Thank you for this awesome essay Sam! Having inspiring role models (both in your life and who you encounter through your education) can be so powerful. I hope we can do better to give young people examples of people doing heroic things (while keeping the nuance, as you mentioned). I think this point about the world being systems that we (you and me!) can build is so important, or else we're just stuck reacting to the whims of history.
Thanks for the kind words, Jeremy - so glad you enjoyed it! Totally agree that we should optimize for an active, progress-fuelling education rather than teaching kids to be reactive critics. It's much easier in the short term to find fault with the things around you, but while difficult, much more meaningful to show young people they are capable of improving the world.
Montessori believed children who developed their full human potential would contribute positively to the evolution of humanity:
“The children of today will make all the discoveries of tomorrow. All the discoveries of mankind will be known to them and they will improve what has been done and make fresh discoveries. They must make all the improvements in houses, cities, communication, methods of production, etc. that are to be made. The future generation must not only know how to do what we can teach them, they must be able to go a step further. ”
That is so kind of you, thank you! Glad this is reaching other educators like yourself. Just saw your DM and will reply there, but excited to chat more on these topics with you.
Thank you for this awesome essay Sam! Having inspiring role models (both in your life and who you encounter through your education) can be so powerful. I hope we can do better to give young people examples of people doing heroic things (while keeping the nuance, as you mentioned). I think this point about the world being systems that we (you and me!) can build is so important, or else we're just stuck reacting to the whims of history.
Thanks for the kind words, Jeremy - so glad you enjoyed it! Totally agree that we should optimize for an active, progress-fuelling education rather than teaching kids to be reactive critics. It's much easier in the short term to find fault with the things around you, but while difficult, much more meaningful to show young people they are capable of improving the world.
Montessori believed children who developed their full human potential would contribute positively to the evolution of humanity:
“The children of today will make all the discoveries of tomorrow. All the discoveries of mankind will be known to them and they will improve what has been done and make fresh discoveries. They must make all the improvements in houses, cities, communication, methods of production, etc. that are to be made. The future generation must not only know how to do what we can teach them, they must be able to go a step further. ”
Sam! Your work is exactly why I read substack. Amazing job!
That is so kind of you, thank you! Glad this is reaching other educators like yourself. Just saw your DM and will reply there, but excited to chat more on these topics with you.
I love this piece, Sam! My favorite sentence:
"The antidote is a curriculum of ambition, and that starts with a return to heroes."
That is a goal worth pursuing at multiple levels, by many people!
Thanks for taking the time to read this, Heike. Glad it resonated!