Blog Posts

What if the most important work of opening a new school happened before the first student ever arrived? Before a single student walks through the front doors of Woodbridge Elementary School this fall, something important is already taking shape.

What if every student left school believing, "I can make a meaningful difference in the world—and I know how to begin?"

One of Henry Ford Learning Institute’s most popular ways of supporting schools, districts, and colleges is Design Thinking for Deeper Student Learning, a 3-day immersive workshop for educators who want to create more student-centered, engaging, and meaningful learning experiences.

Choosing a college path, preparing for a career, or deciding what comes next in life can feel overwhelming. There is often pressure to have the right answer, the perfect plan, or a clear destination. Design Thinking offers a different way in.

We live in a world that is transforming with increasing speed, complexity and lack of clarity – and we need to prepare students to be able to thrive and lead positive change now and for a future that is constantly evolving and impossible to predict with any certainty.

“All education is political; teaching is never a neutral act,” writes Paulo Freire in his 1968 book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Education requires the shaping of perspectives, beliefs, and values, and even seemingly neutral teaching methods can reinforce existing power structures.

What differentiates us in human evolution is our ability to tell a story, and anyone who has been in a workshop with me knows that I rely on this as a constant for many (possibly too many) of the practices and content of our Youth Leadership Design Jams (YLDJ)

Funded by The Skillman Foundation and with collaboration from the Black Male Educators Alliance, Allies for Radical Collaboration (ARC) is a year-long fellowship for white-identifying educators who lead, love, and nurture Detroit students.