Helping Kids Love Learning
From the beginning at Prisma, we’ve said a big part of our mission is to help kids ‘love learning.’ The logic was this: the world is changing so rapidly that it’s difficult to predict exactly what skills kids will need in their future lives. We can’t teach them to use technology that doesn’t exist yet, or navigate challenges that have yet to present themselves.
So, we thought, if we can help kids take on the identity of someone who likes to learn new things and can teach themselves, then, when that new technology arises or that new problem presents itself, they’ll be able to adapt with aplomb. This mission has only become more relevant as artificial intelligence has moved from a concept somewhere in the distant future to a visible part of everyday life.
But lately, I’ve been wondering if saying we help kids love learning isn’t quite specific enough. Lots of programs say their goal is to help kids love learning or make learning more fun, and Prisma is very different from them.
Does it matter what type of learning you love?
You could say you are ‘loving learning’ when you are doing everything from:
- Earning points to beat your friends on Duolingo
- Going down Wikipedia rabbit holes, filling your brain with facts with no real goal in mind
- Acing a quiz in a traditional school—loving the feeling of accomplishment, with little sense behind the ‘why’ of what you’re learning
There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with those types of learning. And there’s a place for all of them.
But that’s not the kind of learning Prisma is about.
To be more specific, at Prisma we’re trying to help kids love the learning that happens in the process of building and doing.
Why Prisma Is Project-Based
The truth is, we don’t do project-based learning because kids love projects more than worksheets (in fact, since projects ask way more from kids, sometimes new Prismarians crave the simplicity of multiple choice!). And although it’s true there’s research backing up project-based learning’s effectiveness in teaching academic content in a deeper way than traditional approaches, we also don’t do project-based learning because it’s better for academics.
We do project-based learning because it trains kids to think and act in the same ways as highly effective people. Not just the highly effective people of the future—but the ones of today.
To illustrate what I mean, check out this video of Steve Jobs:
“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it. You can influence it. You can build your own things that other people can use…Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
This attitude he’s describing is one of empowerment—a belief that “I am the kind of person who can create things.”
If no one ever gives you the chance to create something, it’s going to be hard to take on that belief. That’s why we do project-based learning.
Design Thinking as a Way of Life
We also see this idea in the director of the Stanford Design School, Bernie Roth’s book The Achievement Habit. Coining the mantra “Doing is Everything,” Roth argues that the principles of design thinking are the same principles successful people use to achieve in life. If you’ve been at Prisma for a while, and you read this summary of the book, you will probably be thinking of the kind of environment kids have at Prisma in every paragraph.
“Design thinking is to not have a fear of failure, to have a bias toward action and empathy toward who you’re designing for,” he says, going on to argue that design thinking can become a habit that helps people approach every issue or challenge in their life.
So why shouldn’t we allow kids to learn by doing in a way that instills those design thinking habits? At Prisma, we do.
AI and Agency
With the current astonishing rise in A.I.’s capabilities, parents and educators have been asking this important question: As machines increase their ability to complete tasks, what skills do kids most need going forward?
The skill I’ve seen mentioned the most is agency. Agency, defined simply, is the quality that separates people who take bold action from people who sit back and wait. Agency is the belief that, to quote a popular meme, You Can Just Do Things. Agency involves confidence, creativity, and discipline.
As I’ve thought about agency in this context, it struck me that project-based learning is the perfect training arena to develop high-agency people.
After years of project-based learning, I’ve observed that veteran Prisma learners start to develop the ability to:
- Get started. They have a bias towards action, take initiative, and don’t wait for permission (or the perfect idea) to start building.
- Know how to create. Some are specialists and some are ‘Renaissance men’ generalists, but all have a toolkit of methods that work for them. And if what they want to build requires a tool they don’t know yet…you’ll find them teaching themselves something new.
- Love the process, not just the result. Experienced creators know any project is full of ups and downs, but it’s only through mucking through the discomfort that anything of value was ever built. The most project-based people I know actually seem to love the hard parts of process the way athletes love a tough workout.
- Harness collaboration. They relish the messiness of working on a team to create more impact than they could alone. For some, this is their superpower!
- Balance perfectionism with getting work out in the world. Though they know what quality looks like, they also know little in this world is ever truly perfect, and are brave enough to workshop unfinished ideas, ‘build in public,’ and share their work.
- Reflect, take feedback, and iterate. They are self-aware, humble, and curious enough to be open to constructive criticism, even when it’s hard to hear. They may not always accept every piece of feedback, but they know how to make tough pivots when the work requires it.
These are the qualities that help people thrive not just in the imagined world of the future but the world we’re living in right now.
We Must Do Better Than the Traditional System
Often when I talk to a Prisma parent, they say something like “Prisma is teaching the kind of skills that I use at work every day,” or “I wish I had something like this at their age.” This is some of what unites those of us on the Prisma team and our amazing community of Prisma parents, who are disproportionately builders, entrepreneurs, creators, and problem solvers in all kinds of fields.
We’re all looking around at the world of work in 2026, where what matters is what you can build & how you can problem-solve on a team—and we want our kids to be ready for that kind of life.
But these things take PRACTICE. The best way to become a person who builds, creates, and does is to build, create, and do. And traditional schools (and even traditional homeschool curriculum) are obviously not giving kids enough opportunity to practice working in this way.
Instead of project-based people, the traditional system creates consumption-based people. ‘Learning’ becomes just another form of the endless ‘content’ we are already drowning in. What should be a messy, active process becomes something to be spoon-fed to kids in a palatable format—gamified to make it go down smoother, if they’re lucky. They wait for permission, to be told what to do, to see an example they can copy step-by-step. In a fundamental way, kids are trained to see themselves as incapable.
The longer young people spend in this passive state, the harder it is to break free from it. To become higher agency, they might even need to wean from this over-reliance on consumption.
Project-based learning asks a lot more from kids, and the learning experience you get from it is as rich as the effort you’re willing to put in. At Prisma, and in life, it’s possible to do the minimum, then spend the rest of each day numbing your mind and blunting your talents through consumption, and end up wondering why the curriculum doesn’t work for you.
Prisma is the kind of school that helps kids learn to love the hard work of building a meaningful project—by practicing that process, a lot.
Our curriculum gives kids lots of diverse opportunities to build & create in different contexts with different tools and purposes. Our mentor coaches and cohorts give kids a creative community for feedback, inspiration, and the compassionate support that builds confidence and motivation.
And though we’re not perfect, we see evidence all the time that Prisma kids are living this mission.
I think of Lower School learners who just learned where creative ideas come from in Remix, creating incredible and surprising works of art like Josie’s breathtaking balloon sculpture. Or this video from Middle School learner Everett, where he breaks down his creative process on his Inventor’s Studio project with more self-awareness and detail than creators 3x his age. Or High School senior Morgan’s capstone project, where she taught herself to repair a truck and then built a custom GPT to help others learn the same automotive skills.
When I look at the way Prismarians are learning, I can tell their ability to be ‘project-based humans’ will lead to success. But beyond achievement, I see them heading toward the kind of life that contains true fulfillment.
There’s a ton of research on how creative practice makes people happier—I think it’s because people who create feel a sense of purpose, control, and pride. They aren’t carried along by life, victim to its twists and turns. They make life happen.