Dr. Grauer's Column - The Power Of Fun

The Power of Fun
A Fun Pitch for a New Grauer Senior Graduation Major

I am writing this column for our seniors, you who are preparing to reflect upon your secondary school years before your peers with your Graduation Defense presentations, a venerable Grauer tradition preceding our Commencement Exercises. 

Seniors, are you reading? I have a proposal for you that could sound preposterous but, knowing the positive spirit of this class, I think it will not. Seniors, for graduation, I want you to major in fun. 
Hear me out!

At The Grauer School, for many years, all seniors have petitioned to graduate with an area of distinction. It is like a college major. Here are our current areas for distinction:

• The Arts 
• Global and Humanitarian Studies
• Social Justice/Activism
• STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math
• Ecological Studies
• Expeditionary Education
• Leadership
• Fitness and/or Athletics
• Liberal Arts

This year, I challenge you to petition for another area of distinction entirely: Fun. Give this notion a second to sink in if it sounds ludicrous.

Having engaged extensively in some of life’s more challenging activities, such as heavy weather sailing, winter surfing, remote travelling, and wilderness skiing—not to mention working with teens!—I have learned that many of the most rewarding and serious achievements are born of fun. We say we do activities like some of the above for fun, and yet, none of these great challenges are enjoyable without knowledge, planning, immersion, skill, and commitment. Done frivolously, these can turn into terrible activities. So I’m not talking about wearing funny hats here, I’m talking about serious fun.

The same can be said of Grauer’s expeditionary learning. It easily could be called serious fun because it is not the expedition that changes us, it is the internal spiritual, psychological, and emotional experience that we go through.

Right now, on sabbatical, I think I am in a good position to look back at what makes teaching and learning great and transformational. Upon reflection, there is one thing that has stood out that the layman may not guess. What makes a great class, what makes students want to show up and engage, and what makes for our most treasured classroom and campus memories years later is this: fun. 

Let’s define fun here. You need deep engagement, voluntary participation, connection, and positive spirit. If you insist, just call it joy—I have no idea why this term has more cred.

I understand fun might have a connotation of purposelessness to some, so let me dispense with this misconception. By fun, I mean experiencing a sense of play, flow, and connection [1] to those around you, in your own consciousness, and/or with nature.

By fun, I do not mean lack of productivity, either. In real fun, we are on the case, and engaged in what we do. I also don’t mean that we can never have moments of drudge work, frustration, or hard times before resuming our play, flow, and connection. Our best fun normally comes with some drudge work. But so long as the drudge to fun ratio does not get too high or consistent, we know it’s worth it. To be honest, I have been through my fair share of drudge and setback in this life, and my seven decades have shown me that it is extremely rare that we have an excuse not to move through it and reclaim our smile in one way or another. A light heart is not a given, it is a practice and a commitment. But I believe it is always possible in the end.

Even at Grauer, some students carry elements of exhaustion, over-programming, confusion, or anxiety, and these elements cause them to be less free, spontaneous, rebellious (in a healthy way), or experimental; they are less engaged, joyful, and open-minded, both in and out of school. As we constantly, mindlessly check our social media for any kind of connection, we withdraw from the physical world of smiles, running, green grass and freedom itself. Outside, tragedies happen. Gun insanity continues. Joy seems impossible. I want our students to know they can get through and get back to real fun, and to be proud of that priority, that achievement, that gift. I want this for our teachers, parents, board members, and alumni, too.

Right now, in our nation, it’s upsetting how many of youth are “languishing.” Languishing is noticeable in public and ubiquitous in our news and social media feeds, and we ethically must ask if this is the preparation we want for the leaders of tomorrow. With no apology, I want to say that I don’t want an exhausted, overprogrammed, uptight, victimized person overseeing social justice. Or ecology.  I don’t want them leading my organization or expedition. I’ll take my leaders with a gleam in their eye.

What if our schools were filled with people who found it fun and were willing to sacrifice to keep it that way? What if we stopped throwing out what we are certain is best about learning and education the minute kids got into high school? What if we did not change the name of the playground to campus? What if the whole world were a bit more of a playground, geopolitical strife and all?

