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!
"Yes. Humanity. Schools should teach humanity, because if we would have humanity, we wouldn’t have present situations in the world which we have, which are above and beyond any reasoning. After the horror of the wars, we should have learned something. We didn’t learn anything.
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 that if we step back and ask ourselves what we would want of our society and what we want of our institutions, I think we would have no hesitation in saying that the aim of them should be to enable us to live well. . . So, schools have to be focused on enabling each child in the school’s care to make progress towards living a good life."
Read More"The more I work in schools the more I realize that schools are the most social places on the planet—it’s just people interacting with people all day, whether it's adults and adults, kids and kids, or adults and kids. It’s just understanding how to approach others in ways that are not going to turn them off, that are coming from a place of inquiry. I’m trying to say that the more time I spend in schools, the more I realize it’s really about empathy."
Read More"Because, what I really want to do is: How do you take each individual kid, understand them well enough to discover what they desire, what they're interested in, what they find relevant. And how do you wrap those pieces in an engaging matter that encourages their curiosity and allows them to explore the world, gain knowledge and skills, and become fulfilled? If you can do that, and you can do that at scale--that is the toughest nut to solve I think."
Read More"But I feel like, jeez, isn’t it also a leap of faith if you send your child to a more traditional school, in which the risk there is that they might learn to hate learning? That they don't get to do things they care about, they just do things that they're asked to do? That they become really good unquestioning rule followers who think of themselves as human capital? That seems scarier to me."
Read More"So, on the last question about why schools don’t do a better job of realizing that vision, many people would then critique the school only in so far as the school does or does not result in economic gain. The school becomes this motor, or engine, of the economy such that it’s an easy scapegoat for many people. We can point fingers at the schools or the teachers and say: 'They’ve done a poor job. And we know that they’ve done a poor job because we don’t have the workers that we need, or our economy is not performing the ways we expect it to. Or we predict that it won’t because we’re seeing these or those scores on standardized tests.' In my mind, that misses the more human elements of the good of schools and of education more broadly."
Read More"So, I'm going to talk about her I think. I think where the system is falling short for a kid like my daughter is it doesn't give kids the chance to push themselves outside the boundaries of school. Her current high school doesn't give them opportunities to go out into the field to learn. Doesn't encourage them to really do a lot concurrent enrollment. The system still wants to contain the experience for the learner in that school or that environment. And that is a real challenge, because our world is not contained like that. And it used to be more contained, but it's not any more."
Read More...My perspective is shaped by seeing the effects that working in the fields does to the body. And just how difficult it is, generally. And being the daughter of immigrants, as well, is another story. I remember something my dad told me. We’re so important to society, and yet we’re not treated as important. I mean, they are providing the food for the entire nation to eat, and yet they’re not provided with any other rights... So given that economic reality growing up, I think pretending that education is not for a more economically secure future is silly.
Read MoreWhy is the very system that we charge with connecting people to their greatest possibility...so far removed from what we know about what it takes to be a thriving person?
Read MoreI think that to a great extent schools are an extension of the society in which they evolve. They reflect the values of our society so it would be really shocking if our society had the values that it clearly has based on all the reality television shows out there, and yet our kids are raised to just think for themselves, to care about others, and to just do what makes them happy. I think that would be the greatest disconnect in the history of the world. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. I do think it could happen, but I don’t think that’s where we are.
Read MoreI learned so much from my students about how important it was to make sure that schools were also places where humans could grow. It’s important for young people to be able to figure out who they are, to develop their own identity, to figure out what their passions are, to really know their strengths and their struggles, and to be able to navigate a world in which they need the skills and know-how to showcase their strengths and advocate for themselves.
Read MoreWe should make school a place where kids create because of school not in spite of school!
Read MoreBut I think the major things – the metrics for instance, – are evil. Evil, evil, evil – because it can be misconstrued. It’s so easy to go, “90%, yay!” But what does that 90% actually mean? And does that actually make you a better human being? Possibly. But it also may not make you a human being at all, it just makes you good at being valued in a larger system, a good result.
Read More"Sometimes schools can be so prescriptive and it’s hard to have that ability to adjust. You have to remember as a teacher that you need to be a great listener--responding to what they feel and what they want, rather than constantly making sure they’re hitting certain benchmarks, but getting more personal feedback from your students."
Read More"We came to live in the US as immigrants is because we want to give a better future for our kids. Although China has opulent opportunities for our generation to create fortune, it’s definitely not a place to raise future generations. Now we’re living in a blessed area with top schools in the nations, but I still see a lot of things that aren’t set up for creating a future world citizen. ...I also worry about the mentality of racing to nowhere here. In this environment, everyone is very competitive on reaching goals. Well, I don’t want her to conform to this competitive culture without knowing what she should be running for."
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