The American education system is fixated on finding the latest method or system to get students reading and writing. Unfortunately, no hack exists. Reading is sometimes dull. Writing is often hard. You can’t entertain yourself to an education.

My favorite teachers could think on the fly. They weren’t tied down to a lesson plan. They could take any idea, question, or random comment and turn it into something meaningful. One moment we’d be talking about the lesson, and the next we’d be connecting it to Martin Luther King Jr., traveling through France, or a documentary they watched the night before. The lesson felt alive. But in many schools today, a culture of standardization leaves little room for that kind of spontaneity. And with it, we risk losing the energy, curiosity, and human connection that make learning memorable.