When Phoenix’s Curiosity Cabinet’s facebook page declares that their interdisciplinary classes help students explore the world and spark a love of learning, they’re not kidding. Phoenix’s enthusiasm is contagious, their interests are quirky, and their view is wondrous.
Several years ago, our paths crossed when both of us taught at an educational program for independent learners. Not much time passed before we were collaborating on classes, including steampunk literature and makers, graphic novel readers and makers and others. I had hope, and still do, to offer zombie news media writing to accompany their zombie maker class, but alas not enough students have expressed interest in the writing. Their classes nearly always fill. This year, they’re offering some of their favorites for students from ages 7 to 18, including Nature Study, Art of Math, Science of Light Projects, Makers Vs Zombies, Life Science, Botany, Biology and Medieval and Renaissance Makers. In the last of these classes, students enjoyed catapult building, natural dye-making from plants and spinning. To say their classes link science to history, are active and engaging would be a sorry understatement; Phoenix’s teaching shatters the proverbial education box.
At the heart of Phoenix’s teaching philosophy is their own never-ending challenge -facing approach to life. One recent step tested them by requiring a paradigm shift of a physical nature. They signed up for Davenriche Sword School and despite a lifetime of family and cultural messages that someone their size and body type couldn’t or shouldn’t, despite the annoying voice of “what am I doing here?” that nagged at every class, despite believing their intellectual and creative confidence wouldn’t help their wield a sword, they stepped through the door. After four years, they began working toward a tournament. On the way to capable, they assured me, was “plenty of doing it wrong.”
Mistake making is an integral part of the process of learning, they asserts. With a multitude of interests in everything from creating their own arrowheads out of obsidian to creating their own cosplay costumes, they have fed a belief that education is not about facts but about experiences. “This is what kids are missing,” they tell me. “We live in a pre-packaged culture alienated from the creative process” and continues to point out the ways we have been encapsulated in a digital one that has separated us from touching things, from creating, from the source. All the while, “a wondrous world awaits” their missteps of exploration. They wants to offer kids a glimpse of the “wonder of being alive.”
We agree that hands-on immersive experiences lead people to discover how they learn, enable them to push beyond boundaries, and not only earns them respect for craft and craftsmanship but also builds their identity by creating a palpable, visible place in the world. One parent, Liqa Moin, shared her own experience, specifically mentioning the equity in the class: no one felt “left out of the creative exploration.” Leaving no one out is a big reason why Phoenix inspires me as an educator and writer.
One lasting or perhaps only ephemeral legacy of Phoenix’s ideas can be found in a labyrinth co-created with a largely anonymous but devoted community. While they can tell you the story of its creation, the labyrinth is more than a gathering of rocks and artsy what-not donated by a few friends and strangers; underneath it is the effort to build something that draws in and delights others and reveals what is quintessentially Phoenix.
One Good Mentor is all you need 