Pantone chose white for 2026, and their reasoning, "clarity without coldness, structure without severity," felt like someone naming the thing I've been trying to figure out this semester.

What do you do when students aren't walking with you? I'm calling my approach Loving Insistence.

Remember lining up in the computer lab to die of dysentery? There's something that pixelated pioneer simulator understood about learning that we've forgotten in our rush to make everything accessible.

In this episode, I'm exploring why the best learning happens when failure is expected, feedback is immediate, and students choose to struggle because the struggle feels meaningful. We're diving into what's changed since 1985, why confusion has become a signal to rescue rather than persist, and how we've accidentally taught students that difficulty means they're doing something wrong.

We'll Discuss:

• Why removing struggle actually removes the mechanism of learning itself
• The critical difference between productive struggle and overwhelming frustration
• How AI and instant information access have rewired how students approach confusion
• Four concrete strategies for creating "Oregon Trail moments" in your English classroom
• Why faster feedback matters more than detailed feedback (and how to actually do it)
• How to use discussion as a productive struggle space without needing resolution

If you've noticed students shutting down at the first sign of difficulty, or if you're wondering why summarized versions don't stick, this episode reframes struggle as a feature—not a bug—of genuine learning.

Oregon Trail didn't have an easy mode. It had strategy. Let's bring that energy back to English class.

Dictionary.com just named "6-7" their 2025 Word of the Year. It's not even a word—it's numbers from a viral song, celebrated for being "meaningless, ubiquitous, and nonsensical."

We used to think Idiocracy was satire. Now it feels prophetic. "6-7" becoming Word of the Year isn't just about slang—it reveals what we're valuing as a culture. We're not just dumbing things down; we're celebrating meaninglessness AS content.

In this episode, I'm connecting what's happening in classrooms to this broader cultural shift toward brainrot...students who are genuinely smart but fluent in content designed to be meaningless, the anti-intellectualism we're not naming, and what teaching for meaning actually resists.

What we're covering: • Why "6-7" as Word of the Year should concern teachers • The Idiocracy connection—celebrating absurdity over substance • What I'm seeing: awareness gaps, optimization culture, accountability issues • Teaching moves that resist meaninglessness: collaborative discussion, portfolio assessment, texts that require human thinking • Why slowing down to actually think is an act of resistance