Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life by Diane Tavenner

• The author is the founder of Summit Public Schools (2003), and she offers a blueprint for a
“better way to educate our children,”- through personalized learning plan for each student, in
a real world project-based curriculum that puts students in charge of their own learning, rather
than passively learning and memorizing in a classroom environment.
• It’s based on lessons, insights and methods she and her faculty developed over 15 years at
their charter schools in California and Washington. (They are now introducing to public
school systems across the country).
• They created mentorship groups, where students would talk through their goals and help each
other solve problems, as well as meet one on one with their mentor, weekly.
• She states that “By internalizing a sense of purpose, self-direction, self-sufficiency, and
collaboration, students learn the cognitive and life skills needed to navigate the next phases of
their lives.”
• Evidence: Virtually 100% of Summit's original 400 students go on to attend four year colleges.
In the years that followed, Summit opened 10 more charter schools in California and Washington,
to similar success, and national recognition.

Today, Summit Public Schools, is partnering with 400 public schools, across 40 states, to bring
the Summit Learning Program to school systems everywhere.
With generous support from Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg's nonprofit organization, which
calls Summit "the future of education," and over one hundred million dollars in contributions
from the Gates Foundation, Summit is revolutionizing how our children are educated. (less)

Key Website:
[Link] – Her website which is devoted to supporting parents who want to ready their
children for the world they will graduate into.
• Parents can use it to bring real-world learning into everyday life
• and help their children develop the skills of self-direction, collaboration and reflection.
• It’s ideas are based on the same approach that they took for Summit. Rigorous scientific research,
married with practical limitations

Why the need for summit?

Tavenner discusses that when the economy shifted from an industrial economy to a more global economy.
What kids needed to thrive changed, but the educational system didn’t necessarily adapt.

• In the 1950s, the top skills employers wanted were:

1) the ability to work rapidly and for long periods of time,
2) memory for details and directions,
3) arithmetic computation.

But according to Forbes, the employees of 2020 need:

1) complex problem solving,
2) critical thinking,
3) creativity,
4) people management,
 5) coordinating with others,
6) emotional intelligence.

Now even in good schools, kids have to be lucky to get accepted into a top college and feel prepared to
enter the next phase of life.

• She wanted to build a school that would “prepare every child for college and a fulfilled life.”

• They wanted to answer questions like:

What skills does someone need in a rapidly changing economy?

How does one prepare for a life that has financial security and meaning?
How does a high school student figure out who they are and what they want out of life?
What does it mean to engage in work that feels purposeful and meaningful?
How can we prepare children to be contributing members of their community, of society so that
they grow up in a world they want to live in?

• They wanted a school that looked at the “whole student,

• Where every individual student was known and belonged to a community.
• They wanted to teach not just what kids needed to get into college, but what they needed to
live a good life, filled with everyday habits that support a definition of success that includes
college, but does not stop there.

-They showed that if you change the way you look at education, you can both prepare kids for
admission to college AND prepare them for a good life. You don’t have to trade one for the
other.

• How many parents today feel the drive to ensure their child’s success is filled with trade-offs that
simply don’t feel right? How many hold their breath, hoping their child will make it? And what is
the cost of that anxiety, stress and worry on both parents and kids?

She says, this book is “the best answer she has right now to help kids discover a life filled with
financial security, purposeful work, strong relationships, meaningful community, and personal
health.” ….”It’s how to “do” school,” and she believes it’s also “how to be a parent.”

In Sum: They have taken everything they collectively know about what it takes to develop whole,
healthy human beings and put it all together in an educational approach. This book is the story of their
journey so far. They lay out what they have discovered and how it translates into everyday actions
and choices that lead to our children being successful.

Key Take aways:

The Core pillars of Summit’s curriculum:

Real world projects, self-direction, reflection through mentorship, and collaboration.
 **They all build on one another. Real world projects lose their impact without the skills of self-direction.
Self-direction (setting a goal, making a plan and implementing the plan) isn’t complete without the ability
to reflect (with the guidance of a trusted mentor) – they believe every kid needs a mentor – a village of
adult mentors), Collaboration makes each of these possible.

