About Six, Ed.D., M.A.

Six is a devious storyteller and an inspired learner who’s usually grumpy and grinning at the same time. From a decade teaching English, coaching basketball, and directing Kairos retreats at an all-boys Jesuit high school, Ryan developed a deep appreciation for the Ignatian approach to learning through experience, reflection, and action.

His doctoral research explored how our relationship to being curious shapes and limits our learning, leading him to theorize that there are six ways humans connect to curiosity—observing, hunting, manipulating, storytelling, playing, and coddiwompling—and that we’re typically encouraged to connect to only three. As a result, many have lost the link between learning (iterating) and nourishing the human spirit.

On the basketball court, Six translated the philosophy of iterative practice into two consecutive state championships, proving that when teams anchor their work to possibility and probability, they not only fall deeper in love with the game but inevitably taste the sweetness of surpassing the given (nerd speak for 'winning').

Six thrives in intimate learning environments where artists and learners can ask meaningful questions and iterate into their own exploration—he calls this “coddiwompling”—setting out purposefully toward unclear destinations—and finds that this approach often leads to meaningful discoveries, unfoldings, and creative endeavors.