Day 4 : Educating the Educators
From the series: 25 Things I Learned, unlearned and re learned in 2025
Here’s the truth: if we’re going to change the culture of design, the educators including me need to stay educated. Not in theory, but in practice. In real time, with real consequences. This year forced that lesson on me more than once. I use to use educate the educators as a hashtag and when I started writing this post thats what I thought I would be talking about, but this morning I read it differently - I read it to mean me. That as an educator…. I need to keep educating myself and this year that has been very true.
The reality is sharper: if I stop learning, I stop being useful…. and at a certain age that becomes a very scary thought!!!!
Design is moving. Culture is shifting. Bodies, systems, and climates are demanding more from us than polished presentations and good intentions.
So this year I paid attention. Closely.
I continued to learned to trust my instincts, even when they cut against the grain. To listen to my head, heart and gut. They are always right!
I unlearned the reflex to seek approval or soften the edges of what I know needs saying. People will have heard me say this year - that I am now at a point in my life when I simply dont give a fig about what others think of my outfit, hair etc…..
And I relearned that creativity isn’t decorative, it’s structural. It’s the engine of every disruptor, every reformer, every cultural shift and my every day.
Why it matters
Architecture and spatial practice don’t evolve because we repeat what we’ve been taught. They evolve because someone questions the curriculum and then questions their own conditioning.
If educators stay rigid, the field stays stagnant.
If educators stay open, critical, curious, and accountable, the field moves.
To design for bodies, for wellbeing, for climate, for justice, we need educators who are not protecting their authority, but challenging it. We need practitioners who are willing to say, “I got that wrong,” or “I need to rethink this,” or “There’s a better way.”
That applies to me, too.
Especially to me.
What this changed for me
This year shifted me to “interrogating what I thought I knew.”
It sharpened my stance. It clarified my priorities. It reminded me that education is not a performance, it’s a discipline.
Final line
If we want change, the educators have to go first.
