The Work Ready Classroom Starts with Relevance
Over the past few days, I’ve been asking our son the usual question at the dinner table:
“How was school?”
His answer, “It was fun.”
When I asked what was great about it, he mentioned recess and talking about Roblox with his friends.
That made me stop for a second.
Why can’t the classroom be the part that’s fun or interesting? Why isn’t the most engaging part of the school day the actual learning?
Relevance > Rigor
Let me be clear, I’m not anti-rigor. But I am focused on relevance. Because the students sitting in our classrooms today are entering a world shaped by AI, climate tech, space innovation, and digital systems that we didn’t even have names for five years ago.
And we’re still expecting them to be inspired by disconnected content and outdated frameworks.
The students haven’t changed. Learning science has not changed.
The world has.
And we need to respond.
What Relevance Actually Looks Like
In a previous article, I wrote that beyond the diploma, work-ready is the only outcome that matters. But being work-ready isn’t about résumé writing or generic life skills.
It’s about students:
Solving meaningful problems
Collaborating with urgency and context
Using tech tools on the PC or Chromebook not only to consume but to create
Owning their ideas and seeing the impact
Believing there’s a path forward for them in this new economy
It’s not about pushing kids into jobs. It’s about helping them see that what they’re learning matters.
Teachers Are Already Doing the Work
Some of the most future-ready classrooms I’ve seen or read about are led by teachers who made small shifts:
Connecting a lesson to an industry trend
Running a mini project with student choice
Letting students use tech tools to prototype and pitch ideas
Inviting a guest speaker who looks like them
Asking students to solve for something real
These teachers aren’t waiting for permission. They’re building relevance into the day, one decision at a time. And the results? Students who are engaged, thoughtful, and ask better questions. As a parent, I hope for this for our kids.
So, I Wrote Something for Educators
Over the past year, I’ve had conversations with educators, nonprofit leaders, and industry teams all asking the same thing:
“How do we make the classroom feel more connected to the real world?”
So I created an eBook — built on my research and real-world experience — for educators who want to bring relevance into their classroom without rewriting everything. Originally, it was intended for EdTech organizations, but recently, I have found that much of this is relevant for educators. This first version is based on the space economy, as this was the basis of my research.
Raising the Stakes
Relevance doesn’t mean lowering the bar. It means raising the stakes. Students rise to the challenge when the challenge feels real.
And teachers rise with them when they’re trusted to lead. By doing so, just perhaps, conversations at the dinner table will be different.
