BONUS: How We're Stifling Curiosity in Kids (Microschool Solution)

In this S5E5 Schoolutions Teaching Strategies BONUS, I reflect on my conversation with David K. Richards—breaking down the three most powerful takeaways about microschools and education transformation and show you how to apply them RIGHT NOW, whether you're in a traditional classroom, homeschooling, or anywhere in between. What if entrepreneurial thinking isn't about starting a business—it's about reclaiming your agency as an educator?

Three Game-Changing Ideas:
✅ The Operating System is Broken - Why we need to stop "fixing" education and start rebooting it entirely
✅ From Compliance to Entrepreneurship - How to shift from "who will fix this?" to "what can I do right now?"
✅ Bringing Back Intimacy - Reclaiming deep knowledge of students in massive bureaucratic systems

You'll Learn:
- Why we can't ask kids to be autonomous when teachers have zero autonomy
- The parallel pedagogy disconnect stifling innovation in schools
- How to identify where you've been waiting for permission (and what to do instead)
- The smallest step you can take RIGHT NOW without asking anyone

Resources:
💫Summit Public Schools' advisory program (14 kids, 4 years):
🌐 Learn more: https://www.changemakereducation.com/
🎧 Changemaker ED "U" Podcast

Key Concepts:
- Parallel pedagogy and modeling for adults what we want for kids
- Education transformation through agency, not permission
- Instructional leadership and empowered educators
- Student success through intimate knowledge and whole child approach
- Effective teaching strategies within system constraints
- Parent communication and home-school connection
- Teacher coaching focused on autonomy and entrepreneurial thinking
- School improvement through small, excellent innovations
- Culturally responsive teaching and inclusive classrooms
- Pro-kid mindset over bureaucratic compliance

Innovation doesn't have to scale to 100% to matter. It just has to exist and be excellent. Stop waiting for permission. Start asking "what can I do right now?"

CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Introduction: Stop Waiting for Permission
1:00 - What We Covered with David K. Richards
2:00 - Welcome to Friday Bonus Episode
3:00 - Big Idea #1: The Operating System is Broken (Not Just "Problems")
4:00 - Montessori's Paradox: The Cognitive Dissonance
5:00 - Parallel Pedagogy: We Can't Ask Kids What We Don't Model
5:30 - Reflection: Where's the Disconnect in Your Sphere?
6:00 - Big Idea #2: From Educator to Entrepreneur
7:00 - The Shift from Compliance to Autonomy
8:00 - Entrepreneurial Thinking = Agency, Not Business
8:30 - Challenge: Identify Where You've Been Waiting for Permission
9:00 - Big Idea #3: Center the Families (Not the Politics)
10:00 - Bringing Back Intimate Knowledge of Students
11:00 - How to Create Smaller Communities Within Large Systems
11:30 - Advisory Programs: Small Innovations That Scale
12:00 - The Three Big Ideas (Recap)
12:30 - David's Vision: 5-10% as Laboratories of Innovation
13:00 - Innovation Doesn't Have to Scale to 100% to Matter
13:30 - Your Next Step: What Will You Do Monday?
14:00 - Email Challenge & Monday's Preview (Dr. Rebecca Winthrop)
14:30 - Final Invitation: Stop Waiting, Start Acting
15:00 - Closing & Resources

🚀📚 Watch the full S5E5 @schoolutionspodcast interview here.
📧 Connect: schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com 
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hey there. Happy Friday. It's Olivia. So if you caught Monday's conversation with David K. Richards about microschools, you know, we covered a lot of ground. If you have not listened to that episode yet, pause this bonus, go back. It's season five, episode five. It's called Why Microschools Offer Big Dreams & Real Results.

Listen to that and then come back to this episode. Here's what's been haunting me in the best way possible. Most of us are waiting, waiting for district approval, waiting for the right curriculum, waiting for someone to give us permission to do what we already know our students need. And while we're waiting, we're stuck in this impossible situation where we're asking kids to be autonomous creative thinkers while we operate with zero autonomy ourselves. 

