Legacy, Forward: Young Educators Leading at a Critical Turning Point
If you’re a pre-service teacher, a first-year, or somewhere in that foggy stretch between “I love this job” and “I’m not sure this is what I signed up for,” this one’s for you.
Make it stand out
You entered education with a picture in your head.
Maybe it looked like inspiring discussions, meaningful relationships, creative lessons, and the occasional lightbulb moment that reminds you why this work matters.
Maybe it looked like a beautiful opus of student success stories. Maybe your goal was to make a lasting impact on your local community, Possibly you even held a vision of an older version of yourself having served generations of families in the same community. Maybe it also looked like summers off, stable benefits, and a sense that if you worked hard and cared deeply, the system would meet you halfway.
I won’t sugarcoat this: parts of that picture were real. Other parts of it may need to be revised.
And none of those assumptions make you naive. That has been the story in education for a long time, and you were wise to assume some of these truths of the role. The reality is that things are changing, and that makes our profession — well — like any other profession: imperfect and uncertain.
You’re Not Wrong—School Is About to Change (Again)
Let’s start with an anchoring truth of education: learning. Learning is ultimately our business. And if you see learning as the constant, rather than focusing on the construct of what schools should look like, you have your eye on the ball. Some things about learning will never change:
People learn better in community.
Relationships matter more than strategies.
Engagement isn’t fluff—it’s fuel for deepening understanding and thoughtful consideration.
Relevance is the difference between learner compliance and authentic curiosity.
Those truths are timeless.
But the structures wrapped around them? The way we have traditionally done school? The world is shaking those structure and traditions. Those realities about what school looks like are absolutely up for renegotiation.
Public education is standing in a wash—between what school has always been and what it has to become. And whether we like it or not, you are entering the profession right at that breaking point. To be fair, people have been predicting the “end” or “reinvention” of school for decades, and I may sound like just another voice forecasting a future that never fully arrives. But this moment feels different. We’re seeing multiple pressure points hit public education all at once: ongoing funding challenges, intensifying political scrutiny, private companies recognizing schools as a massive untapped market, a societal expectation that everything be personalized on demand, and the sudden arrival of AI tools that are reshaping how work and learning happen everywhere else. Taken together, the reality is this—schools aren’t being nudged to change. They’re being pummeled from every direction.
And if we are being honest, this system — at least on a micro level — didn’t work well for many of you as students. You felt it. You lived it. You survived classes that prized sitting still over thinking deeply, coverage over understanding, and tradition over relevance. (And if it DID work well for you, I promise there were students all around you in those classrooms who felt differently.)
And yet—you still chose this work. (Thank you!)
That tells me something important.
You Matter More Than You Think
You are our most experienced experts at being students in modern schools. You’ve seen the best and worst up close as students. You know when learning feels authentic and when it feels like we are all just playing “traditional school” because that is what the schedule says to do. And at the same time, you have traded hats and started to see that system with different eyes. You have recently completed your coursework, learned the latest educational theories, and witnessed the classroom in the teacher’s shoes.
That perspective is not a weakness. Instead, it’s the seed of innovation.
But here’s the hard truth: caring about being a good teacher alone won’t be enough anymore.
If schools don’t evolve, if teachers don’t make the leap to a new model of teaching and learning —someone else will happily do it to us.
Education is moving closer to an Amazon model than the guaranteed monopoly it has long been in the United States. Schools cannot simply assume families will stay local to community schools because we have always existed. As public schools, we are local businesses with a public mission. That means we must fight harder for relevance, trust, and impact.
That doesn’t mean becoming cold or corporate. It means being clear about what actually matters: learning.
Let Go of What Doesn’t Serve the Mission
No matter what you hear from others, know this: You don’t need to carry everything the system hands you.
Some practices schools embrace are relevant and meaningful to learning. Some practices are valuable traditions. Some are habits. Others are pet projects, failed initiatives that have yet to fully dissolve, leadership preferences, community expectations, or a boisterous colleague’s inaccurate perspective.