1. Real-World and Project Based Learning – The book states that “we don’t usually engage kids in
these kinds of activities, in part because it’s faster and easier not to, but also because we think they
aren’t interested.”
• But this is often how kids tap into their interests and their strengths.
• So, Seek out opportunities to engage your child’s opinion and participation.
• Let Kids can take on projects like mapping out plans on a Saturday, to figuring out
their transportation options to participate in a new sport, to figuring out a plan to deal
with a clogged sink, or researching something they would like to try, like a new recipe
and all the ingredients it might take as well as the cost.
A) They gave the example of a student trying to convince others of why we should end farm
subsidies. “just because we’re young doesn’t mean we don’t care about things.” “we care
about what’s fair.” – Here Students had to choose how to use their voices to make a
change in their community. What did they think could be different or better? Then
research the topic, to become a subject matter expert, then develop a give a persuasive
speech to convince others to change. –.
B) They say we should begin with a real world problem, question, or challenge that is
relevant in some way to the student and his community and life.
C) Then the student has to perform a task that directly addresses the problem, or answers
the questions. (So, rather than learning about the industrial revolution on its own, the project
would involve a student tracing a product from its invention to how its used today.)
D) “Projects aren’t dessert, they are the main course” – These projects are not “wedged in”
to curriculum, but rather are the day to day work of every student. Lectures are replaced with
deep discussion, planning, research, model making, writing and lots of critical thinking. –
E) She says - Research shows – when students learn through project based learning (PBL),
they retain what they’ve learned for longer, and they understand it more deeply.
• On AP’s PBL students perform as well as traditionally taught students or better.
• Also PBL students are stronger problem-solvers, and better able to apply their
learning to real-life situations.
• Also, they score higher on skills related to critical thinking,
• and they seem to CARE MORE because they are more engaged. They also showed the ability
to look at more than one side of a dilemma, use more comprehensive reasoning, and more
frequently evaluated the importance of the assumption underlying their decision making.
2. Self-Direction – The self-directed cycle should be part of everyday life – it involves kid’s setting a goal,
making a plan, carry out the plan, showing what they know and reflecting.
• This can be used for anything a child wants to pursue - from cooking dinner one night a week, to
making a case for the activity your family will do next weekend, to setting goals to manage their time
so they won’t cram to complete a three-week project the night before.

• The 5 power behaviors of a self-directed learner:

Strategy shifting, challenge seeking, persistence, responding to setbacks, and appropriate help-
seeking.
• It’s important to emphasize effective goal setting – Introduce child to
-SMART goals – Goals that are specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time bound.
-The goals they set should matter to them so that their motivation is internal, not external.
-Goals should be both large and aspirational (practicing how to achieve them), and also smaller,
simpler goals that are within reach.
-We help by talking through their plan to reach the goals, what potential obstacles might arise,
and how they might get past those obstacles, adults can answer questions, help guide, but without
taking control.
And Modeling effective goal setting ourselves – when you as a parent set a goal, verbalize why it
meets a smart goal criteria.

• Remind them that skill development is not linear – that failure is part of the deal. We don’t eat the
fruit the same day we plant the tree. - Carol Dweck’s – research helped the world understand the
importance of the growth vs. the fixed mindset. –deliberate practice in goal-setting supports
development and attainment of a sense of purpose.
• To fail or not to let them fail……The Idea of learning from Failure –only productive WHEN two
things are true:
(a) first, the person who fails actually learns something from it and is thus motivated to try again;
(b) and second, the failure doesn’t permanently close future doors. So, things like failing a test does
have consequence like college acceptance – Research has found that when we remove the cost of
failure (as in video games where you can continue to try again and again without
consequence, kids work hard and keep going back, unphased by failure, rapidly getting
better and better with each attempt, incorporating as much learning from the misses as the
successes.

