As a result, communities ask schools to “prepare students for the real world,” while resisting reforms that would require schools to model the different or more humane version of that world. In this way, schooling tends to lean towards reproducing society as it is, rather than helping imagine what it could be. The Bottom Line: Schools don’t just "prepare students for the real world". Schools prepare students for the version of society they determine is legitimate.

Nearly six years have passed since I published my article Maslow before Bloom and, in that half-decade, many classrooms have felt like triage centers: Pandemic aftershocks are still felt in attendance records. Chronic absenteeism ( ≥ 10 % of school days missed) leapt from ~15% (in 2018-19) to 31% (in 2021-22) and eased only to 28% in 2022-23. Twenty states still reported ≥30% of students chronically absent in 2022-23. Community food banks are operating at record pace. The B

Walk into a classroom built around concepts supported by self-determination and self-directed learning, and you might notice something unusual. Instead of students all completing the same worksheet or reading the same passage to learn the same concept or skill under the watchful eye of a single teacher, you see children choosing to learn something that day because they know it will help them prepare to do something bigger they want to master; you see students posting reflecti

The Five Foundations turn everyday lessons into launchpads for self-directed growth. Learn how planning, tracking, resourcefulness, collaboration, and flexible mastery make agency teachable—and measurable.