Understanding One Another
Angelique & Rafael
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
Two fourteen-year-olds make Agora’s philosophy concrete. In Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: A Hopeful History, Angelique has taught herself Korean and compiled a book defending veganism; Rafael finds a security flaw on the Dutch Open University website and builds a company’s website without wanting payment. Their stories, presented by Doug, show what curiosity and intrinsic motivation can produce when students direct their own learning.
A Note on the Original Text
Doug’s writings are presented as originally written. Spelling, punctuation, and grammatical irregularities have been retained to preserve his words and the integrity of the original record.
ORIGINAL WRITING
“The content in this post is based on the book Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.
Angelique is fourteen. Her primary school sent her to vocational education, but the girl I met is terrifically analytical. She’s obsessed with Korea for some reason and set on studying there, and has already taught herself quite a bit of the language. Angelique is also vegan and has compiled an entire book of arguments to fire at meat eaters.
Every student has a story. Rafael, also fourteen, loves programming. He shows me a security leak he discovered on the Dutch Open University website, but it hasn’t been fixed yet. Laughing, Rafael tells me, ‘If I wanted to get his attention, I could change his personal password.’
When he shows me the website of a company he’s done some front-end work on, I ask him if he shouldn’t be billing them for his trouble. Rafael gives me an odd look. ‘What, and lose my motivation?’