Schools tend to exist in a parallel universe from the realities of working parents and guardians. Daily schedules and monthly calendars don't match between work and school, often creating stress and financial strain for child care. Furthermore, kids often come home from school drained and tired, creating additional parenting challenges. To top it all off, children are not learning skills that are helpful to home life. In fact, kids often get the message that domestic work is somehow beneath them or not their job. 

Wouldn't it be great if our kids came home from school eager to help in the kitchen, work in the garden, and otherwise be more productive in the home? What if they were learning skills to help with minor plumbing or carpentry tasks? And what if students were excited to do homework because it was fun and rewarding for them and they wanted to do it, and it wasn't even assigned or required by the teacher? Imagine if parents and guardians were not required to be after-school teachers after coming home from a hard day's work. We are advocating for the elimination of most if not all homework, while simultaneously increasing learning and expectations. How is this possible? By using time efficiently and by using more engaging teaching methods.

The majority of time that kids spend in school is not even utilized for learning. There is plenty of time in the school day to get all the work and learning done. We just need to be willing to organize schools so this can happen. 

The Inspired Learner Model inspires kids to learn with intrinsic motivations rather than coercion.

This is just the beginning. We want to see a complete rethinking of what the school day and school year looks like. We want a schedule that not only maximizes learning potential but better compliments adult work schedules. We envision schools being open 220 days a year from 7 AM until 6 PM. (Students would only be required to be there for the normal 6-6.5 hours, perhaps from 9 to 3:30). We would like extracurricular activities to be held during the school day. We want parents to have the option to be regularly involved in project-based activities and tutoring in the classroom. We want to enact a paradigm where kids don't want to spend as much time in front of screens because they have interests that they prefer to pursue and more friends to talk to—such interesting stuff to talk about because of what they are excited about and engaged in at school. Imagine schools where kids wake up in the morning and want to go to class, and when they get to school they want to be there.