We've argued about how to teach for a century without asking what's worth learning. Start from the child instead, and education looks like four circles
The modern American family didn't just naturally drift toward screens—it was subjected to a coordinated, structural override. The Left used educational policy to isolate the child from the parents, and the Right deregulated the tech industry to sell that isolated child to the highest bidder. The result is an $11 billion annual harvest of the adolescent retina. We traded the American living room for a digital Skinner box. Read the full structural breakdown of how state policy and Big Tech domesticated our kids:https://triggledger.substack.com/p/captive-audience-the-unregulated?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8gc1qf
"We've been arguing about the recipe for a century without asking if we're cooking the right dish." The prior question — what is education actually for — keeps getting deferred in favor of arguments about method and measurement. Starting from what's already alive inside the child rather than from what the system needs to sort and certify feels like the only honest place to begin.
I LOVE the cooking analogy, and that people have been arguing over what ONE dish is best, whereas the 'RIGHT' dish is different for every single kid. What would have been 'the right dish' education-wise for you growing up? How would your life have been different if you had that?
I love this question! I attended urban public schools — underfunded, heavily standardized, a lot of measurement and sorting. The right dish for me probably looked like more time to follow curiosity, more room to ask questions that didn't have a single correct answer, more adults who saw me as a whole person rather than a set of scores. I didn't have language for that then. I'm finding it now — as someone who isn't yet a parent, but who keeps looking ahead at what a quality education actually requires, in the broader scope of what a quality life requires.
If you try the dinner-table question tonight — 'If school didn't exist, what would you want to get really good at?' — come back and tell me what your kid said.
The modern American family didn't just naturally drift toward screens—it was subjected to a coordinated, structural override. The Left used educational policy to isolate the child from the parents, and the Right deregulated the tech industry to sell that isolated child to the highest bidder. The result is an $11 billion annual harvest of the adolescent retina. We traded the American living room for a digital Skinner box. Read the full structural breakdown of how state policy and Big Tech domesticated our kids:https://triggledger.substack.com/p/captive-audience-the-unregulated?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8gc1qf
Hi Trigg. I agree that WAY too many agendas have creeped into education that are NOT in the best interest of the child.
"We've been arguing about the recipe for a century without asking if we're cooking the right dish." The prior question — what is education actually for — keeps getting deferred in favor of arguments about method and measurement. Starting from what's already alive inside the child rather than from what the system needs to sort and certify feels like the only honest place to begin.
I LOVE the cooking analogy, and that people have been arguing over what ONE dish is best, whereas the 'RIGHT' dish is different for every single kid. What would have been 'the right dish' education-wise for you growing up? How would your life have been different if you had that?
I love this question! I attended urban public schools — underfunded, heavily standardized, a lot of measurement and sorting. The right dish for me probably looked like more time to follow curiosity, more room to ask questions that didn't have a single correct answer, more adults who saw me as a whole person rather than a set of scores. I didn't have language for that then. I'm finding it now — as someone who isn't yet a parent, but who keeps looking ahead at what a quality education actually requires, in the broader scope of what a quality life requires.
8,000 echoes of YES ⚡️
Now that's MY kind of Echo Chamber!
If you try the dinner-table question tonight — 'If school didn't exist, what would you want to get really good at?' — come back and tell me what your kid said.
So true. We need a better way to address the. needs of kids today.