I've worked in education for over a decade, ranging from private tutoring at the college level to teaching at an inner-city public school to designing curricula for an online school servicing students all around the world. Some of my methods have been downright scandalous in the eyes of old-school educators. I allowed students to use phones in my classroom, integrating the technology into the lesson instead of forbidding it. I let students choose their own contemporary novels to write about instead of forcing The Scarlet Letter down their throats. I assign fewer (and shorter!) essays than many of my colleagues, emphasizing quality over quantity. When my school administrator wanted to add a new course specifically for students who were struggling with writing and "traditional" grammar tests, he asked me to design it.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn't create problems with education—it just exposed them. For years, our classrooms have lagged behind the culture. Students live in a media-saturated world yet find themselves more disengaged than ever with reading, grammar, and composition, and most teachers (at no fault of their own!) are too overworked to provide constructive individual feedback on essays. Outdated methods aren't working for Gen Z. It's not because kids are lazy. They actually have a lot to say. They just need the right platform to speak—and the right audience to listen.