This message is for those who’ve experienced intellectual, emotional and spiritual compression from the mandatory education system. You are not alone in sensing that standardised education is not normal, right or healthy. Your body does not lie. And although it can seem that it spans from horizon to horizon. Hold tight. It has a boundary. There is so much more to you and life.

This is a story about a young boy, a boy who was just like many of you. He liked making things. In fact, he was so good at making that all the children on the street would gather around to see his latest inventions. Hot air balloons, planes, radios, gunpowder and cannons. He commanded his world.

But all his creativity stopped one summer because he knew he was moving to the big school in September. And, being a good child, he also knew he should forget his childish ways and focus on schoolwork. He wanted to grow up. He wanted to fit in, to be just like everyone else. That summer, he forgot who he was.

School began. He sat, listened, did what he was told, completed his homework and studied for tests. He was a very responsible boy. He was also average in school, not the best, but not the worst. Many summers passed, and he grew older. School ended, and he went to a university for makers.

For it was there, he would learn how adults create. Long days followed with many tedious subjects, projects and tests. Just four more years, and then he’d get to make great things once more. But somewhere in between, he lost his way and drifted into a deep sleep.

In his dream, he became a fish that roamed the oceans, and while deep underwater, he noticed something quite strange. He saw many fish crammed in an open fishbowl. It made him think of his past. Why, in a world so vast and curious, are children confined to standardised schools? Could we expand the concept of classrooms to suit different kinds of people? Could one be created that was just the right size for him? That was the first thought that jolted him awake from his long and deep sleep. The second was when he realised 25 years had passed.

Wide awake and now a man with a dream. He decided to make a school for children who were just like him, children with ideas and the energy to bring them to life. He called the school TwoFish. Have you heard of it? Do you know why he called it TwoFish? Because when two or more fish swim together in a coordinated group, it’s called a school.

Here, he would remember who he was and how to imagine and create. Together with the children, they explored and played. They made amazing machines, games and incredible discoveries. The classroom was their canvass; with their imagination and hands, they magically transformed nothing into something. Subsequently, and from this environment, a beautiful vision manifested, a doorway and a key.

A vision of the future with five integrated schools available to all, each fundamentally different to suit different needs. Academic: for people who value specificity, subjects and tests. Neoclassical: for people who value security, rules and helping others. Progressive: for people who value contrasts, observing others and innovating ideas. Neotraditional: for people who value exploring the unknown, discovering and delivering extraordinary value. And Democratic: for people who value questioning everything that is. In a multi-game reality, everybody can arrive at a different destination. And just like you, all these schools are equally important and needed.

A doorway. A truth. A Declaration Of Ownership and Responsibility. A future where the people proclaim:

1. I’m navigating.

2. I prioritise.

3. I negotiate my needs.

4. I create the future.

5. I value my mistakes.

6. I’m in control.
   
   

These are the new rules of a multi-game reality. Autonomy, connection, growth, creation, questions and agency are fundamental human values. These are the foundation stones that all children can stand on as they endeavour to discover themselves, a meaningful struggle and how to express their greatest potential.

And a key that unlocks a new relationship with ourselves and our environment, especially our homes and schools. You see, if you listen, our environment speaks to us. It can say you deserve to:

1. Explore your values.

2. Feel powerful.

3. Negotiate your needs.

4. Create your future.

5. Master your life.

6. Command your mission.
   
   

Children become the environments we create. Environmental design is a language we must listen to, learn to understand and speak.

The Quantum Family is a vision, a doorway and a key to a better future. It is both old and new in the same way that the word “quantum” contains two opposites. It can mean something vast and minimal: a giant leap or a tiny particle. Quantum is one word that unites two worlds. It unites the past and the future. The known and the unknown. It unites our desire to feel secure AND dream. The Quantum Family unites all adults and children in their shared goal to create a better future.

Together, we form The Quantum Family.

Copyright: The Quantum Family 2024.