Ep. 7 | 'No Excuses' -- School design possibilities abound when you exist in a culture without barriers

The Hummingbird Stories

We are Donnell Cannon and Jenny O’Meara, two passionate educators. Welcome to Season 2 of The Hummingbird Stories! This season, we’re asking the question: What does an extraordinary education look like for every student?

We’re hosting conversations with the most innovative, equity-minded leaders in education from all across the country — and that includes young people.

In this episode, we look at a school that was designed in the absence of many of the obstacles prevalent in the K-12 public school space. We talk with Long-View Micro School co-founders Kevin Moore and Lisa Zapalac, as well as Cathy Lewis, a math specialist working with The Number Lab at the school. They show us the possibilities that abound when you design school in a culture without barriers.

We don’t just want to hear from guests on our show. We want to hear from you, too. In every episode on this season of The Hummingbird Stories, we’ll pose a question and ask you to weigh in through our Telbee. This week’s question asks you to think about the four assumptions Moore and Zapalac made in designing the school. Following Long-View's example, what four assumptions would your ideal school have? Visit sayhi.chat/hummingbird to chime in.We know a lot of “Hummingbirds” who are no longer waiting for change in a system on fire, but rather choosing to do something. We hope they’ll inspire you to take real action, no matter how small, toward redesigning schools.

An extraordinary education for all young people is possible. But it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.