When we take students’ feedback seriously, we get more than just better design. We get better schools. I’m a planner and designer specializing in K-12 school projects, and as part of a community-driven design process, we invite students to dream with us and help shape the spaces where they’ll learn, grow, and make sense of the world, writes Enrico Giori, a California-based planner and designer at Architecture for Education, in a Chalkbeat essay.
In February of 2023, I was leading a visioning workshop with a group of middle schoolers in Southern California. We began with a simple activity: Students answered a series of prompts, each one building on the last.
“We go to school because …”
“We need to learn because …”
“We want to be successful because …”
One student wrote, “We want to get further in life.” Another added, “We need to help our families.” And then came the line that stopped me in my tracks: “We go to school because we want future generations to look up to us.”
This answer felt different. It wasn’t about homework, or college, or even a dream job. It was about legacy. I realized I wasn’t just asking kids to talk about school. I was asking them to articulate their hopes for the world and their role in shaping it.
The students’ responses reminded me that school isn’t just a place to pass through — it’s a place to imagine who you might become and how you might leave the world better than you found it.
I’ve now led dozens of school visioning sessions, no two being alike. In most cases, adults are the ones at the table: district leaders, architects, engineers, and community members. But when we exclude students from shaping the environments they spend most days in, we send an implicit message that this place is not really theirs to shape.
When we do invite them in, the difference is immediate. Students are often the most honest and imaginative contributors in the room. They talk about what actually matters: where they feel safe, where they feel seen, where they can be themselves.
When we take students seriously, we get more than better design. We get better schools.
In school design, I’d argue that form should follow voice. If we want to build learning environments that support joy, connection, and growth, we need to start by asking students what those things look and feel like to them — and then believe them.
Devising goals and priorities is where student input can shift the direction of a plan, not just decorate it.
It’s also not just about asking the right questions, but being open to answers we didn’t expect. When a student asks, “Why do the adults always get the rooms with windows?” — as one did in another workshop I led — that’s a lesson in power dynamics, spatial equity, and the unspoken messages our buildings send.
If you’re a school leader, a planner, a teacher, or a policymaker, invite students into the planning early. Make space for their voices, not just as a formality but as a source of wisdom. Ask questions that go beyond what color the walls should be. And don’t be surprised when the answers you get are deeper than you imagined. Be willing to let their vision shift yours.
When we design with student input, we create schools that don’t just house learning. We create schools that help define what learning is for. And if we do it right, maybe one day, future generations will look up to today’s students not just because of what they learned, but because of the spaces they helped shape.
Chalkbeat
