A Billionaire's Public School

“Imagine the Education System reinvented; the most inspiring learning experience ever. This ship will reach all ports in all continents, becoming a model, a blueprint, the idea, the inspiration.

Think this:

We are all on a cruise: our lives, our careers… but without being too philosophical, there’s something that unites us very deeply and practically: we are all cruising on this little planet Earth in this immense universe.

So, here’s the project:

We will create, on this ship, a model of our Earth able to support life. Of course, it would be too difficult to support elephants on a boat, but let’s start supporting as many humans as possible, without external input… like human civilization on planet Earth. I know you’re thinking: ‘That’s impossible’. But aren’t we planning to colonize Mars?

Now, here’s the best part: this ship will become a school. A beautiful school. A floating, independent, self-supporting, beautiful school. And you know what? Students will design it!

Yes, students.

And not only a few: Any student and any teacher in any school worldwide will be able to enjoy the experience. As I said, this ship will be the physical demonstration, but most of all, a model, the replicable idea. They will be able to abstract the concept and design for their particular community, context and size. Any school on the planet is potentially going to be redesigned according to the model:

Students will investigate how to produce what they need for their community, optimising resources and aiming at zero waste. All arts and crafts, skills and knowledge needed to sustain the best lifestyle will be learned and applied. Every school will physically demonstrate what’s possible in its local context and environment.

Now, this whole self-sufficient-ship design process will be a kind of global learning program where schools, teachers, students, plumbers, welders, woodworkers, scientists, engineers and whoever may like this project will be able to join forces in their community. All the most important STE(A)M ideas will be investigated and seen applied in their real-life self-supporting system: from structural engineering to agriculture; from electrical systems to plant and animal physiology… Everything.

Students will finally see the meaning of their studies!

This program will start as a series of articles (I imagine a newsletter) curated by our curriculum designers, and each community will implement and develop it according to their context. The articles will suggest questions, research ideas, problems and activities for all the students around the world. Let’s design the best learning experience ever:

We will call it ‘The Cruise Curriculum’.”