Author, mother, healthcare aid, and former SDE facilitator Meaza Love joins Annie Friday to discuss how the American Dream has come to affect US schooling. Meaza talks about the limits to creativity, originality, and divergent thinking as schools push young people to one right answer, one career pathway, one specific end point that maybe doesn’t even exist. This conversations touches on the original intent of the term American Dream which was first coined during the Great Depression in 1931 by James Truslow Adams, historian and author. Adams thought believed in a dream that would allow every American to achieve their fullest capabilities “regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position,” according to Wikipedia. Meaza shares recent discoveries for her regarding unschooling and the lifestyle of self-directed education (SDE). She sees SDE as a pathway alternative to school that would potentially help preserve her own child’s unique and creative ways of being in the world. While the world has been shifting greatly since the model of schooling was put in place, schools themselves have not changed much. Together, Annie and Meaza dream aloud about how the system of schooling could shift to adapt to the lifestyles of today by centering relationship skills, critical thinking, and creative processes. These days, with AI and robots, we no longer need to train students to be good factory line workers. By adapting schools to honor individuality and personhood, could we shift back to that original intent of the American dream?

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