Welcome to slantwise

Answers are easy. Learning takes effort.

Colleen Ferguson · Executive Director · 17 October 2025

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — 
Success in Circuit lies 
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise 
As Lightning to the Children eased 
With explanation kind 
The Truth must dazzle gradually 
Or every man be blind —
                Emily Dickinson

The name slantwise carries two meanings that matter to me.

First, it comes from the belief that truth is not something handed to us clean and whole. Understanding is constructed, not delivered, and it often arrives indirectly. The best thinking requires angles, pauses, revision, and reflection. It takes time. It takes struggle. It takes patience with complexity.

Second, slantwise is a stance, a deliberate way of resisting the speed and flattening of thought that now surrounds us—especially with the rise of artificial intelligence. AI can generate answers instantly. But answers are not insight. Output is not understanding. Thinking is not a task to be automated. To protect the quality of our learning, we need to build habits of metacognition, ethical inquiry, reflection, and intellectual honesty. We have to build friction. That takes intention. That takes purpose.

What this space is

This newsletter is a place to explore:

How we learn—and how we might deepen learning with AI
How AI is reshaping learning and what we must protect along the way
How writing clarifies thought and deepens understanding
What reflection and metacognition look like in real learning
How to preserve agency, curiosity, and meaning in a technological world

I’m not interested in predicting the future of AI or endorsing particular tools. I’m interested in wisdom—in understanding what it means to stay fully human while learning, teaching, leading, and creating in a world of machines.

If you read this newsletter, expect ideas explored honestly, arguments developed carefully, and complexity treated with respect. Sometimes I’ll offer frameworks. Sometimes I’ll share stories. Sometimes I’ll wrestle with unfinished thinking. Always, I’ll try to move deliberatively enough to think well.

Made with AI · the prompt
ChatGPT: “A young Victorian woman who is looking sideways hiding a magnifying glass behind her back.”

About me

I am an educator and writer who has spent my career working with young people and teachers to build meaningful learning—learning that doesn’t just transmit information, but shapes character, agency, and thought. My work lives at the intersection of pedagogy, ethics, writing, and emerging technology. I speak often with students and teachers about how to use AI as a tool for thinking rather than a shortcut around it.

I believe in intellectual courage. I believe curiosity is a skill. I believe writing is a form of thinking. And I believe learning is a lifelong practice—something we craft with intention.

What I do

Write about AI, learning, writing, ethics, and reflection
Develop practical approaches to thoughtful, learning-centered AI use
Teach and mentor students and educators
Explore how we can think—not faster, but better

If any of that resonates, I hope you’ll subscribe. I don’t have final answers, but I have good questions—and I’d like to explore them slantwise with you.