The What School Could Be Podcast

Listeners, Educators Rising is a national organization that develops future educators by supporting middle school, high school, and college students interested in the profession. Through chapters, leadership opportunities, competitions, and classroom experiences, it helps students build the skills and passion needed to strengthen the next generation of educators. Allianna Walters is a high school student from Spanish Fork, Utah and the 2025–2026 National President of Educators Rising. With experience as a student intern in early childhood, elementary, and special education settings, she is deeply committed to serving others through teaching. Grounded in faith, family, and purpose, Allianna brings a values-driven approach to leadership, advocating for future educators and for students who want to feel seen and supported. And yes, she has a few things to say about what school could be. My wingman and color commentator for this conversation is Jose Carrillo, former National Student President of Educators Rising and now a classroom teacher in Austin, Texas. In this episode, Allianna shares a personal vision for education rooted in identity, purpose, and care, then challenges us to rethink systems, from schedules to AI, and to act as good ancestors for the next generation. Our episodes are edited by the talented Evan Kurohara at SOZEN SOUND. Our theme music comes from the catalog of pianist, Michael Sloan. Questions or comments? You can reach me at joshreppunproductions@gmail.com or through the contact page at joshreppunproductions.com.

Two seniors from St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Samantha Colvin and Marin Rosenthal, join me to explore what school could look like when student voice, learning science, and curiosity intersect. Samantha Colvin and Marin Rosenthal are seniors at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Maryland and Student Research Fellows with the school’s Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL). Sam, a DMV native of Jamaican and African American heritage, brings creativity and cultural curiosity to her work in music, fashion, pop culture, and media, while building research and communication skills through the CTTL. Marin combines intellectual curiosity with initiative, completing Neuroteach Global training and helping lead a student research study on phone use and attention that informed school policy, and so much more. The CTTL translates Mind, Brain, and Education Science research into practical strategies that help teachers and students thrive. As fellows, Sam and Marin help design and conduct real research alongside educators and university partners. In this episode, they tackle technology and attention, question the purpose of homework, dance in their "red shoes" and explore the idea of “addition by subtraction,” removing low-value work so there is room for practice, creativity, and rest. The conversation circles back to a bold question for all of us: If you could redesign school, what would you change first? Our episodes are edited by the talented Evan Kurohara at SOZEN SOUND. Our theme music comes from the catalog of pianist, Michael Sloan. You can reach me at joshreppunproductions@gmail.com.

This episode addresses a question I’ve been chewing on for a long time: What happens when school stops treating creativity as an elective and starts treating it as the whole damn point? Story Xperiential is a national and global online visual storytelling experience, inspired by Pixar’s process and built by former Pixar and Khan Academy veterans, and my home state of Hawaiʻi was in on the action from the beginning. In 2021, Kamehameha Schools Kapālama became one of the first schools in Story Xperiential's Hawaiʻi pilot program, and students showed that storytelling can build real world skills, not just artistic tricks. The work is hands-on, learners create and exhibit story reels while learning story development, character, visual composition, storyboarding, sound and music editing, plus the skills that travel everywhere: communication, problem solving, and teamwork. My guests, brothers Nova and Skye Sonomura, did more than participate. They earned recognition, joined the student advisory team, and were later hired by Story Xperiential to improve the program and build the website experience for future learners. Nova lives in Japan and is enrolled in Brigham Young University's Pathway Worldwide. Skye lives in Honolulu and calls his path the school of hard knocks. Both are unmistakably lifelong learners. As Tony DeRose, one of Xperiential's founders put it, Nova showed up early as a creative force, and soon both brothers were helping lead the experience from the inside. Listeners, you’re in for a deep dive into the lives, loves, and passions of Skye and Nova Sonomura. As always, our episodes are edited by the talented Evan Kurohara. Our theme music is by the pianist, Michael Sloan. You can reach me at joshreppunproductions@gmail.com.

