When we think of education and classrooms what is the first thing we think of? Is it students with paper and pencil sitting silently as a teacher regurgitates the information that they want the students to understand? Is it organized assignments where there are right or wrong answers? Is it a teacher demanding respect, but showing the ideas of control and persuading the students to not use their own thoughts because they do not match what the teacher says is right?

I have been a teacher for 5 years now, I look at my peers in education to see what they do that works for them. I noticed a trend, they fight for student compliance instead of having the students use their energy and emotions in a collective manner.  In educational history, teachers feel that their classroom is their domain where students must act and be a certain way. Why is this?

I feel that the education system is failing the future by having students trapped and locked into where they can’t feel free to express themselves or be who they are.  Is this dangerous, maybe, but I say that making the students do the same thing year in and year out a bit robotic and cause for concern?

The idea of non-traditional education is taking what we want from education and exploding the traditional dictator like classroom environments and make the case that students need to be able to work together, with peers and technology, to achieve greatness for the future of mankind.