Ch.26 Help! We need a theme for Summer Conference 2033!

Serializing Insight Experiential Colleges, how Women In Congress re-invented liberal arts college curriculum and teaching methods to produce graduates capable of redeeming-restoring SpaceShip Earth

In Chapter 26, a related org makes the Writers Room an offer they can’t refuse.

Every year, each Women’s Summer Conferences was more successful than the last one. Each conference drew more attendees; the number of positive reviews increased; TV and social media coverage expanded. Tho not materially involved in either the War Room nor Writers Rooms, Conference Organizers still tracked such developments closely. You never know when a good summer conference theme might show itself.

In the Fall of 2032, Conference Organizers began brainstorming good themes for 2033. When New Years Day, 2033, passed and Organizers still had no theme they felt passionate about, they asked the Writers Room if they had any theme ideas.

Can we come up with a theme for Conference 2033?

The Writers Room budgeted up to four hours for all 20 writers in one room, to discuss possible themes. The win for the Writers was 2033 Conference was opportunity to prototype some New College content and teaching methods and receive feedback.

Writers were naturally familiar with how sharing values, locating a group consensus on values, brought groups together. What emerged from this meeting, was a bit different: How people cohere around shared myths:

- What myths help us form healthy self-concept before age 25; and,

- Later in life, what myths are useful for re-making our own myth?

Writers knew good, thoughtful, mythology was perennially popular. Between 2011–2024, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the hottest, most engaging mythology around. How might New Colleges use myths to engage students in their own learning?

In this first meeting, one writer cautioned, “Before we ‘jump on our horse and ride off in all directions at once,’ let’s use what Sarah Peyton taught us. Begin first with what myths we DO NOT WANT. Then voice the myths WE DO WANT.”

No more one-sided Patriarchy

Somewhere, probably in the 160s or 1700s, Patriarchy as the Western social operating system, became one-sided and corrupted. Ever since, within Patriarchal operating systems, women are systematically excluded from full participation in political and economic life. One-sided Patriarchy is the cause of:

- Boring meetings,

- Boring church services,

- Un-fun civic meetings, town halls and city council meetings,

- Mafia-like Gordon Gekkos, college grads embracing, “Greed is good!”

What we DO WANT

The unspoken agendas of both Women’s Summer Conferences and New Colleges were always similar: empower people to think outside their own, stale mental boxes, the mental boxes keeping 18–25 years olds accessing only a small fraction of their own life potential, keeping many in boredom and apathy about life after college.

As writers of a transformed curricula, what we really want to know is:

- How to educate more people, more effectively,

- How to transform classroom teaching for students, which will require…

- How to transform classroom teaching for teachers.

The only hope for less boring colleges; and, the only way to attract and retain more talent into the college teaching profession, is to promote and exercise a more whole paradigm.

Theme of WSC2033

Title: “Making and Re-making Your Own Myth; Upgrading the Myths We Live By.”

Exercise sequences would be arranged around:

- The shared myths which bring us together, and

- Myths useful for making and re-making ourselves.

Conference Organizers responded with a big “YES!” This forced Writers to get busy researching useful myths, writing exercises; and, cobbling exercises together into sequences. The first milestone was an outline of the five days, with all authors present, to comment and make suggestions. When this was approved, the next milestone was a first draft of the script with all content topics pencilled in, to see if the flow made sense and led to a fulfilling climax, the “logical bones” of the training-to-be.

After many iterations of comments and fine-tuning, the “logical bones” felt solid.

The third milestone would be each piece of content transformed into a short lecturette, exercise sequence and debriefing. In this way, a five day script would eventuate.

WSC2033 five days in July

For 2033, Conference was extended by a day-and-a-half. Writers wanted to test out a sustained course offering opportunity for self-transformation. How deep; and, how much intensity could people handle? These questions were crucial for the four-year program of New Colleges.

The five day sequences of activities was designed to invite attendees to “swim” all the way down into the depths of their unconscious, into their mythological self, make new choices if they wished; then, “swim” back up to the surface world, with gifts in hand to share. This followed the classic Hero Journey cycle.

Writers recall BluePrint of WE

Writers knew learning and practice of BluePrint of WE was — years before — the subject of the first Summer Conference. Each Writing Team used BluePrint of WE to set up their team dynamics. Now in 2033, in healthy group process, a natural expansion seemed to be a script with exercises, safe enuf to try in the six tents of 500 people each and close to 10,000 people online, using breakout rooms.

Writers and Conference Organizers were both excited and terrified at this big swing they were taking, testing content and exercises at Summer Conference 2033.

Comment from interview with the retired head of New Colleges Project

“The best thing we ever did was engage the general public, as widely as possible, to explore their own values, their local, state, national and world values. This kept them so engaged with what they needed to change on multiple levels. This kept them busy. They stopped interfering with us about how we were changing their colleges. They were too busy enjoying the process of resolving their own unresolved issues.”

Q: Was this for colleges mostly?

A: “That was for everything.”

Influence of Insight Seminars on WSC2033

If the above sounds too simple, you are correct. After a great deal of research, Writers found the closest prior thing resembling what they hoped to pull off at WSC2033 was the fun, spontaneity and heartfelt look and feel of Insight Seminars trainings. Insight was one of the most successful, most long-lived, of all the large group learning seminars (LGLSs).

Writers found the book, Heartfelt Facilitators Notebook; Best Practices Facilitating Large/Small Group Events (2022). They used a great deal of Insight’s thinking about group process. They borrowed the descriptions of intake registration forms, assisting team logistics and behavior. So much was gleaned from this book, it would be pointless to repeat it here. Interested readers can pick up the book for themselves.

Everyone Learning together

Writers were impressed with one idea from insight, “everyone learning together:” facilitators > assistants > students — all learning together. This carried over very naturally into New Colleges: Teachers > Administrators > students — all learning together.

In this way, as much as they were able, the Writers, Conference organizers, and facilitators tried to replicate the heartfelt look and feel of Insight Seminars at WSC2033.

So what content was used? How did people respond? I’m glad you asked. That’s next.