• Reflecting - As they work, they check in with themselves and their mentor to make sure they are on
track. They may need to shift their strategy, find appropriate help, or seek more information. Reflect
afterwards on what went well and why, what was hard, and why.
• Use self-direction on these ideas at home: Best with something your child is passionate about. If your
child enjoys cooking, help them learn to cook 10 meals by the time they are 18 (starting at 13).
-Begin by going through a bunch of recipes, pull out the ones that are easier to start (less ingredients)
no complicated steps. Then let them choose which they wanted to make and then both of you shop for
the ingredients together. Although we shouldn’t jump in to take over, its important to be present to
answer questions and suck it up if not perfect. Prioritize learning and development and be willing to
make ourselves a bit uncomfortable in order to foster it.

3. Reflection through adult mentorship – Asking lots of questions to help kids arrive on their own
to the best choice.
• Mentor don’t direct – A good mentor (parent or teacher) asks open ended questions that help
kids think through thoughtful responses, giving gentle feedback and guidance without stepping
in and taking over or supplying the answer you are hoping for
• -The idea here is to Ask questions that help your child reflect on:
-what they want, who they are, what they care about, how they feel and ultimately what they
should do as a result – not because someone told them to do it, but because it was an authentic
choice for them. It is during moments of reflection, that learning and growth take place.
• Focus on the “Ings”- Rather than asking “what do you want to be?” or “what do you want
to major in?” or “what is your favorite subject?” Ask questions that get to underlying
interests, to help them better know themselves-
-Ask about “what do you like doing?” ‘What parts of that do you like the most?” “why?”
 -You discover what they feel about an experience…who they are in light of what they
experience. In these conversations you discover a list of their “ings,” - all the little interests
that are unique to them that ultimately add up to who they are and what they care about,
which leads to an understanding of the type of work they will find purposeful and
meaningful. So instead of searching for a specific degree program or specific job, we are talking
about a variety of things that matter to them.
-Example of a kid wanting to be a coder because they make a lot of money. He interns… “Tell us
what went well and why” – in the internship. Did he like problem solving, creating, collaborating,
brainstorming, connecting with others? What didn’t go well? The coding…lol. “I hate sitting at a
computer” “I don’t like working alone for long periods of time.”

• Ask the right questions – When your child has an interpersonal conflict, see it as an
opportunity to teach the skills needed to mediate conflict, repair relationships, collaborate,
and reflect. (Open ended questions that beg for thoughtful answers):

• -There are a set of questions Summit mentors use all the time that are also helpful when
parenting through interpersonal conflicts. These can be asked in conversation with your child,
or in written form. They are:
“What do you want from this situation?”
“What do you feel about it?”
“What behaviors are you exhibiting?”
“What is working or not working?” “Why?”
“Put yourself in the other person’s shoes: What do you think their perspective is?” “Can you
describe what they may feel?” “What’s your role in the situation?”
“What role can you play in getting to your desired outcome?”
“Is there anything you need to do to make the relationship right?”

***These can be asked verbally or in written form – especially helpful when mediating conflict
between two students. Have them each do this…based on the basic science for relationship repair p.
122-124. – Have the questions prompt each party to put themselves in the shoes of the other, get in
touch with their emotions, clearly articulate the facts, and look for the role they can play in a solution.
This is only a tool – without a mentor to support and guide, to ask questions and hold up a mirror so
reflection can take place, growth is unlikely to occur. – Equipping kids to develop and maintain
healthy relationship is not traditionally the domain of schools, but it’s important for life.

