a culture of buzzwords, humming

Buzzwords.

Trendy, flashy, in your face. Each time the magic word is mentioned it is like the striking of a hammer coming down. Hireability! Experience! Success! Internships! Contribution! The list goes on and on as young students look on in a packed room, it is a college admitted students day, and the buzzwords fly through the air with wicked speed.

The topics of every speech are really nothing special or new, “At x university, we pride ourselves on Y and our continuing contributions to the field of Z.” An almost dull robotic tone repeats the pros(and definitely never the cons), going over all the fantastic things a student could do! Study here at our proprietary on campus coffee shop™, we know the art students among you will love that one!

A student panel is brought out. Clearly pre-rehearsed questions are dished out in a manner that could not be less authentic. The crowd raises their hands to ask questions, and yet it couldn’t be more predictable. Hireability? Experience? Success? Internships? Contribution?

Buzzwords repeated in a repetitive, monotonous tone.

There is now tension in the room. The obvious questions were of course those which they were least prepared to answer. A-ha! A genius distraction, perhaps we should play kahoot for cash prizes, kids which clearly have no attention span will love that, who doesn’t love money?

It’s hard not to feel sad, as you see the effects of a capitalist system of education bleed through in the very way these young prospective students view the college as a paycheck, and even sadder how the college views them the same.

An asset. A tool to be used to advance one’s career, kids with no other choice convinced fully that they must play this game and win capitalism. The academy is no longer for learning.

You may be wondering why I’m bringing this up, or why I’m being so terribly negative towards this process. You see, my sibling will be graduating from high school soon, and I’ve been helping with the college application and touring process. I’m simply describing exactly what I’ve been seeing right now in the education system.

A system which I escaped from quite recently myself, and believe me, I’m still working damage control.

As sad and cynical as my perspective may be, I really am no longer surprised to see this.

After the disillusioned speeches are given out from chosen representatives trying very hard to appear either funny or approachable, but never quite sticking the landing on either, the students are funneled into seminars to talk about their prospective career choices.

My sibling is looking to follow in my footsteps as a Graphic Designer (Oh no, what have I done!?), so we are brought to one of the art buildings on campus and sat down to talk about the various art programs.

Now we are face to face with the real professors who teach here, a sigh of relief as the authenticity is breathed back into the dialogue between staff and students. With authenticity, however, comes the awkwardness.

These professors have not interacted with students at this early of a stage much, and that clearly shows. A young student looks defeated after asking a simple question, “how would I, as someone who’s never done any design, begin to get an early start?” he asks nervously. The answer is a confusing mixture of “learning to see design” as well as “identifying good and bad design.” Now we are trying to break design into meritocratic categories before the student is even able to start.

Once again the buzzwords rush on stage, painting the picture of the designer as part of the logocult, an organization which wishes to see the designer as a tool for others with no autonomy of their own.

It seems the process of stamping out the individual is done early, as the many alumnx referenced are never mentioned for their work, but instead who they work for. Accolades are the premier currency here, it seems.

At the local university, I am invited in for a day to overlook students who will embark on their first thesis project. During my time there, I view students at the senior level preparing for the world, and teachers who are attempting to prepare them for this jump.

Many improvements have been made to the classroom and project structure since I’ve been there, but a glaring issue arises. What is a thesis meant to be? Many seem lost, unable to understand what it means to make work based on their own interest or wants. It’s too late to introduce creative autonomy, as we’ve already spent years eliminating it.

Some students decide to ask ChatGPT for answers. Others claim they don’t really know what they’re passionate about in the field in the first place.

Who could blame them, when they’ve successfully been made tools up until now?

This culture of buzzwords, humming.

The caterpillar which never learns to fly, warped and shaped by a cocoon spun with golden chains.

logocultism (writing)

The experience of contemporary education in graphic design can often feel like a “Logo Cult,” that is to say that we are taught from a perspective of client based work being the supreme form of design. When in my undergraduate education, focus was placed on each designer's role in the corporate setting.

We were shown examples of the many different studios or agencies creating bright, flashy and vibrant work. Nearly every single studio introduced focused either on freelance client jobs or creating for large name brands both local and international.

Something that always felt off to me was the lack of mention or even perspective towards “real world designers”, those who worked in company structures doing daily jobs such as creating infographics, or those who used their degrees to create endless pamphlets and signage for the corporation they received minimal pay from.

It makes perfect sense to me why most Professors in academia would not like to mention this lifestyle. It wasn’t glamorous, it didn’t support the “American Dream” of stardom, success, and high salaries that many young students enter the field expecting with complete naiveté. 

Instead, we completely ignored the fact that nearly every student in an average class will end up at those boring corporate jobs, if they are even able to find an in-industry job at all. 

It seems most modern academic settings view a students ability in corporate branding as a measure of their value to the field, it is given utmost importance. Classes focus on branding on various different levels: Branding of the self, corporate identity, packaging, and often even more.

We throw out other forms of design careers, cutting off the “fat” in an attempt to bring students up to date in the real world of design. Who dictates what the real world of design even looks like, especially when it is based on the singular individual experience of one teacher? 

When this “real world of design” on offer too often leaves many feeling lost and confused when entering a field completely foreign to their four years of education?

No, instead we are indoctrinated into the Logo Cult.

One day, I was sitting in the corner of the graphic design lab at my university, which I worked for as a monitor to keep the lab clean and open. The lab itself was a small room with a handful of macs, some various printers, and a few cutting workstations. It was decorated with past student work in the form of posters, branding, stickers, etc.

A few students from my cohort came in to work on their books for our publication class, which required that we physically build the books we designed from scratch. Many would complain why we had to do this, citing that the modern design world would never require this level of craftsmanship. 

There was validity in this claim, as most professionally done books would usually be printed at a print shop in bulk order. However, there was also legitimate use of being capable of creating your own prototypes, not to mention the practicality of expanding our abilities and having a new skill at our disposal.

While having a conversation about the class with them, the topic of whether publication design is even useful also came up. One student remarked that her ability to create book layouts was unnecessary, as she would be a logo designer anyways. That meant it didn’t matter if she wasn’t great at making books as long as she could create good logos. Many agreed with this sentiment, viewing publication design as more of a “niche” within the profession.

