Welcome to Schoolish: The Newsletter

In the summer between 6th and 7th grade, I went to a writing camp at Rice University in Houston, Texas where I grew up. In the camp, I spent two weeks learning to carefully craft and edit my own short story and blog post (which at the time was this new way of writing on the internet). Then...

"Wow! Mike, I am so impressed by what you've done here. Great work sir. You are truly a budding writer." I will never forget those words or the moment when I felt like my hard work paid off. One of my writing coaches at the camp told me he thought my writing was fantastic and get it published in the local newspaper.

When I returned to school I did so with this new "hat." My "writer's hat." That experience helped me see myself differently. I saw myself as a budding, talented, writer. Then...

I had my first writing assignment in my 7th grade English class. A short story! "I've got this," I mumbled to myself. I was so confident and ready to do what I'd been taught in my summer writing camp. I stayed up late, making sure my story was well connected and well crafted. I read it aloud over and over to my mom to make sure that I didn't miss anything. After a week of this, I was ready. I was ready to turn in my masterpiece. Then...

"It is my professional opinion that you could not have written something like this." Crushed. My teacher read my story and her first thought was not "Wow! Mike, I am so impressed by what you've done here. Great work sir. You are truly a budding writer." No. It was "He must have cheated." I'd fight this for nearly a month before the principal of this school told me, "I'm sorry, but we are accepting the professional opinion of your teacher."

That was the moment I knew school needed to be reinvented.

What is Schoolish?

School-ish is a podcast hosted and produced by me, Mike Yates. The podcast is a platform for tough conversations many refuse to have about the current state of education and the future of learning. So far I've had some pretty cool guests with some amazing stories! Guests like Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang from Classroom Without Walls and Jeffrey Henderson who helped build the Yeezy brand, Tread by Everlane, and now has his own brand, Ninety Nine Products.

This podcast is a collection of conversations and stories from everyday people simply because everyone on earth has experienced school. I'm hoping to discover what works, what doesn't and the next crazy set of ideas that have the power to transform school and learning and education as we know it. This is my sociological imagination at play.

Listen to the podcast here on apple podcast or anywhere you get your podcasts:

Schoolish: The Newsletter

As a part of the conversation, I am launching this newsletter (thank you for being here) to celebrate what is going right in education! This is the part of the conversation where we look forward to what we can build that empowers students to thrive.

Expect to read profiles of organizations, startups, and people making the future of learning happen every day!

I'll be highlighting organizations like the Marcy Lab School as they build new pathways to careers in tech for Black and Brown people and B360 as they teach STEM using dirtbikes!

This is the celebration of what learning will be like in the future and the people that are making it happen!

I hope you join me on this journey of celebration.