Our children are our future. Education is at the heart at developing their skills and abilities and yet year after year we hear about the degrading state of our educational system. Our nation has spent trillions of dollars on failed programs that research and experts had promised would work. Achievement gaps persist, performance declines are accelerating and so it is of paramount importance that we explore novel ideas and solutions. You might not agree with many or any of the ideas below, and we certainly are not endorsing policies – our hope is just to create a space where bright, dedicated folks from the community can share their ideas – so that we can all come together and better understand each others experiences, concerns and how we might move forward together to build a brighter future.

Gregg Lambton-carr

I was never educated in USA, but i have had a lot of interns from a variety of colleges. Very few actually prepare them for the working life of a photographer. This leads a lot of them to have massive school debt, but they never end up working in the industry. Read more>>

Jenna O’malley

As a former high school English teacher, I think the current state of education in the United States experiences stakeholders in the system leaving many creative and/or Neurodivergent minds craving more than what is presented to them. I used to work with some of West Virginia’s most at-risk graduating populations over the last fifteen years. Juniors and seniors on the brink of going into a world not built by them and not ready to give them the supports they need to thrive in their lives. Many students want to work in conditions that allow them to be creative. What some schools consider to be best practices sets students up to feel either starved of opportunities to express themselves safely and productively or quieted into not having those opportunities at all. When I taught creative writing courses at these schools, the first grading period–an entire quarter of the year–was often spent convincing new students that it is safe to write without fear. Read more>>