What If…

What if we designed a school whose foundation was built on an obsession with learning, in all shapes and forms?

What if our school focused on every possible way to reward and promote all learning students chose to pursue?

What if we populated that school full of teachers who weren’t great traditional students? How would their experience give them more empathy towards learners who are inspired by non-traditional subjects?

What if the first and primary role of those teachers was to be a learning advisor to their students, rather than a master of a subject?

What if our school was a place where those teachers could learn from experienced collaborator teachers in the style of a teaching hospital?

What if we asked those teachers to work together and collaborate on designing learning experiences that inspired those students to joyfully pursue knowledge in a way that spoke to their passions?

What if our school eschewed the gatekeeping promoted by some elements of academia and instead found ways to say “yes” more often?

What if we built a curriculum around “required experiences” rather than “required subjects?”

What if students, under guidance from a teacher/advisor, created their own individual learning plan each year?

What if the first question a student was asked each school year is “what do you want to learn about?”

What if our mission statement wasn’t a declarative sentence, but instead was a series of questions we never stopped asking?

What if we created a school that became the cultural center of learning for the neighborhood, inspiring everyone in the community to become more joyful learners?

What would happen then?