But what if there's another way? What if [00:01:00] entrepreneurial thinking isn't about starting a business, it's about reclaiming our agency? It's about asking, what can we do about this right now instead of who's going to fix this for us?

In this bonus episode, I'm breaking down three big ideas from that conversation that you can actually use this week. I'll speak to why the operating system itself is broken. How we can think entrepreneurially within our own constraints and how to bring back the intimate knowledge of students that our massive systems have designed right out.

So, let's dig into what's really staying with me from this conversation, because by the end of this episode, you're going to identify one place where you've been waiting for permission, and we're going to figure out what you can do about it right now without asking.

This is Schoolutions Teaching [00:02:00] Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. A show that isn't just theory, but practical try-it-tomorrow approaches for educators and caregivers to ensure every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. 

Hey there. Happy Friday. It's Olivia. And if you caught Monday's conversation with David K. Richards, you know, we covered a lot of ground about microschools, education reform, and what happens when we stop treating children like products on an assembly line. So I've been sitting with this conversation all week and there are three powerful ideas that keep circling back in my mind.

Things that I think apply whether you're considering opening a microschool, working in a traditional classroom, or supporting learning in any capacity. So, grab your coffee and settle in or head out for that walk and let's dig [00:03:00] in. 

The first thing that hit me hard was David's language around the operating system. He didn't say that the education system has problems, he said that the operating system is fundamentally broken. And here's why that matters. When we think something has problems, we try to fix it. We throw more money at it, we add more technology, we implement another program. But when the operating system itself is broken, you actually need a complete reboot.

David shared his fascinating example about Montessori schools. These beautiful classrooms with multi-age learning, self-direction, peace and conflict management, kids thriving. But then he experienced frustration when he went in as a consultant to these schools and found that they were also running in a top-down manner where teachers had very little voice.

As David said, the cognitive [00:04:00] dissonance was stunning, and this is what I want all of us to sit with. We cannot ask students to be autonomous, creative thinkers in systems where the adults have zero autonomy or creative freedom themselves. That is the parallel pedagogy I mentioned in our conversation. If we're organizing adults like COGS in a machine, we're going to produce children who think like cogs in a machine.

So here's a reflection question that you can think about this week: Where in your sphere of influence, your classroom, your school, your district, are you seeing this disconnect? Where are we asking kids to do something we are not modeling for the adults? Because until we address that foundational operating system issue, nothing is going to change in the way we want.

The second idea that I've actually had a lot of people reach out about is this idea that David described: the shift from educator to entrepreneur. [00:05:00] Now I know that some of you might be thinking, but um, Olivia, I didn't become a teacher to be an entrepreneur. I became a teacher to teach, and I hear you, but stay with me here.

David talked about working with his first cohort of microschool founders, seven schools launching in seven states. And the number one transformation they experienced wasn't about curriculum design or classroom management. It was this fundamental mindset shift from compliance to autonomy. 

These were educators who had been trained for their entire lives to follow the rules, to wait for permission to implement someone else's vision, and suddenly they're being told, this is your school. This is your vision. You get to decide. And you know what? It was terrifying. 

When David said it's not a linear process and we have to be adaptable. That opened up the world of entrepreneurship for his founders. [00:06:00] But here's what I want to pull out of this. For all of us, not just people opening schools. For me, entrepreneurial thinking is about agency. It's about seeing a problem and asking, what can I do about this? Instead of who's going to fix this for me? 

Whether you're in a traditional classroom or charter school or homeschooling your own kids. If there is space for entrepreneurial thinking, there's space to ask: What do my students need right now? What's the creative solution I can implement tomorrow? How can I adapt this prescribed curriculum to serve the humans in front of me? You don't need permission to care more deeply. You don't need permission to try something different within your four walls. You don't need permission to build relationships with families.