• Research shows that kids who have even one meaningful relationship with an adult (an
adult mentor) in school, have better outcomes than those who don’t. -Difference between an
advisor and a mentor: Summit likes mentors over advisors, as “advisors give advice,
whereas mentors are experienced, trusted guides.”
-Each mentor has an individual relationship with each mentee, but they also lead a group that
spends lots of time together. They are essentially the nuclear family for each student. They
want these groups to be as close knit as the “houses” of Hogwarts. Getting welcomed into
your mentor group is a really big deal! The mentor’s role is to bring to life the values of the
school, and get the kids to internalize and live them. The mentor groups meet regularly to talk
through their goals, and help one another solve problems. Each student also meets one on one
with their mentor weekly. That mentor knows each student’s family. They do home visits and
learn things like if the child has a traditional home and what language is primarily spoken in the
home and how culture influences their values and upbringing. Most importantly, the mentors stay
with the group year after year, getting to know the “whole” kid. There is never a question of who
will write the letter of recommendation.
 • Example at home for using basic questioning tools to parent toward a value, instead of
getting angry: She gave an example of the thank you cared. The author wanted her son to write a
thank you card to a mom who had taken him along on a ten day trip. He wrote something very
basic – “Hey buddy, I appreciate that you sat down and wrote the card. I’m wondering why are
you sending the card?” He identified it. “Do you think what you wrote really communicates
that?” “Do you want her to know how you feel?” Okay, so the reason for writing it is…..read
what you wrote, does it reflect that? If you make a claim, shouldn’t you support it with
evidence?” If you claim to be thankful, where is the evidence? How well do you think you
illustrated that? How would you grade yourself on that?”
• Mentor is a role we should be well equipped to play as parents. But to do so, we have to take
a step back from the situation emotionally (setting ourselves and our feelings about it aside).
At our best we can listen, ask genuine questions, and help them see their own logic, we can do
our best to listen without interrupting or judging and let kids come to conclusions and decisions
they likely wouldn’t have come up with if it weren’t for our presence and questions.

