"I think when I feel most empowered in school is when teachers treat students like, not like equals, but adults and not like little kids that are just there because they have to be and they have to babysit them.
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"I think school should give students more opportunities to explore their interests."
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"I think the purpose of schooling is to help kids, like you and I, to figure out our true meaning in life. Through trying new things, and experiencing new people, you’ll definitely fail, you know? But you need to just get back up, and keep going. Just have fun, and enjoy it."
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"When you’re at school, you don’t think about how much I’ve learned, you think about what’s that letter at the end of my name, what’s the little digit between 1 and 4 that makes me who I am, my worth.
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"But our society in the city that we live in is so focused around keeping the reputation up that we have really good students, really good high scores, all the students go to really well-known universities… I think it adds more pressure than it adds, like, knowing that you’re going to be successful makes you happy. And the pressure is not very good."
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"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."
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Modern society only moves forward because of school, where you learn something...Schools give you broader exposure. So hopefully, when a person gets educated, they’re not just looking for a job. A school also broadens that person’s vision. The resources that school provides helps nurture a child and trains them into someone that can contribute to society, and reach a better life. That vision of a better life comes from schooling – where they get exposure to new ideas and new topics. So you hope that school would help nurture the next generation to benefit America or the community.
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"I think he was in kindergarten and his closest friend at the time was pushing him around and I happened to see it. I did not want to intervene because I think that kids need to learn to manage themselves. I talked to him about it and he said that he would tell his teacher who is Mr. Blumberg. And he did, so he asked this other student to sit out during recess. Aadi spent the entire recess sitting with this kid so that he would not feel bad and he kept asking him “Are you OK? Don’t be sad, this will be over and we will play again.” So, a lot of times even when he is wronged, he feels sympathy for the other person. Over time I’ve seen in several instances people will come and say something to him or they will behave in a mean manner and he will come to me and he will say, “I feel sorry for them because they don’t know better.” So he doesn’t hold a grudge, he doesn’t get angry so I would say that’s the theme I’ve seen with him throughout."
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"I think the diversity you get exposed to is one of the great advantages of public school"
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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"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."
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...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.
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Why 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?
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I 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.
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"I think schools are more focused on achievement on tests and learning basic skills. They are not as concerned with relationships. I do think that individual teachers do that, though, if they are passionate"
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I think that every child brings their own strengths and weaknesses to the table, and I think we need to figure out as teachers how to adapt and bring out the uniqueness in them in order for them to ultimately be successful
I 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.
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