I have spent my career learning about learning. Learning in classrooms. Learning in museums. Learning in communities. Learning through play. Learning full of feelings. Learning that’s joyful and rigorous. Learning that’s sometimes hard to see. Learning that’s messy. Learning through boredom. Learning from wonder. Learning that’s slow. Learning that’s deep. Learning based in noticing what’s there. Learning grown from the inside of who you are. Learning that matters.

At its core, learning is about growing into the fullest expression of who you are and authentically connecting with others in the world.

Children come to this world curious and whole. As adults, what we do and say—and what we don’t do and don’t say—are essential to allow children the space they need to grow as the fullest expressions of who they are. This is at the core of equitable learning… freedom and expansive joy to be all of who you are.

When we create products, curriculum, teaching approaches, learning spaces and experiences, we must design in ways that allow all children to find and follow their own curiosities from the wholeness of who they are.

It’s important that we DON’T:

• Over-structure, over-plan, or over-scaffold learning

• Be afraid of children’s boredom

• Use gimmicks to spark learning or entice “engagement”

• Overly focus on regulation and management of feelings

• Rely on external rewards

• Think new curriculum (even with an equity and/or SEL focus) is enough to shift how children experience themselves as learners; curriculum shifts are necessary, but they aren’t sufficient

It’s important that we DO:

• Allow open-ended space for play-based learning

• Allow boredom as an idea and space for not-knowing

• Offer opportunities for authentic engagement with ordinary materials

• Encourage all feelings as significant material for learning

• Consistently show that learning is valuable in and of itself

• Engage children (and educators) in deep noticing-based reflection about processes of learning during learning

Intrinsic, Curious, Playful

You want to foster and support learning that’s…

• Intrinsically motivated (without external reward systems)

• Not afraid of boredom or not-knowing

• Based in deep practices of play (not as something separate or for some of the time)

• Open-ended and interdisciplinary (with students leading the inquiry)

• Joyful, connected, relationship-based, from love

Learning at Home

You want to find ways for your child/ren to…

• Experience and talk about boredom

• Moderate their use of digital devices and apps/games

• Play in open-ended ways following their curiosities

• Motivate their own learning (without extrinsic rewards)

• Use ordinary at-home resources for learning

• Allow, appreciate, and process their feelings

• Take risks, make mistakes, be wrong, and not know

• Feel confident and whole as themselves

Learning Products and Services

You want to create beautiful, ethical, responsible learning products and services for children that…

• Provide them with unique ways to explore, be curious, play, invent, and be their full selves

• Don’t have gimmicks (to entice, advertise, or control behavior)

• Are designed without external rewards or persuasive algorithms (no stars, smileys, point systems, motivating beeps, etc.)

• Support children’s inner wholeness and well-being, merge rigor and play, inspire life-long joyful curiosity and agency in the world

Innovation Learning

You want to support innovation, technology learning, STEAM, and computational logic development through…

• Deep connections between digital and analog processes

• Interdisciplinary approaches that merge technology learning with other subject areas (and computational thinking beyond digital spaces)

• Human relationships

• Play-based, constructivist approaches

• Open-ended process for innovation as finding something new inside something known (grown from children’s curiosities)