4. Collaboration- “What is the problem? What does everyone want? And How can we get there?”
- Teach the principles of consensus – Decision Grid and STP.
A) Simple and powerful approach to decision-making and problem solving. Starts by forming
problem into a question
- Next, Identify the status (S) – gathering facts and opinions from everyone involved without
judging or editing. -“What is the problem or question?”
-Next step is to define the ultimate target (T) - If you could wave a magic wand and get the
perfect answer to the original question, what would it be? This is naming the criteria for an
optimal solution – how they would know that they had come up with an idea that fully
answered their problem statement they began with. (For example if the problem is coming up
with a school mascot –the target would be: it shows people who we are and what we care about. It
has qualities we aspire to have and exhibit. It is timeless. It can be represented in drawing or
symbol.)
-Finally, the next step is to develop the proposal (P) – how to get from the status to the
target – what’s the plan to get from problem to solution? Each person or group must make
their case and get feedback, then adjust proposal accordingly.
B) Group work goes wrong in two primary ways. First most often the task assigned isn’t actually
worthy of group work.
-What groups do well is solve complex problems that benefit from different experiences,
expertise, skills and knowledge.
-Groups aren’t good at completing tasks that are linear with a single right answer. Typically if
there is one kid who is best at the task required, everyone in the group knows this, and so they
simply let the “smartest” kid do the work for them.
-The second thing that goes wrong is when the task is sufficiently complex, but no adult is
teaching and supporting the skills required to work collaboratively.
C) At home – Collaborate as a family every time you have to make a decision or solve a problem,
how kids will get home on a day neither parent can do pick up, or how to make sure dog gets
enough exercise. Everyone has to pitch in and work together to make a household run well. Think
about how to collaborate with each other and with family friends, neighbors, etc. so that
everything gets accomplished. Families can even use this process of STP with deciding on a
family vacation.
5. Successful habits
• Ask why, then ask why again if your child is struggling with something - If in conflict with
your child about bedtime or homework, approach the conflict with curiosity. She says
parents need to learn about why they are struggling, what they need, and what the obstacles
are. Ask why of yourselves too. Why is it so important to us that something happen a certain
way? Does it make sense? This might be an opportunity for advocacy.
A) Success Building blocks for learning – Pyramid of what children need to be successful.
Begins with:
Bottom of pyramid - Attachment, stress management and self-regulation (Healthy
Development) – Base level of pyramid. As these become solid, move to next..
Next - Self awareness, empathy/relationship skills, executive function (planning and
goal setting) (School readiness)
Next - Growth mindset, self-efficacy, sense of belonging, relevance of school
(Mindsets for self and school) building good habits in the way they think about
themselves in relation to school and knowing school matters.
Next - Resilience, agency, academic tenacity (Perseverance) – child knows their
relevance to the world around them, has a sense of agency or autonomy, and makes it a
habit to push through challenges in academic life.
Top of pyramid - Self-direction, curiosity, purpose (Independence and Sustainability)
– top of pyramid – This is the trio of habits that all the rest have built up to. Kids who are
prepared enter adulthood having demonstrated they can transfer these three habits from
one setting to another, from school to work to family to community. Can’t reach the top
of this pyramid if the foundation beneath it is shaky. If your child has these three
traits, in multiple settings, and without support, you know they are prepared.
B) If you don’t feel you belong in an academic environment or struggle to understand the
relevance of school, or perhaps have never formed a good attachment or haven’t
developed self-awareness, it all affects your performance in school. As faculty/parents,
use the habits of successful building blocks to guide you as you look for underlying
issues in what holds your child back.
6. Curiosity-Driven Knowledge – This is the idea of following intuitive curiosity – (exposing,
exploring and pursuing) as a tool for choosing enrichment activities.
-She says not all activities are created equal. We want to connect kids in deeper ways to the
broader world in ways that will teach them skills that translate to their time outside of the activity.
-“Not every activity will stick, and that is okay.” If the spark turns into an interest, open the
doors to help them pursue it further.
- Avoid a packed schedule. Downtime is time to be exposed to new interests and to explore and
pursue those interests.
• When it comes to technology - Engage in knowledge acquisition together. – Don’t dismiss
technology all together, but rather explore on the internet together. Spend time making
connections between why something might be important to know. Help them see what
matters and why it matters.
• When it comes to college search – Have them choose colleges based on whether the school
is:
-Consistent with a vision they created for their life as an adult, based on what they have
learned about themselves
-Purposeful and realistic
-A fully informed choice from a set of real options
-Supported by family and community.
-always have a plan B option.
A) “A good teacher inspires, captivates and gets kids to think by sharing profound knowledge
and perfectly crafted questions.”
B) IF we want kids to be good at critical thinking, she say they need to know and understand
well, the stuff they are critically thinking about - The science of learning has consistently
shown a correlation between kids’ familiarity with a subject and their performance and
skills. For example, if you took a reading comprehension test on a passage about baseball, those
who had a background knowledge about baseball will score higher regardless of whether they
were considered poor or good readers beforehand. So, if kids are reading things with too many
tough words they don’t know, describing things they have no concept of, it will be too hard to
