Every child has the right to graduate with an “I Can” mindset. You meet a child anywhere in the world they go from crawling to standing to running to thinking to laughing and just when they’re telling the world, “Look at me, I can!” We send them to school. (laughs) And you say, “Oh, you can run? “Sorry, you have to sit out.
“You can think and talk? “Tsk, tsk, tsk, that’s wrong; you have to listen.”

That is what I encountered first-hand with my child so I took him out of school. I said, “I can do a better job.” (students talking) So when I took him out I don’t think it was with a big story of changing the world or you know, changing education and all of that. It was just my child. And at that time I was running a design firm. The fact that I didn’t come from education I was not bothered by the size of what I was setting out to do. So that’s really what allowed me to be audacious. (students and teacher talking) (students laughing)

Good morning, thank you.

Good morning.

As a designer, I was very inspired by design thinking. (laughing) So to start by questioning the status quo is what design thinking tells us to do. It starts with empathy; it starts with the user. Who is it for? What does success look like? Okay, and then what should I do to ensure that I achieve it? So for the longest time education has made the parent the primary stakeholder. Parent wants exam.
Parent wants homework. Parent wants this. Children became incidental to the program. When you put the child back front and center, they will shape the story.

Good morning, everyone. It’s time for the shout-outs.

Our children became a designer’s write off. They designed the uniform. They became clients for the architect. It was a genuine collaboration. It was just that belief
that it’s your space.(talking and laughing) We are crafting the final curriculum. We want you to graduate with the idea of “I Can”.

We know that we are responsible for our own learning so that’s (mumbles)

Today we offer a curriculum that is built on design thinking framework. If you look at every design process, they will have ideate, explore, define, prototype, product. But we simplified it. We call it FIDS: Feel, Imagine, Do, Share.

Okay, Aleah is gonna make the uniform which can be used?

Both the sides.

To understand what they might be going through, what can we do?

Three, two, one, go! Keep going guys! Keep going, keep going, keep going!
(cheering and laughing)

So for 15 years if they use the same design thinking framework, they graduate
with an “I Can” mindset. This belief that I can do it. So I think that idea of questioning the status quo is what we need to do in education. We don’t realize that the choice can be us. That we are who we’ve been waiting for. That is the mindset we owe our children so they shine and they thrive. That’s what I wanna give to every child.
(children laughing)

Schools That Work

Riverside School