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!
"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 More"A good life would be having people that support me and being able to financially support myself, and being happy - even though that’s not exactly always something that you can be because of whatever problems that are going on in life."
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"Well, first of all we need education. But, I think what’s more important than the education is your surroundings, and getting to know more people and having those people skills to help you survive in the real world.
Read More"The purpose of schooling I think is to help people learn more about the world. It’s important for people to know about history and what’s happened, but I think it’s more important to know how people can apply what they’re learning in school to the broader world."
Read More"If you had to choose one thing about your high experience to change what would it be and why? I would probably do stuff that makes me happy and not something that I feel it’s a pressure to do. So, just join more clubs and take advantage of everything that we have. And not be afraid to ask questions."
Read More"[Schools] have all the opportunities that you need, but I don’t think that people are actually taking advantage of it. They’re taking it for granted. Coming from a school where you don’t have all those things, I think that they should make it more of something they should push on kids."
Read More"...people always say that school is setting up for your life later on, but I feel like even when you’re in high school it should be exciting for you — not just waiting for the future."
Read More"I think parents, the Palo Alto parents, they have created and live within this culture of defined success and defined happiness to a point that it’s become an equation.
Read More"II think in a way [school] kind of prepares you for life, but at the same time it is kind of preparing you for college and kind of preparing you to get good grades and do well on a test to get you into a school...In a way it is kind of teaching like socially how to put you into bigger life situations, but at the same time not really. It is not really preparing you.
Read More"I think [education in America] could be a lot more equal. It's a little bit unfair. I mean for me it's a given that I’m going to go to college and I’m going to be able to afford it. But, I think for a lot of people they are not in that mindset and they are not expecting to go to college.
Read More"A good life is if you have a lot of friends and there’s a lot of things to do around...And then doing well at school if you’re our age or if you have a good job."
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