Meet the playful rebels behind the Unrealistic movement.

Gus

I struggled through my schooling years. For lots of reasons that you probably share with me. School is not something I remember as a super fond memory. It wasn’t the worst but I don’t think I’ve ever said the words “I love school” nor have I heard my kids say it, ever.  I feel more like “I survived school” and managed to not be completely domesticated by this relentless status-quo machine.

When my three children started school I felt the tension raise up again. How do they learn to fit in this society with its legacy industrial revolution structure yet not lose their incredibly curious minds that will be so critical in this ever speeding ever-evolving social structure we live in? How do they learn how the system works but not get domesticated in the process? So, to minimise the damage the education system causes in my kids I effectively decided to run a parallel education model at home. One of the critical pieces of this model is to chat to the kids a few times a week after school and see what they have learned, so I can unlearn them and relearn them the right way. I wanted to ensure they develop a healthy disrespect for the system of education.

I should pause here and make an important point: I don’t have a particular problem with teachers, I don’t think all of school sucks, I made great friends, I had some memorable learning experiences and my kids love seeing their friends at school. My frustration is with the system as a whole which beats humans down, including the teachers, into conforming.

Every week there are countless examples of situations that make me shake my head, situations I have to address to ensure the lesson they were taught is challenged. From raising your hand to speak (I teach my kids that you need to learn the art of conversation not by raising your hand but by observing the group or the other person and timing your contribution -  remember once you leave the education system you never raise your hand to speak ever again). Other situations like the disproportionate amount of time spent on my kids learning to spell a language called English even though we have solved this puzzle with ever learning algorithms. Anyway, loads of examples…but perhaps the most powerful is the story that gave our foundation a name :-)

Gus

Hannah

Throughout my career, I have worked with organisations to create meaningful learning experiences that don’t suck. The type of experiences that shock you, surprise you, are visual, are interactive, get you doing stuff, get you failing at stuff, get you connected to purpose and your team, and above all are damn right fun.

Throughout this time working with large listed companies across the globe and major government departments I have always wondered at which point we are told to stop engaging in “play.” When was the point we forgot to connect to our purpose and were told to follow a certain path that’s more “realistic” or “expected” of us?

Why do we shove people (kids and adults) in a room and expect them to learn when they are just being talked at aided by some awful overcrowded PowerPoint presentation. I have spent my whole career transforming the crappy old skool way we expected people to learn from a pre-internet era from creative agency Inspire Group and global powerhouse The School of Life.  To be able to see the impact we have had on creating life-changing learning experiences is an important legacy. And I want to continue that on with The Unrealistic Foundation.

We want to support others doing the same. Especially in the education sector. I don’t want to keep working with ‘damaged goods’ that have had realistic expectations imposed on them and therefore find it hard to break through the creativity or change barrier. I want to impact those coming through the ‘system’ and create a movement dedicated to disrupting the system.

Will you join us?

Hannah xoxo

Tom

Loads of us have our own little stories of schooling rebellion - mine was a school maths report that read “a wasted 6 months” after I got kicked out of class for a term for accusing the teacher of being racist towards a classmate in front of 30 others.

My experiences aren’t unique, in fact there are millions of them occurring across the globe when we aren’t challenged, we’re not able to taste success, we’re feeling confined or we’re in a system that isn’t working for our individual needs.

Problem is, many of us don’t do anything about it. We’re either too busy, too apathetic or in many cases we’re just waiting for someone to provide us with a bit of guidance on where to start. 

Herein lies my belief in the power of the Foundation. By injecting a healthy dose of Unrealism into the lives of people, be it through the educational opportunities they are exposed to or just a piece of stimulus that changes their reference point we can help them take that first step in redefining the system.

Come join us, it’s going to be some ride!

Tom