Human Restoration Project

04/18/2026

"[Maria Montessori] talks about how the way we educate young people is the only way to work toward true human solidarity and worldwide peace."

Our latest podcast episode is an exploration of The Promise (and Persistent Myths) of Montessori Education feat. Andrew Faulstich, Dr Ayize Sabater, and Kelly Jonelis:

https://youtu.be/a2C5wyG3PiE?si=94JXWYhw3MSPdtfH

03/26/2026

"Collapse should not be equated with the apocalypse. If the role of education is to prepare the young for he future, and this is our future, where is the education system in all this?"

Join us this summer for our 2026 Summer Book Club, where we'll read and meet to discuss the ideas and implications of Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World As We Know It and be joined by the author, Ginie Servant-Miklos for a Q&A on July 31.

Learn more and register @ https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/book-club

The book is available in paperback or as a free open access e-book: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781350400528

Welcome Session: June 26 @ 11am ET
Ch. 1-3: July 10 @ 11am ET
Ch. 4-6: July 24 @ 11am ET
Q&A: July 31 @ 11am ET w/ Ginie Servant-Miklos

Anyone is welcome to attend!

03/03/2026

Announcing Floop 2.0!

We are completely rebuilding our feedback platform from the ground up -- drag-and-drop comments directly onto student work, with support for essays, images, and video. Free for educators. Soft launch coming 2026-27.

Meaningful Feedback, Faster w/ Floop:

Floop helps teachers deliver feedback 4x faster while empowering students through guided peer feedback and self-assessment. Used by 90% of U.S. schools.

03/02/2026

What if schools could hear from hundreds of students and make sense of it in minutes?

We're making huge progress on Polaris Education: listening rooms, voice anonymization students control themselves, and reports grounded in peer-reviewed research.

Join the waitlist & sign up for the newsletter to learn more:

Transform student feedback from simple ratings to real conversations. Get comprehensive insights backed by authentic student voices.

02/22/2026

Think of the wellness kits, the diversity posters, and the one-off professional development workshops that schools layer one on top of the other without ever changing the underlying framework for how students and teachers actually spend their time.

When schools rely on what Lauren Porosoff calls "compensatory programs" to patch systemic issues, they often create problem of their own.

Listen to our latest episode, Making School Meaningful w/ Lauren Porosoff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQFgVT-BslE

Whether it was during her nearly two decades as a middle school humanities teacher or as diversity coordinator or grade-level team leader, my guest today kep...

01/24/2026

“This is a book about my life, about admitting ‘I was wrong,’ and about how important it is to say it out loud,” is how our guest today, Diane Ravitch, begins her 2025 memoir, An Education: How I Changed My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else.

What follows is her incredible life’s journey spanning nearly nine decades, from learning to write as a left-hander using a quill pen at her Texas public school to becoming one of the most influential leaders of the modern conservative American education reform movement. Having spent the first half of her professional life in education policy advocating for national standards, testing, and accountability reform alongside charter schools and so-called school choice programs; however, as the opening quote reveals, after seeing this vision of education reform in action, she very publicly changed her mind about all of it. This is her story.

Changing My Mind About Schools (and Everything Else) w/ Diane Ravitch
https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/podcasts/changing-my-mind-about-schools-and-everything-else-w-diane-ravitch

01/09/2026

Our student voice platform, Polaris Education, not only earned the Common Sense Privacy Seal, our 95% privacy rating is one of the highest scores given to any education technology platform.

Student data privacy and ethics are fundamental to our mission. Our processes fully comply with FERPA, COPPA, and C**A requirements, and as a nonprofit organization, we have chartered to be permanently prohibited from selling or transferring student data to third parties.

Polaris Education (through Human Restoration Project) is also a member of the Access 4 Learning Community and Student Data Privacy Consortium. Customizable data privacy agreements are available to address your school's specific compliance and privacy requirements.

Learn how Polaris transforms student conversations into instant, actionable insights and join our waitlist @ https://staging.polariseducation.ai/

12/20/2025

If you’ve taught or attended a high school course in the last decade, you’ve probably watched a Crash Course video. Their dozens of playlists on topics from Biology and Environmental Science to Economics and World History hold hundreds of videos and have collected over 2 billion views. Maybe even just hearing the title conjured John Green’s urgent cadence and the characteristic cartoon aesthetic in your mind, or the show’s outro, if you couldn’t hit the pause button fast enough, where John thanks the producer, the graphics team, and mentions, “The show is written by my high school history teacher, Raoul Meyer…”

Today, Mr. Meyer not only continues to teach, but earlier this year reached out to me about a new film project he’s working on with his brother Luke, scheduled for 2026 release, tentatively titled THE TEACHERS PROJECT. It’s described as “a compelling, character-driven journey into the lives of American educators as they navigate the intensifying culture war that has enveloped the nation’s schools since 2020. As political battles over sanctioned ideas, books, and lesson plans range from national headlines to local school boards, the film reveals the devastating consequences of this chaos and conflict for teachers, students, communities, and the future of American education.”

