As the strangest summer I’ve ever seen trundles on, the question on everyone’s mind is: what will schools do in the fall?

Truthfully, no one knows. We all want schools open and things “back to normal.” We all want our kids (not to mention our teachers and staff) to be safe. Right now, the science seems to be telling us we can’t have both.

There are loads of articles out there offering ideas and viewpoints on what needs to happen next for schools. Most are very gloomy. I believe we have it in us to do more than create a temporary fix; I believe we can create a future that is full of hope and new ideas.

I have this fantasy in which we create a whole series of small, one or two room, schoolhouses. We put them all through the town, in every neighborhood, so every kid can walk to school. Inside, we go all “modern Waldorf” on the curricula, abandoning the dreaded “standardization” and embracing the wild creativity of hands-on learning. Imagine a garden out back, kids making lunches and exploring ideas and questions that are really interesting to them. Science, math, language, reading, social science and all the rest get taught as part of the exploration, with information tailored for different levels of comprehension and ability.

I just heard on the morning news about a group of parents starting “pandemic pods” to privately educate their kids in small groups. This isn’t that. While the two ideas share some common ground, I’m talking education for all – public schools revamped.

OK. So we all know this isn’t going to happen. Certainly not by this year’s start. But before we all begin snorting in derision, let’s just pause to consider a few of the general concepts within it.

We know that every child learns at their own pace and in their own way. Multi-age classrooms allow teachers to meet each learner where they are and tailor instruction to that particular child, sometimes advancing, sometimes slowing down – all without the negatives of leaving their peer group, or the stigma of being “held back.” What’s more, as the brilliant psychologist Lev Vygotsy noted, kids make quantum leaps in learning when someone who knows how to do something is there to show them the first time, a concept he referred to as scaffolding. Multi-age classrooms naturally create a space for peer scaffolding, benefiting both the learner and the teacher, roles which ideally change depending upon the situation.

Public schools had actually begun experimenting with multi-age classrooms with some really exciting results when along came No Child Left Behind and it’s grade-specific standardized testing, and while learning by doing and graduated information – that is, presenting things in differing ways depending on a given learner’s readiness, style and comprehension level – may seem tricky, it’s not at all a foreign concept. This is the art of teaching. Teachers already do it in their classrooms, museums teach this way every day. There simply needs to be more support and funding for this future. Imagine, for example, if schools had one-tenth of the payroll and testing capacity of the average sports team. Imagine if we invested in our kids.

I acknowledge there’s a lot in this small school fantasy that’s just not possible. But you know what else was “impossible?” Every single cool thing we’ve ever done as a species. From harnessing fire to landing on the moon, we’ve managed to do a lot of impossible things. In comparison, rethinking education doesn’t seem so far-fetched.

In the here and now, let’s work for ways to do what we can to make things work and keep everyone safe. And let’s start dreaming about what we really want education to look like. Let’s take our moon shot.

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