The Big Shift by Marc Freedman

Author:Marc Freedman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2011-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

A SCHOOL FOR LIFE?

Peter Laslett looked to America as the wellspring for new ideas that would create the institutions needed to help usher people into the Third Age. There’s no question that the United States is good at social innovation, although it certainly owns no monopoly on creativity in this area. It’s a good thing, too, given that the new stage is a global phenomenon. In fact, one of the most promising prototypes for a next-generation transition vehicle is under way in London.

In early 2010, while researching the rise of the Third Age concept in the United Kingdom, I was introduced to a unique innovation that’s a combination of continuing education, a transition support group, and something of a secular religion. The School of Life is located in a storefront in Bloomsbury, a block from Russell Square, in the shadows of University College, London. It was created by British writer Alain de Botton, author of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, and travel writer Geoff Dyer. The attractive first floor of the shop is a bookstore, but not an ordinary one. The carefully culled collection—“all the essential books on all the great topics crucial to leading a good life”—is organized by theme, with topics like “how to enjoy your own company,” “how to make a difference,” or “how to survive insomnia.” There are no more than six titles on each topic.

Classes at the School of Life follow a similarly boiled-down, essential quality, blending the high life of the mind with the practicalities of actually living a good life. It’s organized around the central themes of love, work, death, and other big questions. Among the classes: How to Balance Work with Life, How to Be a Good Friend, How to Have Better Conversations, How to Make Love Last, How to Spend Time Alone, How to Fill the God-Shaped Hole, How to Face Death, and, my favorite (and probably most desperately needed), How to Be Cool. Along with these classes, the School of Life offers special weekend workshops; lectures on fundamental issues like loss, innovation, and mindfulness; as well as psychotherapy (“Our aim is to take you on a fascinating and valuable tour of your own psyche”).

In addition to talk therapy of the psychological sort, the School of Life offers something unique: bibliotherapy—designed to help you figure out what to read in an era when two new books are published every minute, “and you would need 163 lifetimes to get through all the titles offered on Amazon.” An appointment with a School of Life “bibliotherapist” is encouraged for those seeking to improve their reading life, resulting in a “reading prescription,” whether “you’re looking for a set of travel novels to inspire your next adventure, or you’d like to fathom an aspect of a current relationship through a short collection of essays.”

An additional arrow in the School of Life’s quiver is a Sunday sermon series delivered by prominent cultural figures in the UK and dedicated (for the most part) to spiritual ideas and other fundamental questions.

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