hold the information in their heads long enough to search it up. So, having lots of prior
knowledge helps us figure things out.
C) So, the take away here is that children will learn more and perform better academically, if
they have a lot of knowledge to begin with and the best way to acquire knowledge is to let it
stem from their innate curiosity.
D) Learning begins with curiosity - When a person genuinely has a question, the next logical
thing to do is to seek an answer to it. People ask questions about things that interest them
and generally aren’t curious about things that don’t. And generally, outside a formal
classroom experience, when someone wants to find an answer, they need to self-direct to get
it. The secret then, is curiosity driven knowledge. Simply put, when we enable kids to follow
their curiosities and interests, they learn much much more. As they learn more, they get
better at learning. It becomes a virtuous cycle.
E) Crazy competitive college admissions create one obstacle to this, it makes kids feel
pressured to become better at something than their peers, while there is nothing wrong with
learning and becoming great at something, there are many trade-offs to chasing one thing to the
exclusion of everything else. Developmentally, young children often don’t really now themselves
well enough to have a solid enough understanding of the world to know that one particular
activity, like soccer, will be their enduring and primary interest for the next fourteen years. And
for the most, the commitment it takes to become good enough to stand out, means after school,
evening and weekends consumed by that activity. Little room left for other pursuits, especially
like free playing. Kids need time and space to explore their interests and who they are. The
object of their investment in something is not to define a career or even a major, the object
is to learn how to learn by following their curiosity and to figure out who they rae and what
they are interested in, the ings, along the way. So, we learn how to learn by following our
curiosities and interests.
F) So, idea is to put a lot of thought into exposing your children to as many experiences and
ideas as possible. Exposure provides the spark of interest. But exposure alone isn’t enough. We
have to offer kids the opportunity to explore what interests them, so a spark of interest turns into a
passion project, then the student can more deeply pursue what they are excited about by studying
it enough to give a talk about how they intend to make an impact. Real world project based
approach to learning gives kids a ton of opportunities and choice withing the projects to explore
knowledge that’s interesting, from knitting to politics, to robotics to the environment. Immersive
experiences are best. Most kids need to consider many possibilities before finding one or more to
explore. As a parent it can be really frustrating to see your child cycle through one potential
interest after another. It might feel like they can’t stick to anything. It can also be financially
challenging.
G) College counselors often say that to get kids into top colleges, they advise parents and high
school freshman to pick something and stick with it year after year, all the way through
high school. This is rational advice, and comes directly from what college admissions
officers say, which is they don’t want kids with a long list of clubs and activities they know
are fairly superficial. Rather, they want kids who go deep into something and show their
persistence and passion for it, as well as their mastery. The idea is right, but unfortunately, this
 mindset can lead to a really distorted implementation because sometimes admissions advisors
don’t really care if the kids felt authentically connected to the subject they chose, that wasn’t the
point. It just needed to be something that resonated with college admissions and so they picked
the activity for the kids based upon what they thought the colleges would want to see. For
example, having kids start something on campus, might make you appear entrepreneurial, but if
it’s not a passion, it’s done very mediocre. Whereas, if your friend is the editor of her school
newspaper and is totally passionate about that, she will spend hours reveling in begin in charge of
a final product and orchestrating all the pieces needed to make it great and she will love every
part of it. So the take home here is, why not get your kid to go deep into something, once
they discover what they love. We shouldn’t confuse acceptance to a school or a job with
preparedness for them. When we prepare not for a specific school, but for the life we want,
we tend to get both acceptance and fulfillment and we don’t have to compromise.
H) Internet is actually good for this to expose kids. Approach technology in a way that is pragmatic
(and we need to teach kids how to use it responsibly), and optimistic (there’s much we can gain).
It’s a place where kids can seek information to inform their curiosity. In the same way a book talk
can hook a reader’s interest in a way a book cover cannot, a short video can draw a child into
something they may want to explore that they otherwise wouldn’t have known about. So, instead
of taking a highly controlled approach with technology, parents engage in tech use with their
kids. Have the conversation about consumerism and perhaps why a video is problematic, teach
kids to think about it through an important lens. So, now with every youtube video, kids can
think, “who paid for it, what are they trying to sell me?” Also, rather than limiting screen time,
rather create a media-use plan that designates time for media free activities ( dinner, rest, exercise
and social) and locations (bedrooms).
I) Also, we should model curiosity. Help kids make connections between seemingly finite pieces
of information and a bigger picture. If we can’t answer “why” questions because we don’t know,
then it’s an invitation to co-discover and get curious with our kids by sitting down with our kids
to genuinely seek an answer to the question neither of us know. For instance, “why do we have to
know we have fifty states?” “why is it important to understand the history of our country?” This
helps us demonstrate how to responsibly use technology to advance our learning and how to
collaborate with others. You also create something authentic to talk about and it opens a
conversation about what we value and how we make sense of the world.

