Learning from Experience and Moments of Madness: Rethinking Our School System Through the Experience of Mental Illness

Abstract

Like Korczak, I learn from experience. I argue that experience-based learning stays with us when we forget other things. Therefore, I tell you, the reader, about my different (mostly professional) international experiences—consider this my bright, exciting set of experiences. I also share dark stuff—my twenty-year experience with mental illness within different educational systems. Mental illness is a global issue of quite some magnitude, so we need to talk about mental illness within our school system. While you could see these two narrative threads and different sets of experiences as an image of bipolar affective disorder, I contend that mental illness also allows a unique, creative way of thinking and re-thinking existing structures. I share with you my manic reflections on the school system. Are they madness? Or vision? I want to invite you along to think about the connection between mental illness and our school system with me.