At the time I found it strange that there was such a pushback against publication, but I always had a bias towards creating books and layouts myself. The irony, however, is that many of those cohorts now work in corporate design fields, and engage with brand guidelines without any say in the branding itself.

There are many other occasions where I’ve had similar experiences of a general denial of design outside of brand identity. It seemed that many undergraduates were entirely convinced that the role of the designer was simply to create brands, and all other forms of design were to support the creation of brand identity.

Typography, for example, was emphasised in many classes. With rigid rules and examples of “good and bad” forms of type. Although the beginnings of typography focused on posters and forms of expression, it seemed type was taught as a means to the end of creating support for a logo or brand identity.

This couldn’t have been more obvious at the end of our undergraduate education curriculum when we arrived at Practicum, where we emulated design studio culture and took on pro bono work in small teams with rigid structures. We used corporate management tools similar to Monday.com, and assigned roles such as “team lead, creative director, and communications manager.”

Playing house like this continued to affirm what the role of designer was in education. Almost every client who flies through the beehive looks for brand work, often because of the fact that it is free which leads them to take the cheap route for the sake of “helping kids.” 

I think the funniest part is that even when working for clients, the teacher gets final say on what designs go through to the client, not even managing to escape the personal aesthetics of the classroom. It becomes a parody of itself, playing out a stage play of idealized client work with a complete disassociation from “real world design.”

If a designer felt as if they wanted to branch out and develop further skills after graduating, perhaps it was because they felt their portfolio was lacking in meaningful projects because of the abundance of rushed projects in undergrad.

So then the designer could turn to online classes and digital platforms such as skillshare and youtube, which a quick search returns results such as Logo Design with Draplin: Secrets of Shape, Type and Color by Aaron Draplin, or the latest video from popular design centered youtube channel “The Futur” ran by Chris Do, Why Most Creatives Will Fail in 2025 (Unless They Learn This) alongside their other videos such as Want YOUR Logo to Stand Out? Watch This Now!

The Logo Cult is all around us, slowly but surely it has taken over every mainstream aspect of our field.

Frankly, I don’t believe the field consigning itself to becoming a factory for the tools of corporate propaganda is really a good look. Why is it that most students aren’t allowed to flesh out or explore their personal journey as an artist until they reach the graduate level? 

Do we really fail to trust young adults with information beyond the rigid conformities of a formal education in graphic design? Why is it the first mention of “place” happens in the graduate level, rather than at the origin point of a new artist's story?

I’ve tackled the idea of whether creativity is dead before, but perhaps the invention of the word creativity itself could have marked the concept for doom. When we’ve distilled our ability and consciousness towards the arts down to skills and attributes to be harvested for personal gain, maybe the rise of the logo cult was inevitable.

Furthering the removal of freedom in education subconsciously, we are actively failing the students who enter our classrooms. As educators, it is our responsibility to show students the joys and fulfillments of the field we teach, and our role in it. However, it is also our responsibility to prepare them for the reality in which they have decided to place their careers. 

It is of utmost importance that we are transparent to them about the failures or problems with design, to show them the branching paths of the career, and to prepare them with the tools to step out into this world with confidence.

We need to correct the way that we teach from a logocultist -centered perspective, the same as we must avoid the eurocentric canons of design history. 

Logocultism is becoming a canon in and of itself.

the classroom and personal aesthetics

The Classroom

The classroom sits dry and quiet, where a usually casual atmosphere is now rigid and tense. The occasional shuffling of feet can be heard as the students fidget in place. 

The collective anxiety of the room can be felt by the professor, yet he dismisses it. The real world is harsh, the students must learn so themselves. It is my responsibility to do so. He thinks to himself in a self-asserting manner.

It is critique day in the Two Dimensional Design class.

Professor Rush, who has been teaching for 33 years now, is considered essential to the curriculum at his university. Many of his peers view him as “the one who wrangles in students,” his pedagogy revolves around tough love and harsh criticism, but inside he feels that he truly deeply cares about the students he teaches.

It is not uncommon to hear tales of happenings from his classroom, students do love to gossip after all. 

“Professor Rush was talking to Sarah about her use of the grid, and he was getting pretty livid, he started yelling pretty loud and Sarah left the classroom crying.” says Jenny at lunch to her fellow peers. 

Interestingly enough, these stories, although usually horrible sounding for the student within, are always viewed with a level of “Well, that’s just how he is.” as a resignation to this method of teaching. 

Some may have personal issues with it, but it gets results.

“I honestly feel that if I hadn’t had Rush early on, I wouldn’t have gotten my shit together as an artist” Violet says leaning back into the uncomfortable cafeteria chair, “I was the best in the art department at my high school, so he gave me a dose of reality. I would have been an egomaniac if not for him!”

Something students always felt they took away from his class was a recognition for the arts. Professor Rush was quite adamant about what was art and what was not. He enforced rigid definitions of “good” and “bad” in his classroom. A slightly off skew line or perspective would be cause for beratement in front of the rest of the class.

Traditional art was the cream of the crop in the Professor's eyes, he quite regularly talked down on digital arts and abstract forms of creation. He would often call out Graphic Design and Animation majors for even daring to take him, claiming they would be better off with different, more “sensitive” professors.

What was art and what was not? It seemed Rush had a very clear answer, and that to question him was absurd.

It is no surprise that many had ended up dropping out towards the end of the first project. Many left the class crying and never returned over the years. If the project a student created was wrong in his eyes, they would have to redo it until it was right, sometimes upwards of 10 times. The workload was strict, after all it wasn’t Professor Rush's problem that the students were taking 18 credits of classes. 

Rather than adjust his curriculum, the professor instead chose to blame the students who left for not being strong enough.

“I remember that after Sarah dropped out, Rush made fun of her for not being able to handle it. He said she’d never make it in the real world!” Said Maurice to another student sitting at the study table.

Professor Rush believed students should be grateful to even earn a B in his class, as almost nobody ever gets an A. He believed in standard grade deviation with students, enforcing the meritocracy of ability over improvement in the classroom setting.

