Holistic Equity

09/01/2026

I can't stop thinking about this story. At Village Free School in Portland, a 13-year-old named Steven runs the wrestling room. When things get too rough, the kids work it out themselves — checking in, negotiating boundaries, and getting back to play.

*"Little Sam says that his shoulder took a hit / Used his verbal tool because he had to quit"*

I turned it into a song for this week's Tuesday Tribute. It's one of those stories that makes you rethink what kids are actually capable of when we step back and let them lead.

Watch it here:

08/29/2026

I made something a little different and I'm really proud of how it turned out.

I've been using AI to turn education research into stories, then into song lyrics, then into actual music videos. This is the first one in a series I'm calling Saturday Sagas.

This one tells the story of Sally, a fourth grader sitting in the hallway feeling invisible, and Mr. Black, her teacher who's burning out following scripts he didn't write. There's a breaking point — Sally cries during test prep and says, "I love writing stories but instead, nobody has asked me what I need. I never get to plant a single seed."

That line gets me every time.

Mr. Black stays up late, finds Self-Determination Theory, and starts making changes. Choice Fridays. Student-led teaching teams. Morning circles. And it works — not just on test scores, but on the things that actually matter. Sally ends up running her own show, teaching other kids, and telling the superintendent straight up: "This is where we all belong because we don't want to miss a day."

If you're a teacher, a principal, a parent, or anyone who cares about what school could feel like for kids — give this four minutes. I think it'll resonate.

08/29/2026

I keep thinking about this one line:

*"Instead of getting a stern decree, the teacher said, let us wait and see!"*

I made a music video based on a true story about a quiet kid named Eli who had basically learned how to disappear in school. Then he ended up at Clonlara in Ann Arbor, and for three whole days he just kicked leaves in the yard. Nobody corrected him. Nobody made him sit down. And on the fourth day, he picked up a photography book and found something that lit him up from the inside.

The whole story came from my interview with Chandra Montgomery Nichol, and turning it into a song honestly made me feel the weight of it differently. There is a moment where older kids mock a younger student's artwork, and instead of punishment, everyone sits in a circle until they work through it together. And Eli, this kid who used to hide, stands up and says:

*"You cannot make a person small, just because you are louder than us all!"*

If you are a parent or a teacher or just someone who cares about kids, I think this one is worth four minutes of your time.

This song is based on a true story (b.o.a.t.s.) called The Height o...

08/28/2026

I keep thinking about this one line from a music video I made:

*"A kid who skipped his breakfast was on fire writing tales, / Of dragons breathing poetry while hunger's grip just pales."*

We've all seen it, right? The kid whose home life is a mess but who lights up when they get to create something, lead something, connect with someone. And yet so many schools still operate under the assumption that none of that can happen until every basic need is perfectly met first.

I had AI write a story about replacing Maslow's pyramid with something that actually works — Self-Determination Theory — and then, with AI help again, turned it into a song. It's part of my ongoing series where I use AI tools to turn nonfiction content into music videos.

The story grew out of my essay on HolisticEquity.org that makes a compelling case for why we need to retire the hierarchy altogether.

If you work in a school, I'd genuinely love to know what you think.

And the music video is here: https://buff.ly/cJoBAyq

Links to the story and the essay in the comments (if it’s not there yet, tag me for it.)

Catalytic Pedagogy can make K-12 classroom instruction more effective, more efficient, and less wasteful.

08/27/2026

I keep thinking about this line from the latest song in my AI music video series:

"This place didn't fix what was broken inside / It just gave me the space to heal my own heart."

It comes from a true story about a young man named Elias at Village Free School in Portland. He arrived angry at twelve, pushing every boundary. By seventeen, he was standing in a circle surrounded by kids, parents, and staff, telling them honestly about the journey — the fighting, the mediators, the slow learning that real freedom comes with responsibility.

The story came out of my interview with Kathy Crisp and Noppawan Lerttharakul, and turning it into a song made it hit even harder. No caps thrown in the sky. No diplomas. Just a community witnessing a young person step into the world ready.

If you know anyone who works with kids — or anyone who cares about what education could be — I think they'd appreciate this.

Watch here:

This song is based on a true story (b.o.a.t.s.) called The Altar of...

08/26/2026

I've been thinking a lot about the kids who get called problems just because they don't fit the system. So I made a song about one of them. I learned about him in my interview with Christine Jones of De Ruimte (the Space) in Soest, Netherlands.

Ruben sits under the table folding paper dragons while the lesson goes on above him. Everyone sees defiance. But that's not what's happening.

"He wasn't fighting them, he was saving his soul / Keeping the heavy hand from taking control"

By the end of the video, Ruben is standing in a circle of younger kids, teaching them to fold wings. Not because someone fixed him — because someone finally gave him room.

This one got me a little emotional, honestly. If you know a kid like Ruben, or you were a kid like Ruben, I think you'll feel it too.

https://buff.ly/cdeAEuj

This song is based on a true story (b.o.a.t.s.) called The Architec...

08/26/2026

I made a country song about a psychology controversy and I'm not even sorry about it.

Self-Determination Theory says every person needs autonomy to thrive. Then researchers showed that some kids were most motivated when their *mothers* chose for them. So what does freedom actually mean?

I wrote it as a tribute to Dolly Parton, turned it into a song using AI, and posted it free on Patreon. If you've ever wondered whether "student choice" means the same thing in every culture and every classroom, this one's for you.

When Self-Determination Theory claimed that autonomy is a universal human need, cross-cultural psychologists fired back with evidence that t

08/25/2026

I've been working on something a little different — using AI to turn real stories from real schools into music videos. This is the first one for a series called Tuesday Tributes, and honestly, it hits harder than I expected.

It's about a boy named Felix who showed up at a self-directed school at eleven, full of noise and grief, and what happened when the school didn't react the way schools usually do. Instead of a standard suspension, they asked him a question that changed everything.

"Can you stand before this room of every single peer
And convince us that you want this
That you're choosing to be here."

I'd love for you to watch it:

08/25/2026

I keep thinking about this one line from the latest music video in my AI series:

*"We haven't taught them knowledge — we have taught them not to care."*

The video tells the story of a third-grade teacher who spends fifteen years watching bright-eyed kids walk in every September full of questions — and leave every June asking only one: "Will testing make me prove it?" It's a song about what happens when a school works exactly the way it was designed to work... and that design is the problem.

I made this using a bunch of AI tools — writing the story, turning it into lyrics, generating the music and visuals. It's part of a series I've been doing, and this one really got under my skin while I was putting it together. The moment where a straight-A student named Sarah is given freedom to choose her own project and breaks down crying because she doesn't know what the "right answer" is — that's not fiction for a lot of kids.

Here it is if you want to watch:

This song is based on Chapter 2: The Story of School in my book The...

08/24/2026

I keep making these AI music videos about education stories that move me, and this one really stayed with me after I finished it.

It's about a place called the Kinder Republic, where kids govern themselves, make their own decisions, and handle conflict without adults swooping in to fix everything. The whole video follows a group of children trying to make a film about their values, and of course everything goes sideways — someone falls asleep on set, someone drops the camera, everyone argues about who gets the last line.

But it's how they handle all of it that matters.

"They sat in a circle on the ground, the Parliament of the young. They listened close to every word that rolled off every tongue. No labels thrown, no angry shouts, just a search for what is right."

If you work with kids, or you're raising them, or you just believe they're capable of more than we usually give them credit for — I think you'll appreciate this.

https://buff.ly/wt1BhTg

This story is derived from my interview with Kinder Republic's Siva...