Know Power, Know Responsibility: How to Unleash the Potential of Every Child in America

Neither rewards nor punishments can push someone to approach their true potential. In fact, rewards and punishments are significant obstacles to achieving one's potential. That is why our current, compliance-based school model--with its endless array of rewards and punishments--can't lead even some students to their full potential, let alone all students.

The only thing preventing us from having schools that will unleash the potential of every child is the entrenched institutionalization of the current model. We don't change because so few people believe we can change.

In Know Power, Know Responsibility, Kevin Miller reveals the way forward. He provides a comprehensive explanation of how our current factory model of school is limiting the individual and collective potential of entire generations of children. He then illustrates an alternative model in which children are granted power over—and take responsibility for—their own learning, growth, and development. He provides counterarguments to the reasons that will arise for why replacing the factory model can't be done. Finally, Kevin offers a clear path for any community that chooses to reinvent their school model to allow every child to unleash her or his full potential.