"Educators are still spending way too much time trying to control what kids learn, bending the content to their own purposes, hoping beyond hope to change - by using technology - but not change too much"
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Daniel Greenberg points to a persistent contradiction at the heart of schooling: adults proclaim a desire for innovation while clinging to control. Teachers and systems select what counts as knowledge, sequencing and packaging it to fit institutional aims, then enlist technology to polish delivery without disrupting the hierarchy that keeps adults in charge and students compliant. The result is slicker worksheets and faster pacing, not a different relationship to learning.
As cofounder of the Sudbury Valley School, Greenberg argued that genuine learning springs from intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and responsibility. When adults bend content to their own purposes, they communicate that the purpose of school is not discovery or agency but obedience to an external agenda. Students learn to play the game rather than to pursue questions that matter to them. Technology, in this frame, becomes a tool of control: dashboards to monitor, platforms to assign, algorithms to pace. The rhetoric says revolution; the practice preserves the same power dynamic.
The deeper issue is fear of letting go. Standards, testing, and accountability pressures make control feel necessary. Equity concerns and risk management amplify the impulse to prescribe every step. Yet by trying to change without changing too much, schools miss the transformative uses of technology: to open access to communities of practice, to enable real projects, to give learners the tools to make, share, and critique in public. That requires shifting authority, not just upgrading hardware.
Greenberg invites a reframing. Trust that children can set goals worth pursuing. Build environments where mixed ages and interests intersect, where adults serve as resources rather than directors, and where assessment attends to artifacts, narratives, and growth. When technology amplifies student agency instead of adult control, content ceases to be something imposed and becomes the living medium through which learners build knowledge, identity, and community.
As cofounder of the Sudbury Valley School, Greenberg argued that genuine learning springs from intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and responsibility. When adults bend content to their own purposes, they communicate that the purpose of school is not discovery or agency but obedience to an external agenda. Students learn to play the game rather than to pursue questions that matter to them. Technology, in this frame, becomes a tool of control: dashboards to monitor, platforms to assign, algorithms to pace. The rhetoric says revolution; the practice preserves the same power dynamic.
The deeper issue is fear of letting go. Standards, testing, and accountability pressures make control feel necessary. Equity concerns and risk management amplify the impulse to prescribe every step. Yet by trying to change without changing too much, schools miss the transformative uses of technology: to open access to communities of practice, to enable real projects, to give learners the tools to make, share, and critique in public. That requires shifting authority, not just upgrading hardware.
Greenberg invites a reframing. Trust that children can set goals worth pursuing. Build environments where mixed ages and interests intersect, where adults serve as resources rather than directors, and where assessment attends to artifacts, narratives, and growth. When technology amplifies student agency instead of adult control, content ceases to be something imposed and becomes the living medium through which learners build knowledge, identity, and community.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
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