Only so many could be graded high, and just as many must be graded low. The scales must balance. It was only natural.

It seemed that, even those who were often mistreated or bullied by Professor Rush's words, the class often found themselves viewing the class as a necessary step in their career. Rush knew his stuff, and although he was often apathetic and intolerant to the students' conditions outside of the classroom, he was just showing them a slice of the real world.

Personal Aesthetics

At this point you may have wondered why I am telling you this story, or why I have decided to create this fictional professor at all. Except that I have not created a fictional professor, but instead told the story of a real tenured professor I have encountered in my educational journey. Only with randomized names for privacy sake, of course.

“Professor Rush”, in my opinion, operates a pedagogy that is not only damaging to the students who take him, but also to the educational institution as a whole. A professor once told me that there is no such thing as bad pedagogy, but instead just differences in teaching styles, as no one teacher is the same.

I can’t help but disagree, specifically when I think of Professor Rush. The apathetic approach to the students of the classroom creates a disengaged learning environment where students are taught the wrong lessons.

Being one of the first professors ran into by an incoming student in the arts, students are met with a crushing template which breeds a rigid conformity into what they view as essential for “good work.” 

Masked as “teaching the students the real world” the professor crushes and squeezes students out of every last drop of creativity and individuality in favor of reproducing artistic machines. Those who create only to please the professor who claims unwavering authority over them.

Overloaded in work and removed of any creative choice, the students suffer through an extremely dense syllabus of black and white, lifeless work. They emerge into many branching art programs ranging from painting to graphic design already molded into the template, the rest that comes after is simply a continuation of the process. This barcode is transplanted into the DNA of each artist early.

This method of teaching also reinforces Paolo Frieres “Banking model of education,” as Professor Rush views each student as an empty or hollow shell that must be filled with information. There is no room for the student to offer their own suggestions or feedback. They must not speak out against the master of the classroom. Education is no longer a practice of freedom.

This damage is so small and yet so overwhelming, students now understand that to enter the classroom environment is to please “The Master”. To look towards the professor and create what is wished for, not what could be their own creative identity.

The classroom is now dictated by personal aesthetics.

middletonism, education, and the design field

Previously we established what “Middletonism” could possibly be and defined a manifesto based around my belief systems. When thinking about the design field; how can we incorporate all these beliefs and maintain this level of freedom both within myself as an educator, but also within those who I will be teaching and influencing in the future.

We are born free. All of us.

From the moment we are born into this world, we are free. Acting as authority, society bottles up and compartmentalizes that freedom. Humans are separated by margins, class, race, intelligence, and many other factors. Like an assembly line, we are tagged and marked, ready to move onto the next stage. 

Conditioning starts early, and never stops. In a society where freedom is neutered at birth, I wish to fight to counter that culture. Choice should no longer be taken away from the equation. 

In the lens of myself, I interpret the pursuit of freedom as the escape from the system of capital. I simply want to live while being able to pursue and explore whatever and however I want, without the worry of authoritative hierarchies, the need for money, the stress of paying for what should be rightfully ours, and the fight to live.

In the lens of the educator, I do not wish to force any ideas or concepts onto those who I am teaching. They are free to do and believe as they wish, and if they are interested in exploring further I will be a more than welcoming guide. 

In the classroom, the voices of the students are paramount. 

If they do not like a project, why not change it up? Why not let that student do something entirely different from the class if they wish? Who says we need to stay strict and firm with every person at all times.

Create empathy within each other.

There is a common myth revolving around the belief that people who think like myself are radicalized by politics and other radicalized thinkers around us. Although it is true that we learn from all things around us including propaganda, familial values, social conditions, etc. There is a simple reason for this line of thinking.

Empathy. Basic human empathy.

I did not get “radicalized” by reading leftist leaning literature, in fact I didn’t get to those books until well after. I got “radicalized” by watching bombs fall on innocent children. Is it so extreme in this modern society to feel for someone other than yourself or your family?

When I look to the east and see bombs fall, the south to see hurricanes rampage, the west to see people starving, and the north to see ice caps melt. I looked at the world and the world was crumbling, I wanted to know why. I was angry, I was sad. 

Are you not sad? Are you not angry? Do you not wish to understand why all this is happening?

In an educational setting, I think it’s very important to give a real and accurate depiction of the world these young students are going into to work, live, and possibly make change. 

Slacktivist design projects that leave no deeper meaning other than to pursue a surface level issue for a grade as a sense of validation from your “master” are not welcome in my classroom. If you are pursuing design as activism, actual research and dedication is an absolute necessity.

Reach for a world without constraints.

The cliche of the schooling system is that it teaches you that every person can be whatever they want to be. An astronaut, an engineer, an artist, whatever you wish is within your reach.

Reality, however, tends to disagree.

This illusion of choice ignores the millions of problems the world faces. For every hope and dream students may have rises more issues and constraints. Consider the challenges of an oppressed minority to become an astronaut, let alone the conditions they may have grown up in providing proper education to be allowed to get into a good college. The strings of privilege are thin and hidden, but ever still present.

Realistically, the dream of being whatever you want to be is always going to be myth as long as we live in capital. The system needs its slaves, those working minimum wage to keep the cogs of modern society moving. How ironic to spout these ideals of freedom to the children in which you fully intend to keep working forever; in debt or in grocery stores.

Break down the barriers of capital.

Bridging from the last section, we need to separate our lives from the grips of capital. In this system it is completely understandable to just wish to make a living. To hope to be well off enough that the capitalism pill is a little easier to swallow until retirement.

However that is not the only path, understanding there are other career paths outside of the traditional designer was not something I had the privilege of learning until I got to masters school, so I spent my time learning traditional logo design and publication with the intention of working for a boss or corporation. 

Writing, Art, Activism and all felt infinitely far away.

For students I want to make sure this is understood as an option early. That you can be more than a corporate shoe–shiner with your career. That there are educators, critical thinkers, writers, and more. Students should be taught to be prepared for corporate work (It would be cruel to not teach that and throw them into the field), but also given the opportunity of expanding their personal work and interests.

We must respect the time and freedom of the students. We must recognize that there are issues outside of the classroom that they could be facing. We must recognize that they may be taking 6 other classes and juggling a job out of necessity. We must change accordingly to each student's needs, not push their needs into a mold of our making.

Something not common in the undergraduate space and sometimes lost even on the master level.

Never stop learning; Nobody does.

A common misconception that seems to be present all too often is the idea that the teacher in the classroom is a master, here to impart their knowledge upon the student as a one way relationship. Paolo Friere called this “The Banking Model of Education.”

My major problem with this model is the idea that the teacher as master in this situation believes they can not be wrong, thus creating an environment where students are creating work in pursuit of the personal aesthetics and beliefs of the master. This cuts off creativity in favor of fast reproduction and the chasing of validation.

An educator never stops learning. They are only human as well. They are not the leading authority on the field, they simply spent their time learning to get where they are now. The problem of ego steps in, experience, accomplishment, and age becomes a weapon of infantilization.

This removal of this hierarchy will create issues of course, any change will. However, a classroom without hierarchy may find a greater sense of purpose and education. 

The mental state of students is as important as their careers, and by showing them that we are also vulnerable and cognizant of these problems, we may be able to begin making the world a little better.

Respect and use all forms of media.

Growing up in the age of technology, I recognize that some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned have come from within the digital world. Music, Games, Art, Literature, Manga, Anime, Movies, etc. There is intention and motive behind all pieces created by the hands of humans.

Academia seems to discredit many of these options as sources, seeking only refuge in its traditional means of education through classic literature and the occasional film. Although it’s gotten a lot better now, there’s still possibly a level of the student being uncomfortable with the idea of converting these topics due to a past experience with it.

Every person experiences media differently, some may become extremely deeply immersed in it and start to analyze every part. Even if we fail to understand or lack context, is it right to invalidate their experiences? 

Some people learn better in control of a character rather than reading about them on a page, and that’s a perfectly valid form of learning.

Write to change perspectives.

I was not born to hold a gun. Nor was I born to kill another being. My idea of revolution is a little different, instead I write to bring forth new perspectives and foresights into the world that may help to slowly create change in our field and outside of it.

A lot of the discourse in modern society comes from a lack of understanding. It takes a lot to step into the shoes of another person and see things from their point of view. Once you add the spices of your personal beliefs, a wall is created between you and the other side.

This is not to say that some are beyond mutual understanding. There are times in life where beliefs had to be fought against, such as the rise of fascism in the 1940s. The wave of fascism feels as if it is rising again, and it is truly terrifying.

If I can use my writing and unique perspectives to help change the views of even one reader, then I have accomplished something worth fighting for.

Aim to create personal revolutions.

I want my readers, students, community, friends, and family to walk away with these new perspectives and outlooks on life, and then use that to attempt to the people in their life in a similarly meaningful way. I call these personal revolutions.

In the classroom, these revolutions can come in the form of new ideas and furthering a collaborative effort towards a new, more healthy classroom environment mixing all of the ideas from before. Fostering growth and community among those who I am advising towards their futures. Perhaps change will happen, perhaps something will come out of it all.

Realize that this is not a selfish act.

There exists a feeling of selfishness, or indulgence within the idea of believing both my work and my teaching can have such an impact. Or that I am not just rambling to myself, bitter about the world and hoping desperately for change.

In these moments, I have to let go of these thoughts and remind myself that I am here.

That it is not selfish to act out of self interest when it is not at the expense of another. 

It’s okay to believe in myself and my ability. 

It’s okay to be upset at the systems around me.

It’s okay to talk about subjects beyond the design field. 

It’s okay to make mistakes, to not be perfect.

It’s okay to wish to…

Be Free.

That is the Middleton manifesto. or at least a first draft of it? To claim to ever be finished would be contradictory to the lessons I teach myself. Slowly my point will grow sharper, my words imbued with more direct intention. I am always learning, and I am always attempting to improve.

This is what it means for me to pursue freedom.

what is middletonism?

Well, that’s a question, isn’t it?

In the world of creation, individual beliefs are often snuffed out for the sake of what we would call smart choices. As a kid, we may have dreamed of becoming an astronaut, a zookeeper, or a pirate. Then, society then brings down the cookie cutter, molding you while you are soft and malleable dough. We send our kids off to school to carve the meanings of authority and obedience into their very flesh and bone, snipping their wings before they are ever able to begin to learn to fly.

In the meanwhile, images of war, money, power, and government flood the history books in our classes from a young age. The single-sided interpretations of the ideas of freedom, righteousness, exceptionalism, and individualism are placed before you and read verbatim as the rule of law. No different from the rule of a God. The divine rights of the government you exist under have carefully crafted these conditions to create the perfect environment for the stripping of autonomy and voice.

To say this sounds like the start of a corny dystopian teen novel is not an exaggeration, and yet the dystopia becomes hauntingly real as we look to the news and media, seeing generations of a well researched and oiled propaganda machines turn out hateful rhetoric repeated day after day.

This is how I viewed the world I grew up in.

I felt as if I was being suffocated.

However, in reality, I was young and incapable of realizing these conditions at the time. The “me” of that time was simply angry and confused with the world, with all the rules, with authority. I didn’t know how to channel anything I was feeling, and I never felt like an artist at the time. 

Nobody around me seemed to share the same level of enthusiasm for media that I did, so I spent the majority of my time on a computer or reading books. I would watch shows, spend time talking to people from across the globe in online communities, read fiction about dystopian futures, and play games that introduced new concepts or ideas to me.

To many in my family, this looked like an addiction to the new digital tools that came with the start of a new millennium. To me, it was classic escapism. I felt as if nothing else could stimulate me, and nobody around me was willing to talk about any art, literature, or concepts the same way I would obsess over them. I could spend hours thinking about some crazy and fun idea such as Simulation Theory, nobody wanted to match that energy. 

Instead, the “adults” at the time just complained; about work, about money, about dreams that never came to fruition. At the time, I remember wondering why it seemed to me that everyone just hated being alive. Nowadays I realize that this was definitely a condition of the area I grew up in, the Appalachians are no stranger to many dying small towns like mine. That area feels like darkness, my heart feels heavy every time I go back. My girlfriend often asks me if I’m happy to be home when we visit, how do I answer that?

Like clockwork in a factory, the schooling system eventually breaks down the hopes and dreams of the children and repackages them into convenient little things called “Jobs.” Somehow the authority manages to re-appropriate these dreams and ambitions into the framework of capital. The starry-eyed children look on in wonder as the man in a gray suit explains that they will wake up at 8am every morning, drive their fancy new car to an office, do something meaningful for 9 hours a day, and then go home to a beautiful nuclear family. They cheer gleefully as he tells them that this is how it will be until the day they get to retire, having done their best to contribute to our wonderful society!

I personally never really had any real passion for work in the capitalist sense. I didn’t even have a plan for what to do after high school. In my head, I just wanted to keep consuming media, I wanted to keep experiencing new things. I wanted to be free. That’s why when my graduation came around, I hurriedly selected a trade school to study computer science. My reasoning for this at the time was “well, I kinda like computers, so sure.”

I just never understood the idea of it, to this day I guess I still can’t understand the reasoning for someone to enjoy doing a job such as marketing or analytics. Other than to simply make a living, it feels wrong to me to be happy spending 60-70% of your life doing what is essentially chores. My own personal ideas of life and freedom simply don’t work like that. I’ll never be happy working 8 hours a day on something that in the end means nothing to me, all for just enough money to pay rent and sometimes feel comfortable enough to “splurge.”

By that vein, I think that any form of me attempting to find work in my early stages was just an attempt at social masking. 

I was actively suppressing my want to be free from this system, I hadn’t had the time or space to develop any thoughts on why I felt that way. I can only guess years of being told that I was lazy, unmotivated, or immature for this way of thinking caused me to want to try to blend in, I had no idea where my future was headed at that moment.

This masking is something that I still feel today. My peers exclaim proudly their work-ethic, wearing 60-hour plus work weeks on their sleeves like trophies. (Unfortunately an all too common thing within the field of Design.) Am I supposed to join them in their glee for what is essentially being a slave to capital? Put frankly, I don’t care about your side hustle. I perceive no value in your 3 successful businesses. Instead, I feel sadness, a level of understanding of how much time you are wasting for nothing. Time that could be spent with your family. Time that could be spent for yourself. 

It is a sad thing to wake up one day, older and brittle, and realize how much time you will never get back.

This is of course different from those who are working those many jobs and side hustles as a matter of necessity. Those who are affected by the unfairness and brutality of a system designed for their failure. Power to those affected in that way, for they have no other choice. To live within the comfort and means for freedom and actively sacrifice it is an entirely different problem, one that is unique to a system that convinces you that you are a tool for commodification and capital.

When my trade school decided to close (an entire story in itself and product of late-stage capitalism), I spent a year in limbo wondering where my life was going. This was probably one of the lowest times of my life, mental health was at an all time low. This was not only due to my newly discovered hatred for the computer science and tech world, and specifically programming; but also due to my returning to the “region of darkness” I grew up in. Sadness, Hatred, and Complacency hung in the air like fog. I could feel it bearing down on me. I could feel myself slowly turning into it.

I’ve always been somebody who was creative in many ways, but that skillset never really showed itself in any form of “real work”. Instead, I would be that person in my friend group who was really good at building intricate things in games like Minecraft, decorating rooms in The Sims, making dumb memes in pirated versions of the Adobe Software’s, making short videos, or writing essays on random topics or ideas. Truthfully, and hopefully not in a braggadocious sense, I think all of these things came so naturally to me without even trying that I never gave it much thought. Creativity was so normal to me that I was confused by people who had lived without it. 

Maybe I still am somehow.

Having performed terribly in high school, and never finishing my trade school, I felt maybe my path with education was over. I contemplated a lot of things, I went over ideas that would have most likely led my life on a completely different path. I considered being part of the Peace Corps, Traveling and building houses in countries across the world. I considered teaching English in Japan through the JET program. I considered couch surfing and working for food and keep in random countries. In reality, I just wanted out of my current situation. I wanted to see the world, of course, but again I just wanted to be free.

I decided to randomly look around at colleges one day, and I slightly remember the name of Edinboro being mentioned from a guidance counselor trying to lead me towards Game Design. Although I have always been creative, I was deathly afraid of actually doing anything creative as work. I chose to do programming because I was worried about whether I could ever even succeed at anything like game design with no skills. 

I had many feelings related to imposter syndrome. How could I become an artist when I can’t even draw? Many nights I would lie awake, trying to fall asleep. My head repeated over and over “What are you afraid of?”, “Do you want to continue working at a gas station all your life?” and many more questions like that. I remembered my Graphic Design classes in high school, how I loved working with softwares to create cool effects. Maybe that could be an option. Designers need to know how to draw too. I could never do that. 

After weeks of this torment, time was ticking. I needed to apply. The acceptance letter came in the mail in july. One month before the semester starts. I had never stepped foot on campus. I had no idea what the classes were like. I felt a knot of dread inside me. Heading into an art school without ever even owning a sketchbook, I started back onto the path of education.

My first experience with college, going to that trade school, went terribly wrong. It felt like prison, we were forced to wear business clothes, had seven classes a day, a short 30 minute lunch break with no built in school food option, and a complete mountain of homework each day. It felt as if that school experience was no different than that of my high school.

This time, it was way more liberating. Classes respected your time and autonomy (to a degree), I felt as if I had some sort of freedom in this system. I could choose to learn what I wanted rather than being forced into boxes, and the class structures allowed for thought and ideas to fester inside of me. In those four years, I started to develop a true sense of personal beliefs and self for the first time.

I started to feel like I was developing real passion for a field of study. Design was working wonderfully for me, for the first time I felt I enjoyed the idea of working on something. To be honest though, looking back, maybe that was the mask trying to take me over. Eventually, I started to realize the difference between myself and the other designers too.

I was passionate about the field of design similar to how I am passionate about a game, or about keyboards. What I mean by that is that I love talking about design. Design concepts, design theory, design history, etc. When it comes down to the act of making, especially in the sense of the designer as a tool to be utilized by a company, a commodity, I didn’t even remotely care. 
There is a fundamental difference between those who make for the sake of making and those who make out of necessity.

