The 'back to school' dream, whether you've graduated days or decades ago
Not talking about the good back to school dream where you relive the fun old days with your buddies. Nope. In this particular case, you just received a phone call from an old teacher. A teacher from our old college or even high school. Some diploma, certificate, or degree you once earned, and no matter how successful your career may be? Turns out that it is no longer valid. They discovered you never turned in one important essay, one failed test. Now, you must go back to school before you can continue your life.
Sound familiar? It very well might. This notorious recurring dream haunts many people, whether they graduated last year or fifty years ago. When I once shared this dream with others, the irony was striking—one of my former teachers confessed to experiencing the same recurring ‘back to school’ dream! In its worst form, you’re sent all the way back to your first year, forced to sit among teenagers as the only adult in the classroom. The embarrassment is real. But why do so many of us suffer from this dream?
Why do we dream?
One theory suggests that dreams help us process accumulated experiences. According to this idea, dreaming allows us to organize our thoughts and past experiences, giving them structure. A recurring dream, then, might indicate that something unresolved continues to occupy our minds—consciously or subconsciously.
Education: the difference between pressure and motivation
There is nothing wrong with striving for success in education, nor with wanting the same for your children. However, when a large number of people report experiencing this specific nightmare, it raises questions. It may be that many students feel more pressure than motivation to perform. Since formal education dominates the first two decades of our lives, it’s unsurprising that the stress associated with it lingers for years, even decades. Enter the ‘back to school’ dream.
Pressure relies on stress and fear to drive performance. This school-based nightmare—where an old essay still needs to be completed—suggests that assignments and deadlines may have felt more like looming threats than learning opportunities. If we want students to thrive, we might benefit from shifting towards motivation-driven education. Through motivational conversations, we can help students see weaknesses as opportunities. By understanding why they want to improve—not just because it is required—they gain a sense of purpose beyond external demands.
Beyond that, education is often framed in a hierarchy: we talk about “failing” terms or tests, “higher” and “lower” forms of education, and success being measured in rigid standards. But what if, instead, we emphasized which form of education best suits each individual? What if we prioritized learning environments that make the best use of a person’s natural strengths?
Something to consider
Motivational education requires more time and thought. Currently, much of the Western world faces a shortage of teachers, making it even harder to implement this approach. However, motivation doesn’t have to be limited to schools—parents can also make a difference in fostering a love of learning rather than a fear of failure.
And if we could motivate each other rather than pressure each other, what might the world look like then?
Who knows? Perhaps we would dream of dancing toward a happy rainbow a bit more often.
And with each step, a flower in the shape of an old essay would bloom from the earth.