Hearts, Minds, and the Future of Learning.
- Sean Parker
- Mar 25
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 2
Key Insights:
The world is changing and learning needs to evolve
CFL is part of the solution and we need YOU to join our community
Summary (TLDR)- My past is inspiring me to co-found the Center for the Future of Learning. It’s going to take all of us. Learn more about why we launched, discover our hopes for reimagining learning, and use your strengths to co-create a better future for all of us.
My Grandmother’s lessons
My grandmother was ahead of her time. She was the founder & principal of a school for girls in Iran to help them find independence. She avoided teaching her daughters to cook because she feared they would be confined to the kitchen. Instead, they focused them on academic pursuits. The world was changing and she wanted a better life for her kids even before living through the Iranian Revolution of 1979, a time when everything—property, status, rights—could be taken away, even legally. My ancestors were ready for anything and she helped raise me to always be ready.
She would often tell me, "They can take your home, your business- even rewrite the laws to justify it. But they can’t take what’s in your heart and mind. Those are yours."
Her lessons shaped my life. It’s why I believed in education as a foundation for agency, freedom, and economic prosperity. She and my parents pushed me to excel from preK to College, from learning my letters to earning those letters on my Neuroscience degree. It’s why I’m here today with tremendous gratitude for my family, for the educators who shaped me, for the institutions that enabled it all. I’m here to say thank you to the past and acknowledge that while it’s my foundation- it’s time to evolve the way we learn.
Why this moment in education demands bold action
From many perspectives, formal education models are no longer working and perhaps never really worked that well for everyone. I’ve been contemplating these questions lately:
If education is for workforce readiness - why do most hiring managers we interview share that recent graduates and job applicants are unready for work?
If education is for civic belonging - why are we splintering into increasingly divisive factions?
If education is for childcare - why is raising a child an increasingly unviable expense?
What was our education system designed for and what purpose is it serving?
The industrial revolution brought us corporate growth and interconnected global supply chains and job transformations that challenged the way we humans worked. That moment in time helped us systematize learning into the formal school systems most of us experienced growing up.
The digital revolution brought an age of unlimited connection and access to knowledge. It begged us to adapt education beyond knowledge capture. While school looks different from 30 years ago, most of us can agree it still resembles its industrial beginnings.
And now we may be facing the most radical moment in the history of humanity- with AI, advanced robotics, and bioengineering revolutions already at our doorstep and soon to take control. For our own sake and that of future generations- we must hear the clarion call and chart a new path forward. Education can’t just be about what we know—it has to prepare us for continuous learning, adaptation, and resilience.
This Moment in Time Requires a Different Approach to Learning
With the nature of work and life shifting at an unprecedented pace thanks to AI, automation, and other global shifts, individual and collective economic security is at stake. We need to be ready. The good news- we’re not starting from scratch.
At the Center for the Future of Learning, we’ve been partnering with the State of Nevada and stakeholders at every level since 2022 to ask what our learning system should be. Together we developed four questions to guide our approach to meeting this changing moment:
How will I grow in my learning?
How do I build and sustain relationships and community?
How will I contribute to make an impact?
How will I thrive?
As modern durable skills and competencies are woven into our learning frameworks, hope emerges that we can prepare ourselves, especially young people, for the concurrent revolutions we face. We’ll need our hearts and minds, but now we must constantly grow them, collaboratively, to solve small problems and existential challenges. Learn more about the Portrait of a Nevada Learner here.
Why we launched the Center for the Future of Learning
So here we are in 2025 with an education system designed for a world that no longer exists. There’s some promising emergent work from organizations like Getting Smart, the Reinvention Lab at TFA, Knowledgeworks, the Aurora Institute, Education Reimagined, and others. We’re at an all-hands-on-deck moment.
We’re founding the Center for the Future of Learning to join forces with those organizations and local leaders to improve outcomes. We are not here, however, just to replicate existing efforts. CFL seeks to be the first organization to focus on reinventing current systems of learning while building a radically new approach and platform. It’s a global first. Our vision is bold and our path is uncharted. We may stumble along the way, but our world demands radical solutions and our kids deserve redesigned learning.
We’re launching in Nevada because this is our home. It’s a special place with a legacy built on hearts and minds full of imagination and possibility. We need that same spirit in the learning arena. CFL is dedicated to positively impacting learning at a global level and, in the process, make Nevada the capital of learning innovation. Alongside tremendous leaders already working in our community, we believe our work can have a profound impact beyond the education system. As CFL achieves its goals, we will contribute to a diversified and thriving economy.
Firm on Foundations & Future-Focused
While we are future-focused, I hope you don’t interpret that as me advocating to throw out the past or flip an instant switch to change everything today. We are dedicated to strengthening the foundation of what already works in learning. We should use existing research around developmentally appropriate learning environments, we should codify and scale the science of reading to ensure future generations are literate, and we should ensure young people still have safe places of belonging to build community and have their first chances at civic engagement. The past is a treasure trove of what we need, and we can’t be stuck there. As you’ll see in an upcoming piece from my colleague Mike Lang, you often need imitation & emulation before you get to innovation.
CFL is built on the idea that education must evolve into lifelong learning that can and must happen everywhere. We are no longer bound by artificial markers like the walls of a school building, the end of a class period, age limits, or the way things have always been.
And, it would be foolish to bulldoze those school walls overnight. Our work dreams big while piloting small. We must prove new models work before scaling them. Young people, educators, families, and communities must be invited to choose new approaches instead of being forced into a new system. Together, we’ll move at the speed of trust.
What’s Next For CFL:
Over the coming weeks, you will hear more about CFL from my colleagues and co-founders. You’ll learn why each of us joined this work, what we’re doing, and more about our theory of change centered on the following pillars:
CONNECT a movement of people dedicated to the future of learning
BUILD future-focused solutions both inside and outside of formal education systems that allow our communities to innovate now.
Inside: We’re working with the Nevada Department of Education, school districts across the state, hundreds of educators, and more to build solutions aligned to the Nevada Portrait of a Learner in classrooms right now.
Outside: We’re designing and building the IAN Hub- a globally first platform & place for delivering cutting edge learning opportunities in the future.
AMPLIFY to scale inspiration. We share knowledge, success stories, and insights to scale solutions and inspire action.
We need you.
The world is changing fast, and the best way to prepare for an uncertain future is to build a learning system that embraces uncertainty. We’re looking for people who share one common trait: hearts and minds dedicated to reinventing learning to work for our collective future. My grandmother’s lesson still holds true and the future belongs to those who can keep learning, adapting, and leading. Let’s build that future together.
______________________
Sean Parker is a co-founder and CEO of the Center for the Future of Learning. He’s focused on building a new platform for learning while dreaming about what’s possible alongside his Nevada community.