What The Shupe?!?

This column is an experiment. Like life. 

It is inspired by and at times penned by Mr. Shupe and his particular way of moving through the world. If asked, Mr. Shupe will sometimes reference a stoic mindset: the awareness that external events, the past, and the future are outside our control. We can only control our own attitude, words and actions while attending to the present moment. Stoicism is not the lack of emotion but an ability to step back from and examine emotions with curiosity. 

In this spirit, this column is a meditation on happenstances and reactions to the drudgery and amusement of everyday encounters. 

Those who earn good grades are good at following directions. For if they don’t, then they may “lose points” on an assignment. In fact, one could argue (and I will) that schools are in the business of encouraging students to obey orders rather than to search for what is interesting about the human experience - thereby facilitating the question, “how do I get a good grade?” rather than “how do I go about learning?”

Undoubtedly, following the status quo is far simpler than reshaping the model of schooling. But isn’t the fact that many of our history’s most influential innovators dropped out of school reason enough to rethink school’s mission?

A 2020 poll indicated that 75% of teenage students “reported negative feelings about school.” So what does that say about how education system designers value student experience?

I mean, WTS??

Check out past What the Shupe?! articles: