Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

And then you start to show them other examples of teachers like the Algebra II teacher or others

where the kids are calm, they're thoughtful, and they're assured, and they act professional.

They are advising a family on their financial planning.

And the demeanor they bring to their math, all of a sudden the teachers perk up and say, oh.

I guess I knew that, of course.

I've always wanted to do that, but I didn't know how.

I knew I was noticing disengagement in my kids, but I thought that the opposite of disengagement was entertainment and everybody putting their hand up and saying, oh, call on me.

This is fun.

I love school, which is great.

That's not terrible, but it's not enough.

Deep engagement, it looks calm.

It looks thoughtful.

It looks agentic.

It looks like kids are actually interested in what they're studying.

They understand why they're doing it, and they're deeply invested in what they're doing.

Well, she's teaching algebra, too, as a means to human development, right?

In education, we've made the mistake of thinking that the quote-unquote outcome of school is quote-unquote learning, right?

Learning outcomes are how we measure whether school was successful.

But I would argue that learning outcomes are a misnomer.

They're a red herring.