DRAFT IN PROGRESS: The Manifesto 25 companion

Dear friends,

This is a living draft of a book that grows from Manifesto 25: a call for reclaiming education. This volume is conceived as a companion to the manifesto: a space to deepen, challenge, and extend its provocations through a series of short, punchy essays.

Since launching the manifesto, we’ve heard from hundreds of educators, learners, activists, and dreamers across the world. Many of you have already embodied its spirit in your work: questioning outdated systems, resisting imposed futures, and co-creating spaces for more liberating, just, and human learning.

This book is both a continuation and an invitation. It brings together 25 short essays that expand on each of the manifesto’s provocations. They are grouped thematically into parts, with short intermezzos in between. These are places of pause, reflection, and dialogue.

You can read early drafts of the book’s chapters, below. And if you feel moved to add more insights, critiques, stories, advice, or suggested resources, please do. This is a space for honest, constructive, and provocative reflections.

How to share your thoughts:

• Email: Send your thoughts to [email protected]

• WhatsApp/Signal: Message or voice note me directly at +1 202 894 1115

FINAL DEADLINE FOR FEEDBACK: SEPTEMBER 1, 2025

As with our previous publications, this book will be available as a free PDF for download and available for purchase through your favorite bookseller.

Prologue

Manifesto 25: A blueprint for reclaiming education

Main chapters (first drafts available here!)

1. Building futures we cannot yet imagine
2. 1.0 schools cannot teach 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 … kids
3. Kids are people, too
4. Schools must be havens of uncommon safety and extraordinary respect
5. Authentic learning comes from freedom, not from being pushed into a predetermined path
6. Learning together, teaching together
7. No more boxes: Learning in ecosystems
8. Learning at the intersection of agency and self-efficacy
9. Teachers at the crossroads
10. Don’t value what we measure; measure what we value
11. Bad use of technology is a symptom, not the problem.
    
    INTERMEZZO ONE
    
    Reflections from Manifesto 25 focus group at YOUDEX 2025
    
    
    
12. Invisible learning is an organic process: Breathing, taking root, and becoming one’s self
13. We cannot manage knowledge
14. Toward creative futures, beyond standardization
15. Learning at the edge of networks
16. Degrees are obsolete by design … when knowledge has the shelf life of a banana
17. Genuine equity demands creative schools
18. Educating for a shared planet
19. The future belongs to nerds, geeks, makers, dreamers, and knowmads
20. Reality is not optional: Defending education from disinformation, weaponized postmodernism, and the erosion of truth [Versión en español]
21. The missing planet
    
    INTERMEZZO TWO
    
    Breaking away, redefining freedom
    
    
22. In the absence of hope, we must build communities of trust
23. Break the rules that break us
24. Activism as learning: When students teach the system a lesson
25. Question everything

Conclusion: Synthesizing the journey and offering a forward-looking provocation