I viewed the role of the commodified “Graphic Designer” as a necessity. I had no passion or care for annual reports, logos, and brand identities. 

I was masking by making those projects and pretending I cared, even if I do feel that I made great work. I did so simply because that was the environment around me, and everyone was attempting to convince me to mold to that system. In this field, there is a falsified meritocratic hierarchy present within the fabric of our work. The “highly competitive” notion that we must view each other as lesser or greater than one another. By the time I graduated, I felt a very conflicted wave of emotions.

I tried experimenting with how to be a graphic designer and retain my own freedom. No matter the test, I arrived at the conclusion that I simply couldn’t. No matter what, I needed to paint myself with advertisements, give myself catchy and trendy labels to fit in, and worry about useless things like social media presence and analytics that consumed my personal time. I needed to scratch commodification into my being, and become a tool to be used by another. I hated the feeling. I hated clients. Freelance wasn’t going to work either.

When I brought up these qualms with the industry, I was met with the same usual resistance that others spouted with preconceived notions about the field. Nobody seemed to understand what a Graphic Designer could be without commodity, without capital, let alone believe that we can exist without that. It seemed that I was completely isolated from them in how I viewed the field.

This also was reinforced by watching those who didn’t fit the mold of what a “meritocratically good modern designer” is get pushed away or criticized. If you didn’t follow rules exactly according to the needs and wants of the professors, teaching within the confines of a postmodern and bauhaus europeanized style of education, then you were not a good designer. Discussions about concepts, ideologies, beliefs, etc. were thrown out in favor of arguments about color, kerning, line weight, and other subjective elements that contributed only to a controlled and limited aesthetic. Then you wonder why we leave undergrad with carbon copy portfolios.

It’s so frustrating to see unnecessary limitations bear their teeth against the young and naive. Without even having a say, students are swept up into a world of rights and wrongs, told that this is the correct way to use a grid, this is the correct way to format type, this is the correct… etc. Autonomy is taken away in a flash as the student becomes a machine capable of regurgitating these beliefs, playing tug-o-war, the student sends in work they believe the professor will like, in hopes of receiving a juicy letter grade reward. If the grade comes back low, they simply dump their current aesthetic out the window and adopt a new, shinier, polished approach according to the teacher's personal subjective arguments.

It felt different at first, but I realized then that the undergrad experience was still no different than that of the high school classroom.

We are teaching design propaganda, and nobody is immune to it.

I’ve heard countless arguments on when a student is capable of taking on “higher levels” of education. Many a professor will argue that you need to teach foundational skills and ideas to be able to have students break that mold. To that end I agree. Yet in the modern academic world of design, I find that we never stop teaching these “foundational skills” and instead focus our entire undergraduate degrees dedicated to it. 

There's no time for theory, for critical thinking, for conceptual understanding on why a decision is made. Just the rights and wrongs that allow a student to go out into the world of design and make for a corporation for the rest of their lives. What about other careers in design, what about the writers, the critics, the educators, and those who design for themselves? Why do we not mention these are even options available to our students?

I’m not trying to blame the current professors of modern academia, by many metrics they are working within their means and could easily even agree with my positions. What I’m aiming my barrel at is not the people operating within the system itself, as the late thinker Michael Jamal Brooks says “Be kind to individuals, be ruthless to systems.” I also don’t believe that I’m above anybody here in any way, there is no “better”, only beautiful differences in ourselves.

Many of these thoughts came in the form of revelations upon arriving at VCFA. For the first time in my life it feels like being able to speak without constriction, being able to practice and study what I truly find interesting, without being dragged down by attempting to turn everything into some design project with surface level messaging.

When I first arrived at VCFA I was very much a victim of the machine of undergrad that I have described. I felt as if my wings had been clipped and that flight would never be attainable even after leaving the birdcage. I had no idea what I wanted or how to work for myself. I came into VCFA with the same mask I developed for Edinboro, touting my accomplishments and work like a peacock showing its feathers, attempting to establish a place in a ruthless meritocracy.

To my surprise, that hierarchy vanished in seconds, as the diverse group of people, both those that had accomplished way more than I had and those that hadn’t, embraced me with open arms. For the first time in my life, I no longer felt isolated, I felt as if I could talk about anything and get a thoughtful answer. I felt free.

But that small freedom has given me the ability to start the journey to becoming able to identify and locate freedom in my entire life. I feel as if I am closer and closer to understanding what I want to do with my life. I understand fully that I cannot live a life in this system without any compromises, and that I must navigate this world in an attempt to control what level of freedom I may be able to have.

The reason I have taken you on this journey is because I feel it is so important in establishing an answer to the question “What is Middletonism?” (and also because I seem to be incapable of telling a story or explaining something without 10 pages.) Having had the time and space to really think about this question, and being able to reflect upon my individual beliefs, I think I might have the beginning of an answer.

The lived and learned experiences we have throughout our lives are what give us our sense of self, our beliefs, and our mindsets. I have laid out a short summary of my education intertwined with commentary about why I’ve always been frustrated with these systems.

Clearly, from a young age I’ve hated restriction, life felt as if I was trapped in a birdcage. Authority was not used out of a necessity and instead used to oppress. I’ve spent my life searching for an answer in life, frustrated by the woes of a system that gives so little thought to the people within. As I gained more thought and knowledge through both self and formal education, I became capable of sharpening and pointing my blade towards what I now believe to be the “mechanisms” behind the problems that lie in front of me.

Maybe when I break down all barriers, simplify it to its core, “Middletonism” is the pursuit of freedom. 

And how does that apply to my career and my path? Teaching as a career for me is a want to free the students in academia and allow them to think without societal restraints like capital and hierarchy, allow them to think about what they want.

I was never built to hold a gun and burn down governments, instead, I can create my own small revolutions in the classroom.

On top of that, the want to teach is also a selfish want. Teaching feels to me as if it is the one world in the field of design that I am let free from making only for others. Free from the chains of capital that drag you down to hell. Instead, it is a position of nurturing others, attempting to help them navigate the cruel and unforgiving system they are presented with. Maybe I’m romanticizing the idea of teaching too much in writing. I know that it will be filled with hardships and compromises as well, and I will hopefully be prepared for that.

