Rebuilding School From the Inside Out

Oct 28, 2025

What We’re Getting Wrong About Learning and How to Fix It
Inspired by Sir Ken Robinson (and one very patient dad at the kitchen table)

I spent a lot of time in school watching the fluorescent lights flicker overhead. Phasing in and out. Buzzing softly. The kind of thing you probably didn’t even notice if your brain wasn’t wired like mine.

But I noticed. I noticed everything. Except, apparently, what I was supposed to be learning.

I’d go home, still buzzing, and sit at the kitchen table for hours of homework. And not the kind of homework that helped me grow. It was usually just more of what hadn’t worked the first time around. Rote, rigid, boring, distracting.

Meanwhile, the stuff I was actually passionate about, the stuff I wanted to learn, was pushed to the side like a luxury I hadn’t earned.

That system wasn’t designed for kids like me.

It Was a Spirit Killer

I wasn’t bad at learning. I was bad at learning like that.

Sit still. Memorize. Regurgitate. Stay inside the lines. Spit it back. Get graded not just on ideas, but on spelling and neatness and whether your margins were exactly one inch.

I remember getting a history test back that I crushed, content-wise. I knew the material cold. But I barely passed because my grammar and spelling were a mess.
That sucked.

My brain moved faster than my hand could write. My thoughts were way out ahead of the page. The structure, tight and rigid and loud, slowed me down and burned me out.

I loved school in theory. But in practice, it drained the life out of me.

The ADHD Kid Who Actually Wanted to Learn

The irony is, I actually wanted to learn. Still do.

Give me a topic I care about and I’ll hyperfocus into it for hours, days, sometimes weeks. But school wasn’t built for that. School wasn’t built for kids like me. ADHD, creative, high-energy, and unfiltered.

And yet, despite all that, I was lucky. My parents were incredibly supportive of my creative side.

My dad, exhausted after a full day of work, would sit with me at the kitchen table, night after night, trying to help me power through the homework. He wasn’t just supervising, he was policing it. Trying to keep me on task. Protecting me from a system that didn’t understand how I worked.

He did his best. He did more than he should’ve had to. I’m incredibly grateful.
But it shouldn’t have been like that in the first place.

Sir Ken Robinson Got It

The first time I watched Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk, this one right here:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
—it hit me in the chest.

That video should be mandatory viewing for every parent, educator, or anyone remotely involved in shaping a child’s future. No joke.

He talked about creativity, divergent thinking, and how the industrial model of education systemically devalues the exact kind of minds that often go on to change the world, if they survive school with their spirit intact.

He didn’t just challenge how we teach. He challenged why we teach the way we do and who that system is actually serving.

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original."
– Sir Ken Robinson

He believed that every kid is born with tremendous potential, and the job of education is to cultivate it, not standardize it.

Required Reading: Sir Ken Robinson’s Books

I’ve read all of Sir Ken’s books. Every single one. If you’re serious about rethinking education, especially if you’re raising or teaching neurodivergent, creative, or nontraditional kids, start here:

📘 "The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything"

This one’s a foundational read. It explores how the place where natural talent and personal passion meet is the key to unlocking learning and personal fulfillment.

📗 "Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education"

This book gets more hands-on. He outlines how real educators are rethinking school from the ground up and how it can actually work better when people are brave enough to break the mold.

Observational Superpowers (and When They Vanish)

One weird thing about being the awkward (unknowingly adhd) kid in school?
You become incredibly observant.

As much as getting bullied sucked, it sharpened my people-reading skills. I learned to scan the room. Pick up on tone shifts, microexpressions, subtle movements. I noticed who was about to snap, who was about to speak, who was just quietly retreating.

That observational acuity became a superpower later in life, especially in business and leadership.

When I’m quiet, I notice everything.
When I’m talking?
Yeah, not so much. It’s like someone turns off the data feed the second I open my mouth. Total tunnel vision. Classic ADHD move.

But that quiet noticing skill? That was born in classrooms and cafeterias where I never quite fit. So even there, the awkwardness taught me something.

What School Could Be (And When It Actually Worked)

Here’s the thing. Not everything in school failed me. In fact, one teacher and one opportunity changed everything.

In Grade 10, I had a teacher who saw something in me. I was incredibly lucky that my school even had a proper graphic design department (new that year). He didn’t just teach us the basics, he pushed me to take it further.

In Grade 11, thanks to him, I landed a co-op internship at a local printing company with a big web press. I helped with typesetting, the old-school kind. We’re talking Letraset, cut and paste with wax, shooting film negatives. Real production work.

Then we got our first Mac. That moment changed everything. It opened a door. It showed me a world where I actually fit. Where my creativity and pace and love of tech weren’t liabilities, they were assets.

That co-op experience was incredible.
Hands-on learning, real work, actual mentorship.
And school needs way more of that. Earlier.

Let kids try things. Different industries, tools, roles, creative paths. The more practical experience they can get, especially in high school, the better.

Final Thought: We Can Do Better

I don’t want to burn it all down. There are great teachers, amazing programs, and incredibly dedicated parents.
But we’ve been clinging to a system designed for a world that doesn’t exist anymore.

If I could redesign school from the inside out, I’d build it around individuals. Around potential. Around learning styles, not just test scores. And around the idea that the way a person thinks isn’t a flaw to correct, but a pattern to understand.

We don’t need every kid to be the same.
We need every kid to be seen.
And given the right environment, they’ll blow your mind.

Resources to Start With:

📺 Sir Ken Robinson TED Talk – Must Watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

📘 The Element – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143116738
📗 Creative Schools – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143108069

TL, DR:School wasn’t built for everyone, but it could be.We just have to stop asking kids to fit the system, and start shaping the system around who they really are.