My project, No Kidding, explores the education system. My aim is to show the way schools can account for the heterogeneity of children and to raise questions about agency (the ability of protagonists to act independently) in design. The overarching question it poses is this: What if those most impacted by the education system had the agency to design it? By conducting a series of workshops where kids became teachers and adults became students, I gave children the responsibility to demonstrate how they would enjoy learning at school. The project materialized as a process book of research and implementation of the findings, a lesson plan book of plans designed by children, and a video documenting the workshops. Upon analyzing the collection of lesson plans four key insights emerged: children incorporated play into teaching, children aimed to avoid anything boring their class, children used various teaching methods, and children made their class reflect on what they taught. While the project began exploring the education system, it ended up highlighting the importance of children’s perspective in design — particularly in systems that impact them the most. Given the educational climate related to COVID-19, this project’s insights seem more relevant now than ever.

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