Welcome
I’m Joel. Over the past 15 years, I’ve lived, worked, and learned in several countries around the world, as an educator, program builder, explorer, and now a parent to two young daughters. My professional work has focused on education and leadership, but my curiosity extends far beyond the “classroom”.
The arc of my life has shaped a global perspective guided by curiosity, grounded in lived experience, and driven by a desire to explore the intersections between education, culture, technology, parenthood, and the broader human experience.
A Question Worth Asking
I believe education must evolve to serve a changing world, starting with a fundamental question:
Why do we have schools, and what is their true purpose in nurturing human potential?
While some elements of schooling remain essential, many need redesigning from first principles.
The current wave of disruption isn’t just a challenge, it’s an imperative to question the old blueprint and co-create something more responsive, humane, and future-ready.
This space is a place to explore those possibilities and to write honestly for people who feel the urgency of change and the hope that the opportunity brings.
Desks in the Gym
A few months ago, I was walking past the doors of the high school gym at my school. It’s a familiar sight during exam season: rows of desks lined up across the floor, evenly spaced and waiting for students to take their tests. But this time, I stopped and took a photo. Not because it was unusual, but because it felt symbolic.
The stillness of the desks in a space built for movement and energy. A gym, repurposed into an exam hall, quiet and sterile. A emobided representation of what could be better.
I’ve seen this scene many times before. But something about the contrast struck me differently this time, because I wasn’t just seeing it as a student myself, or as a teacher, I was seeing it as a parent.
My oldest daughter now attends the same school where I teach. For the first time, I imagined her in that gym, sitting at one of those desks in 10 years: Silent. Still. Under fluorescent lights. A space meant for play, now used for surveillance and standardization.
And in that moment, something in me said:
By the time she reaches “exam age”, I want this practice to be a relic of the past.
It wasn’t a moment of outrage. It wasn’t a call to burn the system down. But it was a quiet, visceral recognition that I wanted to be part of this change. If I want a better experience for my daughter and all other students, I need to be part of imagining it. Not just passively resenting, but actively searching, dreaming, and building.
If I’m going to say that desks don’t belong in gyms, I need to get to work explaining why.
The Student-Teacher Smoking Room
The following day, I was in a meeting with colleagues when someone mentioned that long ago in their hometown in the US, schools had shared smoking rooms for students and teachers, where it wouldn’t be uncommon for both to light up between classes.
It sounds absurd now. Almost impossible to imagine.
But it led to a question amongst us: what is happening in schools today that will one day seem just as strange?
Immediately, my mind returned to the image of the desks in the gym.
And I had to ask myself:
Will paper-and-pencil exams in a gym one day feel as outdated and just as strangely tolerated as student-teacher smoking rooms once did? (Albeit far less carcinogenic.)
And when that day comes, what will schools look like?
Why This? Why Now?
This Could Be Better is about facing the complexity of the current moment with humility, curiosity, and a bias toward action. It’s about doing the hard, hopeful work of making things better, even when the path isn’t clear.
Join me in asking important questions and challenging what no longer serves. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I know we won’t get those desks out of gyms by staying quiet.
If something here resonates, chime in. Share your own stories, questions, and your own “Desks in the Gym” moment.
Bravo Joel! Power to you and the change you are planning to make or at least speak about as neccessary. It's something I also think about daily - my full support to this discussion.