 curriculum / my notion templates
Here is a screenshot of my notion landing page. It is copied from a free template I found for students and personalized to work for me.
intro to literature:
In this screenshot, you can see the books that I have assigned myself for this period. I will likely add reflection prompts for each book, perhaps ones that I find online.
core branches of philosophy:
For this one, I am largely using a free Kahn Academy pre-existing course, which I really like already. I have also added in some books as well.
poetry:
For this, I decided to do weekly assignments, read books and articles, and in-person workshops and events.
intro to burlesque and pole:
I am utilizing Ginger Valentine’s online courses, my local pole studio, my at-home pole, and two books: The Burlesque Handbook and Gender Trouble. My assignments are really just accountability to practice, but hey, I need it!
Let me know what you would study if you were going to do self-study plan!