You will need to think through everything you agree to do in your classroom from this point forward. Each habit, tradition, practice, initiative, and preference you embrace and practice, you permit to be a part of what school will look like in the future.
Here’s your permission slip:
You can question systems that prioritize compliance over curiosity.
You can redesign learning instead of just delivering it.
You can use technology to liberate time and personalize learning, not just digitize worksheets.
You can push back—with professionalism and purpose—when policies don’t serve students.
Innovation doesn’t mean burning it all down. It means asking one honest question, over and over:
“Does this help students learn better?”
If the answer is no, the tradition may not deserve your loyalty. While you may have to read the room and the situation. (education is a social business that serves many purposes, and there is rarely black and white answers — everything lives in the grey), you may need to push back on accepted norms of schools.
As a young, inspired, thoughtful educator, uncovering that something that has been embraced by the system but does not support student learning should definitely lead you to ask more questions.
Be Human First. Everything Else Is Secondary.
Here’s the part no prep program can fully prepare you for:
Your greatest impact won’t come from being perfect. It will come from being present.
AI and technology will play an important role in the classroom of the future. It has to for us to compete, to stay current, and to transform our educational institutions meaningfully to serve the next generation of learners. But that does not mean educators like you, the people who stepped forward to make a difference, do not have a role in this transformation.
Your humanity is what will make learning and schools the special place they have always been. Lean into family partnerships. Build trust before you build rigor. Let students know they are seen before they are assessed. Show up as a real person who listens, adapts, and believes in them—even when the system feels heavy.
And modernize! Learn the tech tools that are available to you. Ask how they can serve your mission and streamline your work.
Ironically, modernization can help you do the human side of teaching (the most valuable part — the part you signed up for and are most eager to do) more, not less.
When tools handle the logistics, you get time back. When learning is personalized, relationships deepen. When school stops pretending one size fits all, teachers stop pretending they’re okay being exhausted all the time.
This shift—if done well—can actually lead to more balance, more joy, and more sustainability. It can lead to stronger schools, happier teachers, and better learning. Schools that make this transformation will re-assert their place as a foundational pillar of the community.
You Will Be Questioned. That Means You’re Doing Something Right.
You will be challenged by colleagues who benefited from the old system. You will be questioned by families who don’t yet see the urgency. This is especially true for those families whose success is attributed to the way school was in the past. They may end up being the harshest critics of change, because they are also experts on education (and it worked for them).
You will feel the tension of pushing for change that won’t immediately benefit everyone equally.
That discomfort isn’t failure. It’s leadership. And you don’t need a title to lead.
As an educator, regardless of your role right now, you are in the perfect position to lead from your vantage point. This change won’t happen because a superintendent, or a director, or a principal said it should and started an initiative. It will happen because professional educators across the country acknowledge that the time for meaningful change is here and agree that the essential outcome is a system that prioritizes student learning.
And you won’t be doing it alone. There are seasoned educators — rooting for you — who know the system must change and are ready to stand beside you, not in your way.
Hold Onto Your Why—And Be Willing to Rewrite the How
You didn’t enter this profession to protect structures. You entered it to help people grow. That mission hasn’t changed. The methods must.
If we do this right — if we lean into connection, creativity, flexibility, courage, and the tools and structures needed to modernize the educational system — we don’t lose the heart of education. We finally get to center in on the real reason we got into education in the first place. That is an important part of the recipe. It will help to make sure you are a part of the educational solution not just today or tomorrow, but far beyond this school year.
And one day, much sooner than you think, someone newer will be watching you. (I know you don’t believe this. I am telling you from experience — it is true.)
Think about what you want them to say about you and your legacy in education. They will have the opportunity to feel the courage and passion it required to push for meaningful change. They will be experiencing what meaningful transformation of school looks like. They will learn what the new structure of school is and how it benefits learners and supports learning. They may even be pushing up against the changes that your generation of educators pushed for in an attempt to modernize and change with the times.
They will be copying plays out of your educational playbook.
Make them worth copying.