I don’t think it’s always true that students can’t live with a sense of fun just because they are overprogrammed, depressed, or anxious—or because it is a harsh world. I think the inverse is equally true. Many people are depressed or anxious because they don’t know how to have fun, or they may even think real fun is not useful or even permissible. Or they confuse fun with being entertained, which is a passive experience. The reality is real fun is responsible for enormous connection, development of purpose, and peace of mind. The real fun mindset is responsible for much of our best, most creative problem solving.

What if schooling and campus life could have all the exhilaration and sense of freedom as racing in the open ocean, coastal piloting that skillfully takes us to all points and incorporates the phenomenal array of mental and physical skills that are required before you can have the greatest fun sailing.

Similarly, the surfing life requires years of technical skill development, high fitness demands, elaborate travel plans, analysis of meteorological data, routine study of tide and wind charts, and the sum total is almost always, “Really fun out there.” For the record, almost no surfer actually says, “That was gnarly” after a great day. We say it was “really fun.” Even if we got hammered a couple times by the breakers.

Real fun can be anything that brings out energy rather than drains it. Fun is often cast as what we do when we are not at work, and that’s a tragedy. Almost all my best work is done with a sense of play. My management collaborations with Dana Abplanalp-Diggs, my land development collaborations with David Meyer, my research and evaluation collaborations with Tricia Valeski, and my marketing collaborations with Doug Katz have all felt like play and like alchemy when they are best. As noted, all great tasks come with their share of grunt work, but they equally must lead to the sense of playfulness and flow that is fun. The word fun’s been cheapened, mis- and overused to refer to anything non-serious, amusing, or foolish, but real fun is often a life-changing force. Maybe it is time to reclaim the meaning of the word.

Real fun often casts us as rebellious as we push limits out enough to experience exhilaration. This casting was baked into the purpose of the The Grauer School. Stuart Brown of Stanford, who researches fun and who I covered in one of my “Fearless Teaching” profiles, has his office in a treehouse. He teaches that real fun enables us to transcend petty concerns and worries we might have about trying creative things we are drawn to, as well as unwanted repetitive thoughts. In this sense, real fun is the bedrock of authentic creation and scholarship. And in a sense, fun could be the highest form of human endeavor right up there with love, and we all know the history of the arts and humanities is filled with genius done in the name of that.

Hence, real fun is not to be treated as a throwaway or done for no productive ends. Planning that expedition or student proposal, organizing those dance or music sessions, creating an outing or game, writing that sonnet, building that robot, or founding a club all take the engagement, connection, and purpose we experience as real fun. Integrating real fun into our campus practices could be the greatest academic gift we give our students. What if real fun is the actual goal?

Seniors, I also want you to consider that maybe there is another word for this gorgeous Grauer School “campus” that has embraced you and all our students and teachers for these past six years of your secondary schooling, I think the most impactful years of your lives, and that word is: playground. May the world be this for you.

Do we really have to take ourselves so seriously? Can we keep the gleam in our eyes? As a graduation major or thesis, or school purpose, real fun enables our unique school to take a stand against the controls of a stricter, more controlled, often more tedious, hurried form of academia that Grauer was developed as an antidote for. It sends the message that overprogrammed and anxious kids need to be healthy and companionable, to be productive but do so in a way that makes your life more liberating, accepting, and healthier. What better purpose for education or at least for The Grauer School.

You, seniors! Who dares to major in fun? After college, get your Ph.D. in fun!

Fun is committing to where you really are and at our school, this could mean creating a painting, arriving at the surf in the van and seeing perfect peelers, deep in conversation with one you care about, playing with a small child in the nursery, holding or petting a  school dog, deep in a seminar discussion with classmates or teacher you trust, waking up in a tent in the forest, getting a proposal approved, executing a scoring play on the sports field, or singing in harmony. These are the sources of connection and flow, and they define real fun. They are why we show up. They are what we take away. Moreover, in life, these are the very moments that motivate us to commit to larger things like saving the forests of the world, learning to treat the mental health of those in need, and fighting poverty, loneliness or ignorance. Our smaller, controlling, hurried, fearful selves are gone in real fun. We are immersed in right now. There is no time or distraction. These are our moments of truth and clarity, and they can be our destiny. 

[1] The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, Catherine Price, 2021.

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