When Teachers Stop Teaching
đź’ˇ THOUGHT
When Teachers Stop Teaching
After 12 years in traditional classrooms, Peggy Lowe discovered that stepping back unleashed capabilities she never knew her students had.
Today, as founder of Apogee Utah, she’s not a teacher at all – she’s a guide. The shift has transformed not just her approach to education, but her understanding of how children learn.
“There were times my fellow guide and I would just look at each other and whisper ‘shh… don’t say anything,'” she told us on the OpenEd podcast.
“Let them figure it out.”
At her learning studio in South Jordan, Utah, students manage their own schedules. They decide when to eat, when to move, when to rest. No permission slips for bathroom breaks. No enforced silence during lunch.
Chaos? Far from it.
When given real responsibility, kids rise to meet it. They learn to regulate themselves, make thoughtful choices, and respect others – not from fear of punishment, but from genuine understanding. The challenge isn’t teaching kids to be responsible. It’s learning to get out of their way.
đź“Š TREND
The Memory Factory
We built schools like factories, assuming every eight-year-old brain processes information the same way.
But new research on memory reveals something startling: In a class of 30 third-graders, some kids will have the working memory of a kindergartener. Others will match college students.
Working memory is your brain’s scratch pad – the space where you juggle new information. Most of us can handle 3-5 pieces at once. Then it breaks.
The factory model assumes everyone’s scratch pad is the same size (it isn’t).
Some kids need information in smaller chunks. Others can handle complexity. Both can learn effectively if we let them work the way their brain is wired.
⚒️ TOOL
The Ultimate Education Reading List
“I’d been teaching for nearly 20 years when I started homeschooling my kids,” writes veteran educator Dr. Claire Honeycutt on her Substack, ClarifiEd. “But teaching college students and teaching 5-year-olds? Turns out those are pretty different things.”
Her candid reflection led to an essential reading list for parents diving into home education. Here are our top picks from her recommendations:
- Wild + Free Family by Ainsley Arment
- How Children Learn by John Holt
- Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
The full list includes 15 carefully chosen books covering everything from classical education to child development.
(QUOTE) OF THE DAY
“The greatest sign of strength is knowing when to let go.”
Chinese Proverb
That’s all for today!
– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)