John and Mary are 15-year-old high school students entering their junior year. The pressure is already on to decide about college and what they intend to do with the rest of their lives. As in the past, they sit at their desks and listen to teachers lecture about algebra, geometry, proper sentence structure, and American history. Standing at a whiteboard, their teacher outlines the critical points in today’s lecture while John and Mary take notes pertaining to what they must memorize and work with throughout this phase of their education. In the back of their mind, they are trying to make sense of how this will impact their future jobs and lifestyle. They don’t have a clue about what they want out of life, what they might be good at, what careers are available, or where they could fit. Yet, in two years they will need to dive into something.

Does this sound familiar? How will a student decide when they have little to no exposure to what might be their calling? Is the method of teaching that we have relied on for generations still relevant? Is this how a new generation learns? The world around them is changing at breakneck speed while schools hang on to a formula that worked in the past.

Listen to CAFÉ Talks podcast with Alexandra Levit, author of Make School Work, and Stephanie Reisner of GPS Education Partners as they reveal a new model for the generation that is riding the wave of significant change.