Asking Why Instead of Accepting Status Quo
Why 4 walls in the classroom? Why 1 teacher for 28 students? Why this system? Why?
Ricky is a student who just cannot sit still. He talks quite often out of turn and disrupts the classroom more than other kids.
He’s Carrie Markel’s favorite student, but he’s the one child who’s disturbing the entire curriculum.
Ricky is just one of millions of students who made Carrie question whether the students are the problem or whether it’s the confines of the educational system that’s failing our kids.
Originally from Denver, Colorado, Carrie Markel joined the Teach For America Kansas City corps in 2012 with a B.A. in English Literature received from the Colorado College.
After two years of teaching in a classroom in Kansas City Public Schools, Carrie knew she wanted to work outside of these four walls. Just like some of her students, she couldn’t sit still and her mind couldn’t stay in the classroom. Instead, after having been awakened to the reality of poverty and educational injustice, she wanted to go talk to all the decision makers. She wanted to create change.
That’s when the success story of The Lean Lab began. The Lean Lab is a laboratory for PK-12 education, which brings together educators, grassroots leaders and innovators to rapidly launch solutions that accelerate the creation of excellent educational opportunities for all kids in Kansas City.
In this episode, we also talk about the reality that education is becoming more democratized and that schools will soon become more hyper localized. Carrie shares how she sees hope surfacing again, how communities, neighborhoods and parents are starting to take back this idea of owning their child’s education.
She relates how hard the first years of working as a Teach for America teacher are and that it’s a greater learning experience than college ever can be.
Find out more about Carrie and The Lean Lab here.
Be sure to listen and if you enjoy the episode, we hope you will share it with your family and friends.
