K-12 schools today are not ready for the impending crisis of relevance they will face in the near future. The impending onslaught of AI in the education sphere is on a crash course with the totalitarian impulses taking hold in many places, and students are at the nexus of that doom. Democracy is apparently in retreat, humanism is seemingly waning, and we need something different. Right now.
For more than twenty years, I have supported K-12 schools across the U.S. and Canada in Meaningful Student Involvement. Meaningful Student Involvement is a dynamic and intentional process that goes beyond mere participation by genuinely engaging students as equitable partners in every aspect of their education and throughout the broader school community. It’s about empowering students to contribute meaningfully to decision-making, learning design, and educational transformation, rather than just being passive recipients of instruction or token attendees at events.
Through hundreds of workshops with thousands of educators, I discovered and advocated for teacher voice repeatedly. In dozens of data carousels and focus groups, I listened to parents and community partners call for more thoughtful engagement throughout education. Many, many student forums taught me what students wanted from their own learning experiences.
Because of these activities, I’ve been teaching students about schools. Partnering with more than 750 schools in hundreds of districts across dozens of states and provinces, I have helped learners of all abilities and ages learn about the meaning of learning, the process of teaching, and the assumptions behind schools. I have also facilitated students’ re-imagining learning and re-envisioning schools for modern times. Research backs these approaches too, as academics, educators, and activists alike have near-consensus supporting Meaningful Student Involvement, particularly in this way.
Five Lessons About Learning
To learn about learning, every student of any age and ability should…
- Discover the meaning of learning and to be able to define it for themselves
- Explore the process of teaching, including their own abilities to learn
- Examine the assumptions behind teaching, schooling and the education system
- Engage with re-imagining learning for themselves to meet their own needs
- Partner with educators and school leaders to re-envision learning and teaching in modern times.
Starting in kindergarten, students can develop a meta-cognition of learning that can be explored, built on, reflected upon, and used for the rest of their lives. This can help them defeat the blasé attitudes many voters have towards public schools today. Under threat of near-total irrelevance thrust upon schools by AI, this approach can help school leaders and classroom teachers build student ownership over more than just their own learning. Instead, by intentionally increasing their understanding, appreciation, and abilities to fulfill their own learning goals, schools can foolproof their roles in our democratic society. In turn, this can subvert the democracy deficit disorder that’s incapacitating so much of society today.
Six Outcomes
There are concrete deliverables of learning about schools. Throughout their learning career, all learners of all ages and identities should…
- Understand what school is, what schools do, and why they attend
- Identify and be able to clearly state their personal learning goals
- Clearly interact with learning goals determined for them by education systems
- Make decisions about their own learning and those affecting students throughout schools
- Self-assess their learning performance and outcomes
- Evaluate their teachers, learning environments, and school outcomes
All of this should be done in age- and ability-appropriate ways, and should not be heaped onto the shoulders of students as a burden. Instead, it should be framed, taught and built up as opportunities for ownership, belonging and meaningfulness for learners.
Only then can we move schools out of the crosshairs of AI irrelevancy, and towards being part of the solution to the democracy deficit disorder that we need them to be.
Progressive Teachers Network 
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