This same connection appears in my writing, where I feel most comfortable nowadays. I’ve always had a unique trait of being critical of anything I consume, which has been such a blessing but also a terrible curse. I can’t sit down and watch a show without wanting to comment on something I think could have been improved, or harping on what elements of the show were done well. It drives people around me nuts sometimes.

That’s exactly what I do when I begin to write. When I write a piece about freedom, or capital, or design, or work life balance I am really just venting about the weights in the world that I feel are weighing down on me most. That’s why I might as well use my ability to be critical of anything to tell a story of my unique perspective on it.

If I can bring forward an idea to someone who hasn’t gotten exposed to it yet and allow them to think a little differently, even just one person, I’ll be happy with that.

The Middleton Manifesto:

1. We are born free. All of us.

2. Create empathy within each other.

3. Reach for a world without constraints.

4. Break down the barriers of capital.

5. Never stop learning; Nobody does.

6. Respect and use all forms of media.

7. Write to change perspectives.

8. Aim to create personal revolutions.

9. Realize that this is not a selfish act.

10. Be Free

stuff is messed up; empathy and pedagogy

As we briefly mentioned in the conclusion to Anarchist Pedagogies, I wanted to talk about empathy and pedagogy in the class room setting. With the current state of the world, students are facing an unprecedented amount of pressures coming from the shortcomings and failures of previous generations and societies.

The pressure is ever more monumental now, as students in America deal not only with a world that more often than not fails to recognize and empathize with their ideas and thoughts, shunning them as too young to understand anything;

what’s going on with their bodies,

what’s going on with their governments,

what’s going on with the world,

what’s going on with the environment.

As the times have become more divisive than ever, the students of this generation are left picking up the pieces.

This is more than evident when you look at the current protests and encampments set up by the students at UCLA, Yale, and Columbia University, as well as many other campuses across the world. Where tensions have grown and state violence has entered protests, fascist forces crack down on the ideals our nation previously purveyed such as free speech, right to protest, and right to demonstration. News media twists the narrative to attack the young activists as racist, hateful anarchists. Both counter-protesters and government military police attempt to beat the young and bright futures into submission.

This is not new. What we’re seeing here is not the first time we’ve seen protest, as our country has a long history with organized demonstration. We have witnessed many changes over the course of history, and it’s not much of a stretch to say that throughout those times, the young generation and student movements have historically often found themselves on the side we now view as correct.

This is no different with Gaza.

Palestinians are currently suffering a genocidal apartheid regime by the hands of the Israeli military state, of course through the investment and funding provided by American taxpayers and private institutions. The US geopolitical interests side with Israel and support this genocide due to our relationship with Israel being that of an American puppet. Without Israel, the US believes it would need an Israel within the Middle East, America continues to fund them to keep a diplomatic pressure and presence within the region.

The issues going on with Palestine is essentially the litmus test, it is the fundamental baseline for empathy and understanding, a mandate of humanity. The lens of history points sharply at this moment, in the words of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

So in a moment such as this, how and what do you do to teach and prepare the students in this position? How do you accommodate the many different students mental states, personal struggles, and learning styles while simultaneously making forward progress in the classroom?

Mixed with the 2000s era imagery and video editing, the offspring speak to the struggle of the people growing up in modern day America in their song “The Kids Aren’t Alright”, especially coming from the abject poverty and hostile environments on the developing mind. This particularly speaks to me, as this is no different from my hometown and the downfall of the post-industrial Appalachian region, many of the friends I had and grown up with in high school suffered the same fates and circumstances as those within the song by The Offspring:

“When we were young, the future was so bright
The old neighborhood was so alive
And every kid on the whole damn street
Was gonna make it big and not be beat

Now the neighborhood’s cracked and torn
The kids are grown up, but their lives are worn
How can one little street swallow so many lives?

Jamie had a chance, well, she really did
Instead she dropped out and had a couple of kids
Mark still lives at home ‘cause he’s got no job
He just plays guitar and smokes a lot of pot

Jay committed suicide
Brandon OD’d and died
What the hell is going on?
The cruelest dream, reality

Chances thrown
Nothing’s free
Longing for, used to be
Still it’s hard, hard to see
Fragile lives
Shattered dreams.”

— The Offspring, The Kid’s Aren’t Alright (1998)

For people that come from this region, getting away and pursuing higher education, or escaping the abject poverty and conditions of the area alone is an accomplishment when there are little to no support systems to rehabilitate the crushing effects of those born into families affected by drugs, abuse, and neglect. The cycle consumes the next generation, conditions them in a culture unwilling to change, leaving the area stuck in the past.

When I travel back into this past, I feel as if an outsider looking in, a mixed and complicated layer of feelings falls over me. This is part of my story, which is of course only a drop in the bucket of the many various struggles and conditions experienced across America as a whole. I can’t bring this up in good conscience without recognizing my own privileges even within this region, as I have had more safety nets available to me than most in the area. I cannot even begin to imagine the struggles and increased difficulty introduced when we implement factors such as marginalization and oppression.

All this creates an even more prevalent need for understanding and mutual recognition within the classroom. As the protests rev up across the states, professors find themselves in the middle of a conflict that not only affects their classroom enviroment, but their personal lives as well. Support(or lack of support) for the situation could create a target on your back, be it from the student body of protestors or the administration.

Yet still we see many professors out on the lawns within the encampments, putting their bodies and livelihoods on the line for the sake of their students as well as their cause. On top of these, we’ve seen professors dedicated to continuing the act of learning and education within this struggle, holding open classrooms in the encampment and welcoming even other students to join. Easily it can be understood that to be a professor in this time provides an invaluable learning opportunity to students on what it means to be an activist and how to operate within that environment.

Students are in constant crises.