Listeners, Mackenzie King is not here as my guest to perform “student voice.” She’s here to show us what governance and leading by learning could be. Picture a real school board meeting, with fiduciary responsibility, hard decisions, and adult-level accountability, then picture the board chair setting the tone, reading the room, and holding the mission steady. Now make that chair a high school senior. This is not a thought experiment. It’s a normal day at One Stone in Idaho, and Mackenzie King, Class of 2026, is the chair of its board of trustees.If you have never heard of One Stone, you might assume it’s another shiny outlier. But One Stone is a serious learning organization making a serious bet: young people are citizens right now and school should be designed around that thought. Put students in governance and lead by learning roles and you change what “smart” and “leadership” mean, and you create the good kind of pressure that forces everyone to get serious about the purpose of school.We start in Idaho, identity, family, language, and karate, then pivot into service and the quiet power of simply showing up for others. From there we go inside One Stone, how Mackenzie found her way there, how learning is assessed through competencies, BLOBs, and a Growth Transcript, and what practice she would stop in American schools because it steals tomorrow from kids.As always, our episodes are edited by Evan Kurohara and our theme music comes from the catalog of pianist, Michael Sloan. You can reach me at joshreppunproductions@gmail.com.

Lydia Wrest, a high school design director skilled in CAD, laser work, and shop-based design. Max Marzec, a high school CEO running operations, sales, and team accountability. They tour a busy student-run manufacturing shop. They talk quality and checks, switching from class mode to customer-driven work, leadership choices, and using AI responsibly in hands-on projects.

Peter Gray, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College, wrote the following in the Washington Post. “I began to look at research, which showed and documented that beginning as early as the 1960s until now, there has been a continuous, gradual but huge increase in anxiety, depression, and, most tragically, suicide among school-aged children and teens. Over that period of time, children have also been less and less free to do the things that make them happy and build the kind of character traits — of confidence, of internal locus of control, of agency — that allow them to feel like ‘the world is not too scary, because I can handle what life throws at me.’ This kind of attitude requires independent activity to develop, and we have been offering less and less of that activity.” Peter Gray’s powerful words are the perfect way to introduce today’s conversation with Pam Moran and Ira David Socol, two educators who have spent their careers pushing on a simple idea that feels obvious once you say it out loud: school should help young people find their voice, build real agency, and guide them as they learn how to influence their world and shape their futures. Pam led Albemarle County Public Schools in Virginia from 2006 to 2018, a long run in superintendent years, and she was named Virginia Superintendent of the Year by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents.Ira has lived an unusually wide-angle life in service, including work in New York City public safety and decades in public education as a technology and innovation leader, with a deep focus on Universal Design for Learning and environments that work for every kid. Together, they have written and edited books that refuse to treat school as a neutral machine. In Timeless Learning, with co author Chad Ratliff, they argue that we should stop mistaking “great teaching” for learning, and instead redesign learning experiences so kids have choices, purpose, and time to do work that matters. In Designed to Fail, Ira makes the tougher claim; a lot of what we call school was built to sort, to rank, and to protect comfort for adults and advantage for some kids. And in their newest book, an edited volume titled Real Learning, Real Accomplishment: Schools that Work for Kids, Pam and Ira gather stories from educators across the country who are moving from compliance to mastery, not by chasing one more initiative, but by changing the ecosystem, the expectations, the schedules, the spaces, the assessment, and the relationships that shape what kids actually experience. So that is where we are headed. We are going to talk about student voice as more than a slogan. We are going to talk about what it means to trust kids, and what it costs when we do not. And we are going to keep pulling the conversation back to the practical question that sits under everything they do: How do we design and create systems of learning that put the learning in the hands of the young learners, with the adults on the side as coaches, mentors, guides and sponsors? One of the answers you will hear in the next hour is that we adults must, must, must do this design and development with the learners. We must treat them as co-creators and co-designers. Truly, we must Just Say Yes.If you have thoughts or insights on this episode email me at joshreppunproductions@gmail.com. Our audio engineer is the talented Evan Kurohara. Our theme music is provided by the master pianist, Michael Sloan.

