Future Schools Now

Beyond school reform: a new vision for learning.

Future Schools Now challenges one of education's most persistent assumptions: that schools can meet the demands of the twenty-first century through incremental reform. Laurence Peters and Himanshi Sharma argue that—while the world has been transformed by technological change, globalization, and new understandings of how people learn—most schools continue to operate according to models designed for another era. Rather than asking how to improve an outdated system, they ask a more ambitious question: What would schools look like if we designed them for the future instead of the past?

Peters and Sharma examine schools across continents that are already redefining learning. From interdisciplinary curricula and project-based education to redesigned learning spaces, new approaches to assessment, and stronger connections between schools and their communities, they explore how innovative institutions are preparing students for lives shaped by creativity, adaptability, collaboration, and purpose. Through research, interviews, and firsthand observations, they identify the principles these schools share and consider what it would take to bring similar ideas to more classrooms.

Practical as well as provocative, Future Schools Now offers educators, policymakers, school leaders, and parents a compelling vision for educational transformation. Rather than prescribing a single model, Peters and Sharma encourage readers to rethink the assumptions that have shaped schooling for generations and to imagine learning environments that better prepare students for an increasingly complex and unpredictable world.