Extras:
The universal skills: Projects across subject area courses are assessed on these 36 skills that span Seven
universal skills domains. All projects should focus on developing these skills;

• Textual analysis – be able to extract themes, central ideas

• Products and presentations – communicating accurately and precisely
• Inquiry – Asking questions, defining a design problem, planning and carrying out
investigation, hypothesizing.
• Analysis and Synthesis
• Speaking/listening – Contributing to evidenced based discussions. Active listening.
• Composing/writing – Argumentative claim, information, counterclaim, selection,
explanation and integration of evidence, organization – transitions, cohesion,
structure, intro and conclusion
• Using Sources – Selecting relevant sources, synthesizing multiple sources

Life after college – Building concrete next steps.

Explore potential life pathways connected to your purpose

 • Plan out multiple options
• Build a community of trusted advisers
• Take first steps
• Choose a pathway based on your values and priorities
• Commit to a pathway and start to navigate toward it.
• HAVING A PLAN A, B and C! It lowers anxiety.

*Kids are pressured and bombarded with questions about what they want to be when they grow up.
Downside is that an initial commitment can prevent them from continuing to search and explore, and thus
ultimately limit the options and choices they’ll have. It’s critical that kids plan out multiple options, even
if they’re resistant. At Summit, they require seniors to map out at least three plans, complete with
degree, certificate, or experience opportunities they will pursue and how their skills and interests
align with the opportunity. They have to detail the process for taking the next step, the timeline, the
cost, and why it’s a good fit for them.

Prototyping multiple plans is key because it allows students to talk about their ideas among their family,
friends, and networks of support, through which they build a community of trusted advisers. They receive
valuable feedback, opportunities to reflect and opportunities to gain support by networking and meeting
others who know others who are in the field and can answer questions and give mentorship. There are
countless adults willing to help support emerging adults if kids reach out. The biggest problem is how!
So, when plans begin to come out of kid’s heads and into conversations, they start to make connections to
people who can lead them to networks of support!

Reviews:

As a parent, I was excited to read this book because of the title - of course, I want my son to be prepared
and fulfilled, sign me up! But then what I proceeded to read though felt like a 250 page brochure for a
project-based curriculum at Summit schools which the author founded. And while their work is
impressive and deserves praise and attention, that just isn’t what most readers are going to want when
they pick up this title!
It wasn’t until the last ten pages that there was any advice that felt directly applicable to me, someone
who couldn’t possibly send their child to a Summit school, as the nearest one is about a 25 hour drive.
But even then, the suggestions were just so underdeveloped, but it was the last ten pages after all. I think
if the title of this book was changed from, kids to students then at least it wouldn’t be misleading, because
parenting book this is not

The title is a bit misleading. Prepared is specific to the Summit school. Informative and interesting read
should we ever re design education here.

This book discusses the education philosophy and approaches the summit school system was founded on.
The author is the founder of the school system. The learning approach advocated by the author include
project-based learning, self-directed learning, mentoring, and collaboration. The end educational goals
include habits of success, curiosity driven knowledge, and universal skills.

The book is like a handbook for parenting. It catalogs what knowledge and skills a child needs to have to
prepare for life, but does not offer specific instructions . Also I feel most of the educational approach
overlaps the Montessori approach.
Positive
I did not expect this book to be marketing a school program. I like the title of the book and felt it was
more to do with parenting than it was about schooling. But it was an insightful read nonetheless. I liked
many of the ideas that the book advocates - self-directed learning, growth mindset, asking open questions
and keeping on asking questions till you get to the underlying reason why something happened, project
based learning and tutoring instead of teaching.

Praise effort instead of the outcome. Reiterating Growth Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck.

As a kid, I enjoyed Project based learning far more than teaching classes and thankfully I did get to do a
lot of projects growing up. Especially the computer science projects which a enjoyed a lot! The book talks
about teachers setting up learning booths were kids could come ask questions and get peer-learning done
as well - which I also experienced in my school.