The number one thing we hear from entrepreneurs and artists and creatives when we ask them about their education is about how irrelevant it was to their story. Sure, some folks had wonderful educational experiences, but for many their experiences left them feeling ill prepared for life and their careers. So, we wanted to create a space for folks to share their experiences and ideas for how we can improve our educational system.

Kaz Canning

I grew up in Southern California and went to high school in San Diego. A constant theme year after year was budget cuts for the schools, and the first programs to always get hit were the electives like art, woodshop, cooking, etc. While I was lucky enough to be at a school that was able to keep these programs around longer than others, after I graduated, I did see a lot of these programs slowly get cut as their budgets got cut further. Read more>>

Derrick Wesley

As the founder of iMar Learning Solutions, my passion lies in reshaping the educational landscape to empower students for a more fulfilling life and career. If there’s one thing I’d change about the education system, it’s introducing financial literacy from an early age. Money is a language everyone needs to speak, and it serves as a bridge between subjects like math and reading. Seedlyng, our flagship edtech platform, is designed to be that bridge. Read more>>

Carrie Rosebrock

As I coach and support district and school level leadership teams, my primary role is to facilitate collaborative conversations that lead to solutions. What I find, over and over again, is that as adults in these teams, we generally do not have the skills or language for respectful, inclusive team work. Before the change and transformation can begin in an organization, the individuals involved (including myself) have to bring forth their abilities to sit with discomfort, listen to alternative views and opinions, and process decisions at a team’s pace–not an individuals. This is hard. This is uncomfortable. And these skills can also be taught. Read more>>

Jon McFarland

This is a very loaded and complex question. As a teacher educator, I tend to approach this topic from an educational advocate’s perspective grounded in equity and inclusion. Our political and social climates are so intertwined with our beliefs on how to educate our kids today, and everyone has an opinion on how our educational system should be run. Read more>>

Robb Ellis

Our current public education system is geared toward test scores and college acceptance; this leaves many students out or causes frustration. In our local High School, 30% of the students go on to attend a four year college, so creating opportunities for the other 70% is a focus of the Storer Ranch. Read more>>