AI vs. Time: Who’s Really Winning in Education?
He wasn’t falling behind because he couldn’t keep up. He just needed space. Space to think. Space to breathe. Space to learn in a way that actually made sense to him. When his mom realized she could restructure his day, she looked at me through tears and said, “It feels like I’m getting my son back.” That moment stayed with me. And now, with AI showing up in our homes and classrooms, I keep wondering. What are we doing with the time it gives us? Are we using it to bring our kids back to themselves, or are we pushing them further away?
Born To Leap
Some people follow the expected path. I never have. From jumping straight from the classroom into a principal role during the recession to leaving a secure job to start my own school to now building a global edtech startup, my life has been a series of leaps. Not all were easy, but each was worth it. Along the way I discovered my purpose: creating spaces where others can be seen, valued, and inspired to dream bigger. As my mom likes to say, some of us are just born to leap.
What If the Next Steve Jobs Is Sitting in the Back of the Classroom?
We often miss the quiet ones, the students who don’t raise their hands, who challenge norms in subtle ways, who don’t fit the school version of “successful.” Yet, they’re often the ones with the greatest potential. This piece is a call to reimagine education so it works for the thinkers, the questioners, the ones sitting silently in the back with world-changing ideas.
Soft Skills Are the New Power Tools (And AI Can’t Touch Them Yet)
As AI tools like Gronk 4 push the boundaries of what machines can do, schools have to ask a bigger question. Are we preparing students just to keep up, or to lead and think for themselves in a world full of uncertainty? When I was leading a California Distinguished School, we made soft skills the foundation. Curiosity, collaboration, critical thinking, and metacognition were not side notes. They were the core. Our teachers built their own framework to measure growth in these areas, and over time, everything started to shift. Students took more ownership of their learning. Teachers leaned into empathy and inquiry. That is where the real transformation happened.