So, here's my challenge, this week, identify one [00:07:00] place where you've been waiting for permission. One place where you've been thinking if only they would let me…and instead ask yourself, what's the smallest step I could take right now without asking? 

The third idea I want to unpack is something David said when he was talking about resistance and pushback. He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, when charter schools became popularized, people would give him a hard time when he was at parties. They would argue about politics and funding and all of these big systemic issues, and his response was consistently: ask a mother or father what that school did for their life. They don't care about the politics. If that school changed their life, the politics don't matter. 

Now, I'm not here to debate charter schools or vouchers or any specific policy. That's not the point. The point is this. We've spent [00:08:00] so much time arguing about education in the abstract that we've forgotten to center the actual lived experience of children and families.

We talk about standards and accountability and achievement gaps and funding formulas, and those conversations matter. I'm not dismissing them, but somewhere along the way, we stopped asking the most important question: Is this child thriving? Does this family feel seen, heard, and partnered with? 

And here's what I think we've lost in our massive bureaucratic education system. That intimate knowledge of the humans we serve. And what's crazy is in a microschool with 15 children, you know every child, you know their siblings, you know what their caregivers do for work. You know what lights them up and what shuts them down. You know when something's off at home. In a school with [00:09:00] 600 kids, that's much harder. We have to try harder because we've really systemized ourselves right out of relationships. 

So here's a question that I'm sitting with and I hope you will too. How can we bring back that intimacy, that deep knowing into whatever context we're in? Maybe you can't restructure your entire school. You probably can't, but can you create a smaller community within it? Can you loop with your students for two years instead of one? Can you do home visits? Can you create an advisory system? 

David mentioned that when Summit Public School started doing advisory programs, 14 kids for four years, building a family. It was innovative, but now it's becoming normal. That's how change happens. Not all at once, but through people saying, I'm going to create something small and excellent, and I'm going to prove it works. [00:10:00] 

Okay, so I've talked about three big ideas. First, the operating system's broken. We need to model for adults what we want for kids. Second, entrepreneurial thinking is about agency. What can we do right now? And third, center, the families - bring intimacy and deep knowing into our work. 

So, here's what I want to leave you with. David's vision isn't that micro schools will replace everything. He's thinking maybe five to 10% of schools in 10 years, but that 5 to 10% will be laboratories. There'll be proof of concept. They'll show what's possible when you put children in families at the center. And then this is the beautiful part. Other schools will learn from them. Just like that district learned from Summit Public Schools and started implementing advisory programs and college prep for everyone.[00:11:00] Innovation doesn't have to scale to 100% to matter. It just has to exist and be excellent. 

So whether you're inspired to look into micro schools for your own family, whether you're thinking about starting one or whether you're committed to transforming the traditional system from within, like I am, there's a role for you in this reimagining. The question isn't what's the perfect solution? The question is what's our next step? 

That's it for this bonus episode. Thank you for being part of this community of educators who refuse to accept. This is just how it's always been done. If you want to learn more about David's work, head to Changemakereducation.com and definitely check out his podcast. He's having conversations that will challenge and inspire you. 

I'll see you back here on Monday with Dr. Rebecca Winthrop. She's going to speak to her book The Disengaged Teen. [00:12:00] Until then, stay curious, stay brave, and keep re-imagining what's possible. 

Schoolutions Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcast or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. Here's my invitation. Send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com and tell me one thing from this conversation that's shifting your thinking.

More importantly, tell me what your next step is. Are you going to visit a microschool? Are you going to propose an advisory program? Are you going to stop waiting for permission and just try something different on Monday? Whatever it is, I want to hear about it because this work we're doing, re-imagining education to actually serve children - it doesn't [00:13:00] happen through perfect ten-year plans. 

It happens through brave educators taking the next right step. Don't forget to tune in every Monday for the best research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. Stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday where I'll reflect and share connections to what I learned from the guest that week. See you then.