Anand Sanwal

2 weeks ago | anandsanwal.me | Anand Sanwal

This essay first appeared in my newsletter Sign up here if interested in Unf^cking Education. Why AI in schools, as currently imagined, won’t fix what’s broken. This month’s executive order to bring AI into K–12 education sounds exciting and bold. A national task force. A presidential challenge. Public-private partnerships. Federal dollars. Teacher training. Early exposure. It checks all the boxes. Except the ones that matter. Because for most schools, this won’t be a revolution.

4 weeks ago | anandsanwal.me | Anand Sanwal

This essay first appeared in my newsletter Sign up here if interested in Unf^cking Education. The problem isn’t that school is too hard. It’s that it’s hard in all the wrong ways. We confuse rigor with worksheets. We make students memorize, cram, and bubble—instead of wrestle, fail, and build. And when they disengage, we respond by making things easier or more entertaining, instead of more meaningful. That’s not learning. It’s theater.

1 month ago | anandsanwal.me | Anand Sanwal

This essay first appeared in my newsletter Sign up here if interested in Unf^cking Education. Harvard’s own dean of undergraduate education recently made a startling admission in the New York Times: “Students feel the need to distinguish themselves outside the classroom because they are essentially indistinguishable inside the classroom.“This isn’t just about grade inflation—it’s a tacit acknowledgment that even at America’s most prestigious university, the classroom has become secondary.

1 month ago | anandsanwal.me | Anand Sanwal

Our schools today look strikingly similar to those of 1940—because we’ve never stopped to ask the most important question: What is the actual goal of education? We pour billions of dollars into education every year. We send our kids through it for over a decade. And yet, ask a parent, teacher or administrator—what’s the actual goal of education?—and you’ll usually hear:“Preparing kids for the future.”“Teaching them to think.”“Helping them learn how to learn.”Vague. Empty. Circular.

1 month ago | anandsanwal.me | Anand Sanwal

If our schools were challenged to teach you how to ride a bike, you would:Study pedaling for a monthThen adjust seat heights for a monthFollowed by practicing brakingYou’d then examine tire physicsAnd finally, you’d learn about steeringThere’d be rubrics and lesson plans and you’d do this all without ever actually riding a bike on an actual road.