The mental health of students has never been at an all time low such as now, in fact we’ve seen unprecedented rises in stress, anxiety, and depression within the student base. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Poor Mental Health and How it Impacts Adolescent Well Being, we’ve seen more than 4 in 10 (42%) students that felt persistently sad or hopeless and nearly one-third (29%) experienced poor mental health. This includes more than 1 in 5 (22%) students seriously considering attempting suicide, and 1 in 10(10%) going through with their attempts. (CDC, Youth Risk Surveillance Data Summary, 2011-2021)

Because of this, students are spending signifigantly less time on their studies and instead dealing with a plethora of world problems weighing them down. Is it the responsibility of the classroom facilitator within this environment to foster a relationship built around understanding these mental and and emotional needs, and adjusting accordingly?

I believe this is essential in the modern style of teaching. Approaches such as ungrading provide more breathing room in the classroom, emphasizing personal growth in a pass/ fail system. On top of this, the role of the teacher(in my eyes) is much better suited as a guiding post, aiding in the personal growth of each individual and providing guidance to each according to their individual need in the classroom.

When noticing other approaches to professorship, often I hear that becoming “too close” to your students and not “maintaining boundaries” can lead to a lack of respect and acknowledgement in a class setting. I find myself heavily disagreeing with this, as I view the classroom as a collaboration between the “student” and the “teacher” rather than a strict hierarchy of the “expert” who’s authority within that classroom is absolute.

The problem with this style of education is that not every student within the classroom is capable of learning at the same pace, and some may not even be interested in learning the same style or approach to the topic. How do you engage a student within work they don’t enjoy or want to pursue, when there are other options in the same career field that could be applied in this situation?

Is it not better to engage the classroom as a community, in the pursuit of nurturing and learning together, as well as gaining mutual ground in the understanding of the chosen field in which we all dedicate our education to?

“Any gardener who should attempt to raise healthy, beautiful, and fruitful plants by outraging all those plants’ instinctive wants and searchings, would meet as their reward - sickly plants, ugly plants, sterile plants, dead plants.

The gardener will not do it; they will watch very carefully to see whether the plants like much sunlight, or considerable shade, whether they thrive on much water or get drowned in it... the plant will indicate itself to the gardener when he is doing the right thing...

If the gardener finds the plant revolts against these expirements, the gardener will desist at once, and try something else; if the gardener finds it thrives, the gardener will emphasize the initial treatment so long as it becomes beneficial.

But what the gardener will surely not do, will be to prepare a certain area of the ground all just alike, with equal chances of sun and moisture in every part, and then plant everything together without discrimination - might close together! - saying beforehand,

“If plants don’t want to thrive on this, they ought to want to; and if they are stubborn about it, they must be made to.””

— Voltairine De Cleyre, ibid., p.255

Closing Thoughts

So, when we’ve managed to deconstruct the authority and hierarchy inherent in the current educational system, what are we left with? As we’ve learned to rely on hierarchy and authority, we’ve also created an environment that infantilizes the youth in the school system. We view students as undeveloped and unprepared to tackle the real world problems and complicated topics of theory.

Yet I believe this perspective is misguided, especially when looking at the context of the modern movements. The students in the recent protests, for example, are by any and all means extremely intelligent both in their approach and setup of the encampments. They are building incredibly well engineered barricade and feeding systems, and ensuring a strong message and declaration of the movement carries through the noise in the mass media.

They carefully pick and choose who speaks to reporters, strategically planning their action and level of protest to stay within non-violent means and avoid negative media coverage. (which comes either way in the end, however remaining true to their goals and approach avoids losing the support of the general population.) What I find to be true instead is not a narrative based on a students readiness for complex topics and academic critical thinking based upon their age and experience; but instead one of the structures of the education system actively stunting this thinking in the attempt to push a more centralized and picked-through education.

The lack of autonomy in the modern students and generation is based around an approach that emphasized authorities values and a demand for respect. There is no trust placed in the hands of the student in this case, introducing grading systems and other forms of assignment to provide a “quota” and ensure the student is staying educated.

Ivan Ilych, a pronounced Austrian philosopher, created a pedagogical philosophy known as “Deschooling” or “Unschooling,” which is commonly associated with homeschooling and phasing a child out of the government educational system. The philosophy revolves around increased levels of trust and emotional investment in each individual student, allowing them to form their own self-autonomy. The relationship and hierarchy has always been seen as authoritarian, but through analysis and application of anarchist pedagogy as well as Deschooling philosophy, might it be possible to foster a more communicative relationship with the students we encounter within our careers, leaving a caring mark on them like we would on our own children?

Matthew Hern in a 1998 published book “Deschooling Our Lives” says this about the process of education;

“...(deschooling) is about relationships, and is the antithesis of professionalism. Genuine relationships are exactly what teachers are looking to avoid. It is what they call “unprofessional.” But if adults are willing to take the time to get to know the kids they are around really well, to spend large amounts of time with their children, to listen carefully to the needs and wants, and to understand what they are capable of, then trust can’t be far behind.”

— Matt Hern, Deschooling Our Lives, 1998

In cases such as the anarchist free school Paideia in Spain, this leads to self-governing and autonomous children aged from 5 to 16 capable of making choices for themselves.

The children within the school clean, create the food menus, order and cook the meals every day, participate in workshops of educational topics that are voted on in “asambleas” (assemblies called by the students), and when they leave and enter the government education system (since the school is not recognized as a real education, the students must leave at 16 or 17 and spend the last year in public school, taking a test to prove profeciency) they often score well over average within the schooling system.

This is of course, with little to absolutely no “adult” intervention, instead the teachers in this case help guide students who are struggling within the system and prepare workshop plans. This isn’t to say that there will never be a bump in the road when adapting to and approaching this alternative system of education, let alone the discussion on how we even advocate for the transition to this system.

Where are the limits of what I can do while working in the state education system on the university level?

What actions can I take to begin fostering this environment with my would be future students?

These are questions I look forward to searching for the answers for as I dive more into my own pedagogical process.

That being said, I truly believe that the implementation of strategies can lead to a better and brighter future, where students actively participate in academia and are taken seriously. Alternatives to the educational system seem to be rising in popularity as students become more conscientious of the worlds issues and the struggles of the modern working class within a government such as America.

Once we realize just how badly stuff is messed up, we can begin to tackle the problems and create a better world. For now, the importance is making sure that todays students can make it to that world in one piece; that they are not crushed educationally, mentally, and physically along the way.