In many fields, researchers have identified a design problem known as the “reference man.” For decades, systems in medicine, engineering, and public policy were often built around a statistical model of an average adult male body—sometimes defined as a 70-kilogram “reference man.”  Drug dosages, safety standards, and equipment design were frequently calibrated around this hypothetical average person. Over time, researchers discovered an obvious problem: Very few real people a

One of the biggest shifts in a self-directed classroom is that students are given real opportunities to choose: Will I continue playing, or will I engage in something challenging right now? Will I persist through the difficulty of learning something new, or avoid it? How do my choices affect the people learning around me? To adults, these may seem like behavioral decisions. To children, they are actually neurological training. Developing self-directedness is more than motivat

Below are five questions I’ve received this year from parents, along with detailed responses to help clarify how our self-directed classroom operates and how we can continue partnering together to support each child’s success.

When we talk about training all staff in restorative practices across all three tiers of behavior support, we are ultimately talking about how a school chooses to define justice, accountability, and human dignity within its learning community. In education, we work with the understanding that every student, regardless of their behavior, remains a developing human being who deserves basic dignity, fair process, and the opportunity to learn from mistakes. Our discipline systems