(nb – NOV. 2024: This course will be offered via Cont. Ed., Antioch University (online) in the Spring session starting in early January. See my post of November 12th for more details. I will bring this message forward later in November. – MMaser)

The real work of humanity at this time may be to awaken the unique spark and inner resiliency of genius within each person.

– Michael Meade, The Myth of Genius

In anticipating the upcoming Introduction to Individualized Study course I am leading via Antioch University’s Individualized Masters (IMA) program this coming fall term, I have been pondering the nature of research. Research is a very human endeavour reflecting our ability to perceive, analyze and foretell circumstance in information we contact and collect. 

In this act our intellect fuses with our imagination, life experiences and cultural histories. 

Of course, research starts with forming a question, an act that is essentially rooted in wonder, which Socrates (via Plato), described as “the feeling of the philosopher,” a sentiment re-confirmed by Aristotle. 

Sociologist Edith Cobb wrote about the sense of wonder in her seminal book, The Ecology of Imagination in Childhood (1975), linking it to “the first poetic spirit of our life.” In this instance Cobb references the Greek term poien, “to make”; that is, to make sense and meaning of the things we connect to in our living and being and to create knowledge, which is at the heart of research. 

Research, in other words, is a vital act, idiosyncratic to each of us, not just the ‘experts’ strolling around with the clipboards and notebooks. 

I also recognize in Cobb’s pronouncement how this vital act of auto-research extends to genius-making calling each one of us in novel ways. Cultural anthropologist and author Michael Meade nails this in his 2016 book, The Myth of Genius, in which he frames genius as “the source of purpose and the seed of destiny in each of us.”  Each life is a meaningful story trying to unfold from within, he says, adding that, more than raw talent or potential ability and regardless of age, gender orientation, ethnicity, or social status, “genius marks each person as being essentially unique and inherently valuable.”  

The human story of creativity and invention, innovation and discovery attests to Meade’s pronouncements: genius is our destiny, and we continue to live into this, person by person, day by day. Yes, we can and do stumble on this path but we can shake these off forge ahead. Imagination is the propellant most needed to continue for imagination is itself a thing of genius and the richest fuel powering the human soul.

The real work of humanity at this time, Meade attests, may be to awaken the unique spark and inner resiliency of genius within each person.

I agree, and have adopted this as the guiding ethos in all my work as an educator.  

In addition to teaching the IMA foundational course, FDN5001, I also teach Neurobiology and Learning, SSC5091, in the IMA. I’ve taught variations of this course since 2010.