There is a great deal of talk these days about how are schools are failing, how students can’t read, how teachers are leaving. As someone who’s worked in education in one form or another for much of my adult life, working with people from infants to elders, and who currently works as a special education teacher in our public school system, this both makes me sad and makes me think.

It’s made me think about my own journey through the school system as a student and question what worked and what didn’t. My journey was far from ideal. I was the kid who was bullied through elementary school and dealt with that horrific dichotomy of wanting to go to school to explore, learn, and understand the world that was such a mystery to me and at the same time hating to enter that place of fear and no escape every day.

As I got older school became a more welcoming environment though it still had challenges. It opened up with increasingly flexible scheduling in middle and high school, more opportunities to engage in activities I enjoyed with people I connected with, a growing array of mentors surrounding me. By college students like myself, held a major role in defining our education. We decided what to study, where to go to school, whether to go class, and how to engage in our classes. We were responsible for our success.

Of course, education has never just happened in school. It happens in our families, churches, neighborhoods, summer camps, friend groups, and everywhere else. I suspect that much of what really guides me in life didn’t come from school, or at least not solely from school, but from all these other spaces.

We all learn in many places, in many ways throughout our lives. What if we could take all of that experience both inside and outside of what dominant culture calls “the education system” or “school” and create something new? What if we could imagine the ideal learning environment? What would it look like, sound like, smell like, and even taste like? What would be at the center of this new concept?

My own imaginings show me a place with small groups of children and teens leading their own way with adults there as supports and guides. It’s an energetic space filled with projects and ideas, play, song, art, and movement. Screens are not a regular part of all moments of the day, but a tool to be used wisely. The outdoors, on the other hand, is always there. Students discovering how the earth supports life and their role in supporting the earth.

We’re not meant to spend our days in desks, staring at screens, listening to lectures, and taking notes. That’s true whether we are children or adults. It’s a way to disconnect us both from place and from ourselves. It is deadening. It is time to seek out our path to come back to life. What is