Hi friends,

Welcome to Day 1 of The Revolution Starts at Home.

If you haven't watched today's conversation yet, you can start here:

​🎥 Watch Today's Conversation​

Today we asked what sounds like a really simple question: Are school and learning the same thing?

I'm sure most of you at first would think, "*eyeroll* No, of course not" and want to move on thinking that this Revolution experience is too "newbie" for you... but stick with me here, because when you really dive into what you believe about school and learning, I bet you find that you're still holding onto a lot of beliefs and actions that prove you still very much hold onto the idea that school and learning are the same thing.

Watch today's video and see if I'm able to challenge you on anything!

During the video, I promised that I'd dive a bit more into the history of public schools for those who were curious, so here is that conversation. But before I do that, a few reminders for you:

If your child is enrolled with Bridge Academy, don't forget to head into the Portal for today's special content.

This is where we'll take these daily ideas and actually put them into practice together.

Not a Bridge family yet? These daily emails and conversations are completely free and always will be.

But if you'd like to experience the Revolution alongside thousands of other families, with daily missions, implementation tools, community discussions, and ongoing support (not to mention the actual experience of homeschooling with Bridge Academy next year which is top tier!) we'd love to welcome you into Bridge Academy. You can learn more here.​

Ok, A little more history for you...

One thing I didn't have time to really dive into during today's conversation was the history of our current public school system. And I think this is important because before we can imagine a better path forward, we have to understand what we're moving away from and why.

Simply put, this system we have today is outdated.

While the idea of community learning has been around for as long as there have been humans, the current iteration of public school really only dates back to around the time of the Industrial Revolution. At that point, the goal was really twofold. Number one, public schools would provide childcare while parents were working. And number two, the system would train children to enter that same workforce immediately after school.

This was a very clear factory model of learning.

Now, I want to be fair because I'm not going to sit here and say it was a bad experiment. At the time, it made sense. When the majority of work was factory-style work, why not train the majority of children to have a baseline level of knowledge while also getting used to the schedule, the bells, the authority figures, and everything else that came along with that model? Remember, school was also one of the few places where you could actually access knowledge. You couldn't pull out a phone and ask a question. You couldn't ask the robot on your kitchen counter. You couldn't instantly find information the way we can today. So creating a system where children had access to that information made sense.

Parents had to work, so they needed somewhere for their children to be. While they were there, we might as well give them a foundation of knowledge and prepare them for the workforce they were about to enter. At that moment in history, it was a logical solution to a real problem.

But let's fast forward to today....

Do we have a majority of jobs that are factory work anymore?

No.

Is school the only place to obtain knowledge today?

No.

So what's left?

That question is really what today's conversation was about.

Because times have changed, but the system largely hasn't. The real goal at the advent of the current public school system wasn't innovation. It was compliance. And again, I'm not saying this to villainize anyone. I'm simply saying that the system was built for a world that no longer exists.

Today, every one of us carries access to more information in our pocket than entire libraries once contained. If my five-year-old asks me a question that I don't know, we don't have to wait until our next visit to the library to find the answer. We can find out immediately. If my teenager becomes fascinated with filmmaking, coding, marine biology, or entrepreneurship, he can begin learning today, not because a curriculum finally reaches that chapter, but because the information is already available to him.

So maybe the question isn't whether schools have value.

Maybe the question is whether we've accidentally confused the system we built to deliver education with learning itself.

Because those are two very different things.

Learning existed long before schools. Children were learning to walk, talk, solve problems, ask questions, build relationships, create, invent, and tell stories long before anyone ever sat in a classroom.

Learning is human. School is just one way we've chosen to organize it.

Today we separated school from learning.

Tomorrow we'll ask the next question:

If learning doesn't come from school...where does it come from?

I think tomorrow's conversation is one of the most important we'll have all month.

I'll see you then.

🫶🏽 Leah