And Raoul joins us to talk about Crash Course, the state of history teaching and the often untold stories of teachers wrestling with all of it.

Search & subscribe to 'Human Restoration Project' on any podcast app or listen on our website: https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/podcasts/crash-course-social-studies-education-w-raoul-meyer

12/18/2025

2025 was certainly one of the years of all time.

The community and connection cultivated in our schools and classrooms has never been more important, as we’ve seen first-hand the incredibly positive impact conscientious teachers have, with the support of courageous school leaders, on students, families, and communities.

As a send-off, we thought we’d curate our most popular articles, podcasts, videos, and resources of the past year alongside other education-related recommendations, as well as a preview of HRP content in 2026.

One of our central goals is to uplift educators doing the work of creating human-centered learning spaces for all students, and we hope you find in this a curation of inspiring and useful ideas, resources, and conversations headed into the new year.

Of course, none of this would be possible today without our partners and supporters. We especially want to thank our friends, colleagues, and supporters who have contributed and believed in this mission, and believed in us, from the very beginning. 🫶

Joy & Justice,
Chris, Cassie, & Nick

A look back at our most popular articles, podcasts, videos, and resources from 2025 and a look ahead at what's to come in 2026! Published by Human Restoration Project, a 501(c)3 organization restoring humanity to education.

12/06/2025

How do you *define* creativity?
Would you be able to spot it in the wild?
What about creativity in the classroom?

This endless human quest to define the seemingly undefinable, and somehow make it useful for educators, is what today’s guests Tom Rendon and Zachary Stier Ed.D, MLIS set out to do, bringing together philosophy, neuroscience, and site visits, in a years-long collaboration that became Creativity in Young Children: What Science Tells Us and Our Hearts Know.

In this conversation, Tom and Zach help us understand the counterintuitive ways creativity shows up in the world, in the human condition, and how we can cultivate creativity and connection in the classroom.

Search & subscribe to 'Human Restoration Project' on any podcast app or listen on our website, Cultivating Creativity and Connection in the Classroom w/ Tom Rendon & Zachary Stier: https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/podcasts/cultivating-creativity-and-connection-in-the-classroom-w-tom-rendon-zachary-stier

12/02/2025

We're not asking for donations this :

Human Restoration Project has been fortunate to maintain consistent grant funding this past year to support our work in schools. This means our greatest need right now isn't financial; it's reaching more educators and school leaders who could benefit from what we do:

https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/start
https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/professional-development

Human Restoration Project works across the United States and has recently expanded to Australia. We’re committed to listening and learning from young people, educators, and the community to build human-centered learning in schools. You can make a significant impact by sharing our work and resources with teachers and school leaders in your network. To make this easier, we've built an onboarding kit that you can download and share. Getting our resources into more schools is how we'll create the educational transformation we all envision together.

If you're able to make a tax-deductible donation to HRP, we would genuinely appreciate it. However, we also recognize that many other organizations serving kids and families aren't as fortunate as us right now. If you're looking to make a direct impact through charitable giving this season, we'd highly recommend directing your donations to these organizations who also support the communities we serve:

⭐ Disability Network West Michigan equips, educates, and advocates for accessible communities for all - https://disabilitynetworkwm.org/give/

⭐ Poised for a sustainable, mission focused future, the Muskegon YMCA is at the forefront of a national YMCA shift toward healthy living for entire communities. - https://muskegonymca.org/give/

⭐ HOPE Gardens programs teach people of all ages how to grow, share, prepare, and find joy in eating fresh produce harvested together. - https://hopegardensgr.org/greenhouse-campaign/

⭐ One Iowa is a catalyst for improving the lives of LGBTQ+ Iowans. - https://oneiowa.org/donate/

For all of our , thank you for being part of our community and for believing in a more human-centered approach to education. Whether you share our work, support these incredible organizations, or simply continue advocating for young people in your own corner of the world, you're making a huge difference! 🚀

With gratitude,
Nick Covington, Creative Director
Chris McNutt, Executive Director
Cassie Nastase, Grant Coordinator
& the entire HRP team

Human Restoration Project is a non-profit organization listening to students, enacting systems-based change, and reimagining education.