The Reinvention Lab Experience

This piece was written by L'Oreal Thompson Payton and published by The Reinvention Lab on February 7th 2021. This is its audio companion. 

Mike is the host of this podcast and is the Network Director for the Reinvention Lab. He told the story of the moment he knew learning needed to be reinvented. 

Enduring Ideas is powered by the Reinvention Lab of Teach For America. 

The Reinvention Lab, founded in 2019, is an exploratory space within Teach For America where we think about the future of learning and the future of the organization. Together with young people, parents and caregivers, leaders and educators both in and outside of Teach For America, we pursue equitable innovation and system-level transformation. 

For us, equity means we value and affirm Black, Brown and Indigenous lives. It means learners of all ages and identities can bring their whole selves to learning, free from oppressive forces like racism and classism. Equity means holding up a mirror to ourselves and our systems to confront history and harm and advocating for change, including and especially at Teach For America. When it comes to equity, we have to talk about it and be about it. 

Innovation means going against the grain. What most people have in mind when they think of “education”— that’s what we want to break away from. Innovation thinks radically, and it cannot happen without equity. If it’s not equitable, it simply isn’t innovative. 

​We are also learners. We are both expanded and limited by our perspectives, our personal and professional communities and networks, and our place in time and history. We welcome productive discontent and we grow.