The Element

For our purposes here, there are two ways in which formal education often gets in the way of finding your Element. The first is that most systems of education operate on a very narrow view of aptitudes. The second is that they often disregard the different ways in which individuals actually learn.

When you add the noise of the external world to all the roles you take in it, it is easy to lose sight of who you really are. To find your Element, you need to regain that perspective.

isn’t that, more or less, what we should be aiming for? The cultivation of students who care about what’s going on in the world and are willing to take a stand for it? Students who understand their own power, their own interest, and their own responsibility in shaping the world? Schools that discuss, debate and act on ideas the students care about?

circle whatever phrases or words strike you as especially significant