How do we help schools and teachers better prepare students for their future? As an educator for 40 years, who has lived inside of classrooms and school buildings for most of my adult life, it is a question that should challenge us to step back and look at what schools are, and what purpose they are meant to serve.

We have seen in our “Deeper Learning” workshops at Kupu Hou Academy that when teachers are given permission to give purpose to learning, to create environments in their class than engender passion and connection to the community, teachers thrive and students leave school with a sense of direction and an understanding of their role in society.

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself,” John Dewey, an influential educational philosopher, famously said over a century ago. Schools and the adults that work in them have been given an increasing set of expectations as society has evolved into an intricate and diverse set of systems, interconnected technologies, and global dynamics. In this evolution, school has become at times more about preparation, than life itself.

As the world got more complex, layers were added to what it meant to become “educated.” In doing so, we moved further and further away from connecting what we need to know and why we need to know it.

If one were to look at the breadth and depth of a typical school’s curriculum and requirements for graduation, it would predominantly consist of hundreds of facts learners need to memorize and few opportunities to take that information and do something useful with it. Classrooms have been full of students asking the question “when will I ever use this?” for generations, and rightfully so.

So the evolution of schools and learning still needs to answer the question, “what is school for?” There is hope in answering this question within the movement we refer to as Deeper Learning. In the book “In Search of Deeper Learning” by Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine, the authors visited hundreds of schools across the United States to look for places where learning was engaging, where students found purpose and the school truly prepared students to take active roles in their lives and society. In successful schools they found three characteristics that activated this: creativity, mastery, identity.

When schools activate creativity, students are given the opportunity to take information they are acquiring to use it in new and interesting ways. We have seen teachers reframe their curriculum so that students have choice and opportunities that apply critical thinking and problem solving, skills that are necessary in this age of constant change.

When schools create the conditions for mastery, they move from memorization to students using information to solve problems and to apply it. It’s one thing to ask students to learn the rules of the game, but unless they get a chance to play it they’ll never understand how the rules work or what the limits are.

When students have the opportunity to personalize information they create identity about themselves, their capabilities, and their ability to learn on their own. They have the skills and abilities to be lifelong learners.

Most importantly, they feel prepared to make a difference in their community. For them, education has been life itself and they are ready for the next step in their lives. This summer we will be expanding this work with teachers with a professional learning workshop titled, “Futureproof: Designing Learning so students can thrive in a changing in challenging world.” We believe that when we give teachers and schools the experiences they need, we create an education our children need and deserve.

Mark Hines, Ph.D., is director of Kupu Hou Academy at Mid-Pacific Institute.