Education

Extra National workshop in progress. From Extra National Journey.

Designers—and the educators who guide them—juggle time and space, budget and brief, the aspirations of timelessness against the exigencies of the now. To be an educated designer is to submit to a lifelong balancing act requiring fluency and skill, agility and imagination, self-awareness, humility, and an abiding sense of your own humanity. Education is discipline, and discipline is work. Work is an expression of commitment, and commitment is an exercise in self-reliance. Self-reliance implies independence and independence means making up your own mind, whether it’s about philosophy or exoticism or confidence or burnout, legacy or literacy or the multiple perspectives that constitute definitions of collective action. Educators are among our most cherished cultural ambassadors, sage deputies charged with cultivating curiosity, bestowing counsel, constructing networks, broadening horizons, and expanding capacities for us all. Today, as we rethink everything from design competitions to land grants, we are reminded that we learn best, when we learn together: with each other, about each other, from each other.

This look back into our archive is part of our Twentieth Anniversary celebration.