Designing a new school generates a lot of questions. One of the first we ask ourselves is: who is the school for, exactly? There is often an underlying assumption that an alternative model will serve some special category of learners like kids with learning differences, kids with educational goals other than attending college, or kids with certain social and emotional needs.

I recently stumbled across a post by Maria Popova, “How Children Learn: Portraits of Classrooms Around the World”, showcasing photographer Julian Germain’s documentation of classrooms all over the world between 2004-2012. The photographs capture the unique culture of the students and region, from their clothes/uniforms, decorations, types of desks or tables, etc. But for all of the differences, what stands out the most is that the classrooms all look practically the same.