Lisa K. Forbes 

One day, I was reading the book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse. If you haven’t read it, please do. I found it to be super inspiring and thought-provoking. Anyway, as I was reading, one of the characters said “What if there was a school for unlearning?” That question followed me for the rest of the day. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That phrase entered my brain and prompted reflections from my educational background that I’d like to unlearn. That night, I wrote and wrote and what came out was the poem presented below. You might read this poem and wonder what the heck this has to do with play so here are my thoughts on that:

Play is not just silly, childish fun. Play is also about rebellion. Daring to step “out of line” and dare to challenge power structures or old ways of being that now exist as truth. Because these norms and “truths” were created by certain people, for certain people. Not for all people. Yet, all people are expected to contort themselves to fall in line with these norms. Play, as a mindset or underlying philosophy, can help us stand up to that narrow set of standards and question if there are other, more inclusive ways to let humans exist. 

In that way, play is about bringing out people’s unique humanness. The systems in which we live often have a way of stripping our humanity – taking what makes us unique and valuable. Play is one way that we can resist cultural norms and messages each of us is given about who we are allowed to be so we can recover and rediscover our unique humanity. Because when we lose our humanity, I don’t think we can show up as our full and true selves. At that point, how useful are we able to be to our communities and to the world? 

The School of Unlearning

As kids, we go to school because we have to. 
There, our greatest strengths whittled away.
Because they just don’t fit in the same way.

Fall in line.
Learn the facts.
Think this.
Believe that.

We learn from what we’re told.
And what we observe. 
Which traits and behaviors are valued 
and which, absurd. 

We’re smarter than we look. 
Smarter than we seem.
But smarts aren’t the point to be deemed.

The point, never acknowledged, is alignment. 

Conform.
To what is valued. 
To what’s measured.

A sheepish confinement. 

Most forced to leave identities at the door.
Forget your uniqueness.
Your inner aspirations.
Forget the you that differs 
from those whom this education was made for.

Leave that shit at the door.
It’s not welcome here.

A day here, a day there.
Might not be so bad.
But a lifetime is hard to be had.

The lucky ones realize how lost they’ve become, 
no longer free. 
How they hardly remember who they were 
before everyone else told them who to be. 

How to think.
What to believe. 

The lucky ones might just find their way out. 

Back to themselves. 
To their humanness and unique potentials. 

What’s been taught can be undone: 
The school of unlearning, rebellious fun.

Question what is.
Question the facts.
It’s only real because they said it was. 
Expose all the cracks.

Unlearn what’s been caked on.
Layer after layer, year after year. 
The real lives underneath the conditioned fear. 

It’s real because it’s different.
Because it’s unique.
The you that existed before you were told 
what to think.

The school of unlearning is a lonely embrace.
It’s easy to lose your way,
slingshotting you back to the well-known place. 

It takes rebellion.
Reflection.
Re-learning.
And hope.

But when the layers are shed.
It’s easier to exist and to cope. 

You find inner freedom.
The world quiets down.
You can hear the inner you 
who’s been waiting to be found.

Soul.
Intuition.
Inner child.
It’s all the same. It’s you: human, unique, and wild. 

The school of unlearning seems pretty dope.
We need it now more than ever 
to rekindle some hope.