About

THE ORIGIN OF FLOWSKOOL




Looking back, Flowskool started when I was teaching middle school Language Arts at a private school in Compton. My methods were quite unorthodox, to say the least. See, whilst I was teaching, I was also performing live spoken word with two bands, so a lot of improvisation got mixed up in my teaching style.

My room was over the principal's office and the sound of an unorthodox teaching style brought her upstairs with a look. I understood and we brought the noise level down to a decibal or two, but the creative tyger was out of the box.

Good favor smiled upon us, as the pastor, Father Stan, an awesome cat from the States who spent about 10 years in Mexico and spoke fluent Spanish, shared my views on creative education and the good reverend had my back.

Recess --pardon the pun -- played a part, too. I liked to pack a lunch and eat in the classroom. Quicker and cost effective. So, if I did not have duty, I was upstairs with some Roy Ayers vibin' the room. Word got out that Mr. Brown ate and vibed in his room and the some of the students began hanging out with me at recess.

Sitting around the teacher's desk, soda cans and juice boxes popping, bags of Hot Cheetos rippin' and off the shelf snacks smackin', Donald Byrd trumpet notes floatin' and falling like dominoes... the students had ventured outside the restraints of teaching to the test and a domain of curiosity and natural born inquisitiveness opened where theyweren't so afraid of being wrong or trying to be right. They weren't trying to impress the teacher, either. There was engagement, banter.

Learning went both ways, as education ought to be, right? As they shared their lives and stories, I realized how much fertile intellectual ground was available to a group of students and teachers who were able to relax into the reality of the subjects we'd been trying to quantify with shaded bubbles and perfectly clicked right answers.

We were relaxed. We flowed.