Adults lie. It’s not that we want to lie, no one wants to lie. We just–sometimes–feel like we have to.

Let me ask you something. Aside from school can you name a single place where you are grouped by age?

I think segregation by age sets the stage for the many lies of school.

There was so much I was told that I needed to learn. I was told I wouldn’t succeed if I didn’t finish school (I didn’t, for the record, and haven’t dropped dead yet). I was told I needed to memorize these formulas and vice presidents. I was told art was secondary to everything else. I was told to sit down and shut up and do what I was told, because the adults in charge knows best.

These weren’t malicious lies! Far from it. My parents, like all parents, want the best for their kids. The adults wanted us to achieve great things.

but… I think the age segregation might have been a red flag.

I’m seeing it clearly now. It crystallizes for me why ALC is so interesting.

You see, I don’t live in a world where I’m grouped with other 28 year olds but I do use my kanban everyday.

That’s the big difference. We aren’t teaching kids some abstract thing that will become clear to them why they are learning it later. We aren’t forcing them to use systems that will be completely obsolete in the “real” world.

We are preparing them for the world as it is now, a world constantly and increasingly in flux.

We are preparing them like we are preparing ourselves. The tools they use to learn, we use to achieve.