Courtney Joly-Lowdermilk is the founder and lead consultant of the Massachusetts based LLC, Bridge Educational Engineering, where she partners with schools, towns, and organizations to design cultures of belonging that strengthen engagement, performance, and retention. Her career sits at the intersection of education, disability access, and mental health—spanning classroom teaching, student support, and a decade leading college mental-health education. She helped design and build NITEO, a structured leave-and-return pathway for young adults navigating disability and mental-health challenges, and she’s authored practical guidance that makes pausing—and coming back—more humane. She’s partnered with more than 100 teams to shift programs, practices, and policies toward dignity and access. We begin by exploring where Courtney’s energy comes from, meaning that time during elementary school selling popcorn at her grandmother’s bingo hall, or later learning to read a room, and carrying that “be useful” through-line into a career built around people. From there, we head into the deep end: what it actually takes to make belonging operational. Courtney shares the design moves she’s seen turn compliance culture into places where people risk honesty, ask for help, and feel at home. Then we get into the radical idea hiding in plain sight: interruption. What happens when a young person needs to pause—and how do we build the return so it doesn’t become a cliff? Courtney draws from her work with leave-and-reentry pathways to name what makes a pause feel heavy versus what makes it a bridge back. In the second half, Courtney joins us as one of the featured voices in Ted Dintersmith’s new documentary, Multiple Choice. We talk about that simple sign on her office wall—“Work Hard And Be Nice To People”—and the not-so-simple question beneath it: how do families support ambition without becoming “college pushers” or shrinking a kid’s world into a single story of success? We widen the lens to a culture that’s drifted from “fix the schools” to “fix the kids,” and Courtney brings her REACH framework to the role confusion at the center of it. We even dip into the AI urgency narrative—what ticking-clock stories do to teen nervous systems—and what healthier, more human adult moves look like. We close with David Yeager’s 10 to 25 and the mentor mindset—high standards, high support—plus moments that reveal who Courtney is off the page: motherhood, a suitcase note that reads “good luck mommy,” and a shout-out that brings us back to her roots. It’s a conversation about agency, dignity, and designing the conditions for thriving. As always, this show is edited by the very talented Evan Kurohara.

In this lively discussion, guests Nancy Rapport, a dedicated school counselor, and Emma George, a nature-connection educator, share their insights on empathy and relationship building as the foundation for deep learning. Educational researcher John Hattie emphasizes the importance of creating error-friendly classrooms to promote curiosity and risk-taking. Parul Punjabi Jagdish advocates for investing in youth and fostering imaginative learning through community mentoring. Together, they explore transformative educational practices that cultivate resilience and creativity.

Roman Krznaric, an author known for The Good Ancestor, shares insights on 'cathedral thinking,' emphasizing long-term impact in education. Eric Swenson discusses environmental stewardship and innovative outdoor programs. Allie Pressel highlights hands-on projects like restoring school courtyards to foster community learning. Andrew Culberson explains the Youth Check-In survey's role in enhancing student well-being. Joanne McPike advocates for experiential, globally connected learning. Leanne Kittle connects climate justice with education, urging student-led sustainability efforts.

If you navigate to WhatSchoolCouldBe.org, you will find in the nav bar the words, The Innovation Playlist. What is this? The Innovation Playlist is a powerful change model based on small steps that elevate learning and life outcomes. It brings your community together to build consensus on your North Star. It trusts teachers to lead the way, build on successes, draw on best practices, and do what you take joy in, challenging your students in creative, distinctive ways that prepare them for life. One of the playlists is called student-driven learning. Imagine your children, your students, fueled by intrinsic curiosity and motivation, enthusiastically learning without your constant oversight? Student-driven learning gives educators the time to truly guide, inspire, and encourage deeper learning. When we empower students to do bold, creative work, they develop distinctive higher-order competencies. Yet, creative work demands different, more authentic assessments. In this 3rd 2025 remix my co-producer, Mel Ching and I focus on the voices of students I interviewed over the past few years. These are young learners who have struggled in traditional learning environments, but thrived when immersed in student-driven learning and the quest to be assessed deeply, and authentically. These are young people who refuse to be sorted and ranked by standardized test scores. They live and breathe relevant, authentic learning spaces, both inside and outside of this thing we call school. So if you are ready, I am ready. As always, if you have insights or questions, email me at MLTSinHawaii@Gmail.com, which is my podcast contact. The What School Could Be Podcast is edited by the very talented Evan Kurohara. Our theme music comes of the catalog of pianist, Michael Sloan.