Introducing: Margeir Haraldsson Arndal

I’m Margeir and I’ll be interning at East of Moon this fall semester as part of my studies at Bifröst University where I’m studying cultural and creative industries (CCIs). Arnar is one of my teachers at Bifröst where he teaches the concepts and practices of entrepreneurship and design thinking. However, I’ve known of Arnar and East of Moon since before he was my teacher back when Arnar lived in the Westfjords and managed the Blue Bank in Þingeyri. I participated in an incubator called Lausnaver where we used EoM’s collaboration tool missions.dev.

For most of my internship I’ll be working remotely from Flateyri in the Westfjords where I live with my fiancée and our two children. My internship will orbit around alternative education, the act of and willingness to learn and how we might encourage learning for the sake of learning. As a part of this journey I’d like to use this opportunity to reflect on my own experience and relationship with education.

From an uninterested drop-out to an overly-enthusiastic sponge

My journey through the school system has been quite unorthodox ranging from an uninterested drop-out to an overly-enthusiastic sponge with a bottomless thirst for knowledge. I had a pretty hard time concentrating and quickly fell behind in elementary school. I remember asking my teachers; "why? Why do we have to learn this?" which, in hindsight, was a genuine question that never really received a genuine answer. When I went to upper secondary school (menntaskóli) I tried and failed and tried and failed. I signed up to five different schools to five different tracks before giving up and joining the labour force. I had been working and out of school for a couple years when I heard about a school that was starting in Flateyri, "a different kind of school". Their social media campaign emphasised "No grades, no exams!", I was intrigued.

Flateyri Folk school

I applied and got admitted without really understanding what I was applying for. The program I signed up for, called Ideas, the world and you, was all about creative thinking, design and the tools needed to bring ideas to life. The adverts did not lie, there were no grades and no exams, not even a minimum requirement of attendance – it relied 100% on practicality and the students interest in learning for the sake of learning. My input: my personal interest, my discipline to attend, my willingness to learn and my curiosity, were the only real limits of possible output, the knowledge and teachings I could extract from my teachers and their courses.

It blew my mind. I’m able to attend a school out of pure interest without feeling obligated to do so? I’m willing to make mistakes and get feedback for the sake of knowledge? It shifted my perspective on what the purpose of schools really is.

I’d always been curious and interested in trying new things, but I had naively never looked at school as a place to make mistakes, to practice curiosity or try new things. School to me was something you were supposed to attend, a place, a building where people (who are older and presumably smarter than you) told you to remember things you don’t care about and then they’d evaluate how well, compared to your peers, you remember those things. When I finished my year at Flateyri Folk school I had relearned how to learn. I had a newfound understanding of what a school could and should be. It’s access to knowledge, it’s an opportunity for discipline, it's a community where input is just as or possibly even more important than output.

I went back to menntaskóli after graduating (with a symbolic diploma) from the folk school and I actually enjoyed it. For the first time in a long time I enjoyed attending a traditional school with grades, exams and everything! I moved to Flateyri permanently, graduated from the arts and innovation track at Menntaskóli Ísafjarðar.

After graduating menntaskóli I was offered a job at Flateyri Folk school where I worked as a project manager for 3 years. And now I’m studying at a university where I frequently ask for extra homework, absorb knowledge and enjoy and celebrate every mistake and accomplishment.

The output of my input

During my internship I’d like to bring my experience to East of Moon's development of educational offerings.

I want to contribute to an environment that encourages curiosity, gives leeway for and celebrates mistakes and sparks enjoyment in the act of learning.