Shoshin College is a collection of people interested in offering low cost yet high-quality classes on a variety of disciplines.
Create space for learning and experimentation. This space will be in three dimensions: (a) physical: an place in the real world we can go to, (b) temporal: time in our calendars to engage with the content, (c) mental: space in our minds to think about new things.
In one sentence, we’re interested in a Shoshin College because it’s an expression of freedom.
Imagine we live in a world of post-scarcity. There is no need to work for survival. We have ample food and housing for everyone. What do we do then? Life would be pretty boring — if only humanity wasn’t inherently curious about everything. How would we learn if we didn’t have to? Maybe many wouldn’t but some would definitely be interested in learning just for the sake of it. How would they do it? Would they keep the current global structure of academia or would they try something new? If so, what would it look like?
Let’s explore. Let’s think values we value, let’s build processes on top of them, and let’s see what happens. Whatever works we can keep; whatever doesn’t we can change. Nothing forces us to cling onto old (or new) processes. This is in contrast to large established institutions which have a lot of inertia on their policies due to past success.
Shoshin College CIC is a Community Interest Company Limited by Guarantee. A Community Interest Company (CIC) is a special type of limited company which exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders.
This is our community interest statement, as stated in our Articles of Association:
The objects of the Company are to carry on activities which benefit the community and in particular (without limitation) to provide low cost educational classes on a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, computer science, design, and meditation.
A CIC has an asset lock: a legal clause in our Articles of Association which binds the company’s assets to only be used for its social objectives and in case of dissolution to be transfered to another CIC or charity.
A CIC is required to produce an annual report with details of what the CIC has done to benefit the community and how it has consulted the community members on its activities.
Additionally, we publish transparency reports per semester on our operations and financial transactions.
Shoshin College CIC is registered in England and Wales under company number 15760817.
The following broadly-incomplete lists of real-world alternative learning places and theories (books) inspired everything.