I participated in the Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education, an effort to adapt fashion education to what climate science is telling us. Going in, I was prepared for an array of innovations that de-materialize the system, for innovations in technology that save the day.

The topic “On Grief, Exnovation and the Power of Mutual Learning“ confessed that we may be past the point of breakthroughs. Sometimes the path to innovation is letting go, or ex-novation. It is harder than it sounds. Students want a “safer world” a sense of stability, and jobs that will allow them to survive. Educators over the past 50 years, following industry directions, converted to the ideology of mass production, believing deeply in concepts like automation, standardization, productivity etc. It is present in how we design and deliver courses, how we grade and award students, as well as how our teaching contracts are written.

Today, having perfected the ideology, it is no longer a challenge to deliver fast, cheap and plenty, but rather to reduce production and for people to thrive as we do so. Ex-novation as a path to innovation prompts us to let go of one practice, and share with global educators what that will be. I am considering reducing “homework” so class time is learning time. Still working on it.