HOW I WENT FROM A CLASSROOM PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER TO SERIOUSLY QUESTIONING TRADITIONAL EDUCATION

I started off as a good student...did what I was told, was good at learning and got all the degrees, honestly...because I didn't know what I wanted to do for a career. When I finally had to get a job back in 1994, I landed myself in the toughest part of Los Angeles, surrounded on three sides by the projects, where stabbings, murders and bomb threats were common day-to-day activities.

My first day teaching, I walk into this classroom of 5th graders. No supplies, no books, nothing. Just me and thirty ten-year olds, each one with their own heavy baggage. We've got Marcus, who's got real tattoos down his body from his time as a drug runner, Tasha sitting quietly in a corner, smelling like urine from no running water at home, and Jamal hurling a chair across the room, cursing as it flew.

So, end of that first day, I'm in my car crying, PhD and all...degrees don't prepare you for this kind of real-world stuff. Traditional teaching was getting me nowhere. I’m sitting in my car, staring through the windshield, thinking. Could I even make a difference? That's when it hits me: those kids DON'T CARE and somehow I had to get them to care. Whatever I did had to be meaningful and it would probably help a whole heck of a lot if it could feel like play.

That equation of meaningfulness + playfulness = learning, simple as it sounds, became the cornerstone for everything I did from that point on.

Then, I'm back in that classroom, but this time, I've got a plan. 'Hey guys,' I say, 'we're time traveling. You walk through our classroom door and you are now colonists in America. I set the stage with storytelling and visualization, got them feeling the colonial era. And you won't believe what happens next. These kids dive right in! They form their own 'colonies,' start solving problems like they're the founding fathers, they ride pretend horses to other colonies around the room and start their own newspaper to communicate with each other. Even Marcus gets in on it, discussing trade policies! They're wearing costumes, getting fully into their roles. And the best part? They're learning—math, science, life skills, you name it. Fast forward just a few weeks and test scores are up 50% and disruptive behavior is down 90%!

So it's like, all of a sudden, they're not just kids from a rough neighborhood. They're thinkers, doers, problem solvers. And when I say those days inside the fantasy, which turned into weeks and months, changed everything, I don't mean just for me or for those kids. They shaped a philosophy, an approach that I believe can change the way we think about education.

That's how I learned that when you make learning meaningful and playful, you can really transform lives.

Those kids learned to love learning and they learned how to do it well.

And if those kids can do it…so can yours.