HIHTK 021: Gordy Bal on Creating a Conscious School

March 16, 2018

What happens when a passionate entrepreneur experiences a spiritual awakening at the same time his kids are nearing school age? He creates a conscious school, of course.

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Gordy Bal is one of those entrepreneurs you hear about in the news. You wonder how he can be involved in so many incredible projects. But entrepreneurs do entrepreneur things. But Gordy did something that might seem ‘off script,’ unless you got to know him and his personal journey.

He started a nature-based school he’d dreamed up after being exposed to a brilliant mind.

The Path of Purpose

After speaking with Gordy, I think I understand how he does it all. It comes back to purpose, that deep-seated sense that what you’re doing really matters. The most purposeful people I know wake up in the morning excited by the opportunity to work and live in this world they are creating.

I can’t speak for you, but for me this is the golden goose of alternative education. Regardless of the specific path, I believe this is what most alternative education families really want for their kids.

With a deep purpose, the practical concerns of academic education hardly matter. If you have a deep enough purpose, you’ll learn what you need to learn when you need to learn it. Without purpose, the greatest on-paper education in the world won’t save you.

There are few things less attractive than an over-educated Starbucks barista living a purposeless life. Meanwhile, plucky and “uneducated” entrepreneurs all over the world are getting things done and learning what they need when they need it.

The Xploration Centre

I brought Gordy Bal on the podcast because I heard about his school from my husband. It’s called the Xploration Centre and it has a unique vision, like a cross between a forest school and a technology-based school with some unique philosophical underpinnings. Gordy believes deeply in exponential technologies, but he also fears the current relationship most of us, kids especially, have with technology.

Meanwhile, we’re more and more cut off from nature. I share Gordy’s fear on that front. A child without any connection to nature is a very sad thing. But more than sad, it holds them back from living a full life. A week in nature is a cure for most ailments, and nature is the greatest (and only?) true teacher.

And beyond nature and exposure to exponential technologies, two other paradigms guide the school. Both stem from the teachings of Dr. Shefali Tsabary, the world famous psychologist who writes on the topic of conscious parenting.

Dr. Shefali’s Influence

Gordy was exposed to Dr. Shefali’s after he became a parent. Her teachings resonated deeply with Gordy and his wife, so they reached out to meet Dr. Shefali. They would eventually become friends and she would remain influential in his life as he moved along his journey towards opening the Xploration Centre. So influential, that the school is founded on the principles she teaches.

Two key concepts from Dr. Shefali inform the direction of the school. The first is love. Most traditional parenting in our society comes from a paradigm of fear. It’s believed the parents’ job is to mould the child into something they’re not. And fear is the main tool to force kids into the mold.

But the Xploration Centre is founded on the opposite idea — that kids are perfect as they are and that our role as adults is to express and model love. Kids don’t need to be ‘scared straight’ into becoming ‘productive adults.’ Instead, we need to be loving and supportive on their mission to understand themselves and pursue their unique talents.

The traditional model of education (and parenting) in our society is a relic from the industrial era, or even the agricultural. Gordy calls it the top-down model. This model runs on the assumption that kids are basically flawed and that it’s our job as adults to force feed them knowledge — whether in life or school.

Flipping this paradigm, the Xploration Centre’s vision is to works with the kids to co-create their own learning curriculum. The goal here is to facilitate the discovery of their own set of skills, joys, and passions. Every child has natural inborn skills and passions. Rather than coerce these uniquenesses out of them, the Xploration Centre seeks to strengthen them.

Gordy’s Awakening

I love hearing the stories of alternative education parents. Gordy is certainly an alternative education parent, and like most of us, his story helped form his vision for education.

A true entrepreneur, Gordy was involved in business since high school. He knew at this early age that school itself wouldn’t be the path for him to achieve his life goals. School never made sense. He had to go to this place every day where people would tell him what to do.

Coming from a traditional immigrant background his family highly valued education. His parents saw their labors as a sacrifice they made to ensure their son would get a great education.

Still Gordy knew the coercive nature of education didn’t fit for him, and when he had kids he began to research and learn more about alternatives to the traditional system. He encountered Dr. Shefali’s work, and combined with this own spiritual journey he knew that he had to do something about it.

And when you’re an entrepreneur like Gordy, doing something means making an impact beyond yourself.

Takeaways

I loved this episode of the podcast. Gordy and I share similar upbringing. It was interesting to me to see how he formulated himself based on that. But moreover, Gordy is just a really interesting person doing incredibly interesting things in the world — both education and beyond.

Check out the Xploration Centre Website