You’re invited: 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 Many of you have already embodied its spirit in your work: questioning outdated systems, resisting imposed futures, and co-creating spaces for more liberating, just, and human learning.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.

I invite you, the signatories and supporters of Manifesto 25, to shape these intermezzos with your ideas, stories, critiques, and questions.

Thank you for adding your voice.

With gratitude
John Moravec

You are invited to contribute

Please respond to the following two questions:

1. What inherited truths or habits are you actively breaking away from, related to the ideas we explore in the manifesto … and why? What educational assumptions do you now see as myths or traps?

2. Where do you see learning freedom struggling, thriving, or being redefined around you (professionally, geographically, politically, etc.)?
   
   And optionally, what other resources would you recommend people connect with to learn more? (Thinkers, readings, provocations …)

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 written reflections (300–600 words, or more if you like) to [email protected]

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

  (Yes, voice messages are welcome! I’ll synthesize them into text for the book.)

Whether you write a few paragraphs, send a quote, or just offer a voice note of what’s on your mind, your thoughts matter. I will gather and synthesize what this community contributes to shape the Intermezzos between chapters.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JULY 31, 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.

Introduction: setting the context, origin of Manifesto 25, why this book, and a call to rethink education as a living, co-created process.

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 signatories: What inherited truths or habits are you actively breaking away from … and why?
    
    
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
    
    INTERMEZZO TWO
    
    Reflections from signatories: Where do you see learning freedom struggling, thriving, or being redefined around you (professionally, geographically, politically, etc.)?
    
    
20. Reality is not optional: Defending education from disinformation, weaponized postmodernism, and the erosion of truth [Versión en español]
21. The missing planet
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