We partner with individuals, classrooms, schools, and organizations to foster new conversations and a new vision for schooling at the local and national levels.
Here we share the stories from students, educators, parents, leaders, and community members across the country. Each story is an expression of an individual's hopes, fears, joys, and aspirations. Each story is unique and powerful on its own. Together they are the collective dreams of a nation.
We hope you will enjoy browsing and sharing your thoughts. You can search for your state, or people you know by using the search bar. Intrigued, Inspired?! Sign up to be a Catalyst!
“Often when I visit classrooms, I ask the kids, "What are you learning about? How are you going to know when you know it?" And then I ask them, "*Why* are you learning about it?"
Too much of the time the "why" is because some adult told them to.
Even in like really creative classrooms. And I wonder about that. What kind of learner does that lead kids to become?”
Read MoreThe rules that have been created as a result of this system stifle innovation and we within education perpetuate it because we have a hard time seeing an alternate reality...
We have to give the people who are in education the opportunity to innovate to solve those problems, and to use data to ensure that they're solving them well.
Read MoreIf you are a child who was born into poverty in this country, the likelihood that you will be able to escape poverty is not high. And that goes against every ideal that we have as a country, and it makes me mad - it is the fire in my belly that just pisses me off every day, that we have children who have so much potential and so much to offer the world, and they are not able to live up to that potential because they're not able to attend high-quality schools.
"Schools have a big role in preparing students to embrace change and differences, to have an open mind, and also build a love of learning without feeling insecure - low self-esteem for learning what they want to learn, for experiencing or exploring what they want to explore."
Read More"Going back to the idea of tailoring education: different people have different motivations. There’s no one-size-fits-all education method that maximize every person’s potential. Thats why its important for administrators to design school towards this goal and it's important for teachers to recognize such differences and tailor their curriculum."
Read More"For upcoming freshmen, or students in general, not to worry too much about your grades. Try your best to get the best grade you can and do all your homework, but at the end of the day if you get like a B, it’s not the end of the world. Don’t get stressed out too much because you only go to high school for 4 years. You don’t have a lot of time."
Read More"I think what’s really important to get out of school is a love for learning. I honestly don’t think that school teaches you that and I think that it just teaches you a system where everyone participates to get a good grade, to get into a good college, and get to where ever they want to go in life without actually caring about the work they are doing."
Read More"Each student has a different story, and it can affect their learning, so I think it’s really important to understand their point of view."
Read MoreI think school in its ideal form provides a variety of opportunities, and provides a belief in the innate capacity of every child. Schools that have a variety of opportunities for individuals to flourish and then see every child as having potential and capacity really can make a huge difference for a child. I don't think that's how most schools work... We say that school is empowering, but largely we act in very controlling ways. So we use the language of empowerment, but we use actions of control.
Read MoreSchool should help her know herself. It should help her know her power. It should help her find her sense of responsibility and community. It should offer her access to inspirational guides. It should offer her skills to be able to fully embrace and utilize the information that exists in the world, and it should offer her access to great thinkers and great teachers, and the intersection of ideas.
Read More"When I started Galileo I thought what I was doing was providing access to academic areas like science, and engineering, and visual arts. But it turned out that what we were really doing was creating an environment. An environment that collectively, between curriculum design, classroom ritual, and overall community design, creates a special space that allows people's best selves to emerge. And ideally that's what schools could do too. It's harder, I know, but that's what I would love to see happen in schools."
Read More"Our vision of education is enabling students to find their passion and purpose while they’re in school... To dream and to build. Those two things are what I want school to give students the opportunity to do... Ultimately, if a school can get someone ready to live an extraordinary, not an ordinary life, it has been successful."
Read More"I think schools should exist to enable and empower people to grow into the best version of themselves and into good citizens... I hope we give people a sense of why participating in our democracy is important and build some motivation to participate. And I hope we also learn to be supportive human beings to one another."
Read More"I think we grow up in school and it socializes us and it educates us, and it keeps us going in the right direction."
Read More"I think school is supposed to teach you how to be able to function on your own after you graduate, I don't know if PALY does a great job of that but I think that is what school, in general, is supposed to do.
Read More"I also think that the standards here are a lot higher than other places, which in some ways pushes people to perform better, but it only goes up to a certain extent until the difficulty and challenge becomes miserable, so finding that balance is a key to achieving, and being successful.
Read More"I also think that as society evolved to become more advanced in terms of technology and different aspects, they wanted to...educate kids so that they can keep up and contribute... But, I also think that schools are targeted - they’re aimed towards a very specific range of fields in the future, and I don’t think it applies to everyone.
Read More"What I would want from a school would be for them not to kill my creativity. I would want school to expand on the learning and not be so focused on grades, but about the creative process of learning.
Read More""Another big role of education reform is just exposure to people really different from you. Different backgrounds, different views. Learning how to deal with that is really important."
Read More"For me, the concept of freedom without choice is an illusion. If you don't really have a choice, then you're not really free. At it's core, that's what I hope for my daughter."
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