You’re a superintendent who confidently rolls out the latest educational technology across your district. Three months later, teachers have abandoned the platform and students don’t know how to use it, and you’re wondering why your “foolproof” implementation feels more like a Michael Bay movie—lots of explosions, zero plot coherence.
Amber Shivers learned this lesson after two decades of wrestling with special education and English classrooms. Now Subject‘s Instructional Manager, she discovered something that would make most educational leaders break out in cold sweats: the people making decisions about learning rarely experience what they’re asking others to navigate.
Her secret to fixing this mess comes down to three words that most leaders would rather not say out loud:
“I don’t know.”
Everyone’s Faking It (And Not Making It)
Educational systems run on a dangerous myth: that everyone has time to figure things out on their own.
Between managing crises, handling compliance, and juggling endless meetings. Teachers, and education leaders simply don’t have the bandwidth, so they default to assuming competency exists everywhere:
- Students understand technology because they can post TikToks.
- Teachers can master new platforms like they’re born with CS degrees.
- Leaders can evaluate effectiveness without ever touching the actual learning process.
This assumption game is more rigged than those schoolwide pizza party donation-drive contests.
Amber watched it play out repeatedly:
“Adults who are not teachers make this assumption that because kids are on devices all the time, they must know how to use technology. They 100% do not know how to use technology.”
The same blindness infects leadership decisions.
When superintendents roll out curriculum changes or new platforms without experiencing them as learners, they create systems that demand performance rather than support mastery. It’s like judging Iron Chef when your only culinary experience is microwaving Hot Pockets at 2 AM.
The damage spreads fast. Teachers get directives for tools they’ve never seen leadership struggle with. Students face assessments designed by people who haven’t grappled with the actual learning curve. The result looks like a disaster movie trilogy (see: Michael Bay reference from earlier).
Burnout, disengagement, and systematic underuse of resources that could actually transform education.
Three Magic Words: “I Don’t Know”
Ironically, Amber found the answer when she stopped pretending to have all the answers. During one tech implementation that was going poorly, she took inspiration from her students who were always brave enough to speak up:
“I said, ‘wait, this is not going well. I need someone to help me.’ And I think that was good for kids, too, because I was like, ‘guys, I don’t know how to do this, therefore I’m going to have somebody else come in and do it.’”
That moment revealed something powerful: When leaders drop the act and admit their struggles, students see them as real people instead of distant authority figures who supposedly have all the answers.
How The “Student-First” Flywheel Works:
- Start Here: Experience Before Expectation
Leaders have to actually try what they’re asking others to do. This means taking the full course, wrestling with the technology, and writing down every moment of confusion. “The amount of benefit I’ve had from going through a course as a student, and checking out what’s taught, what’s referenced, how it relates to assignments—that background knowledge is essential,” she adds.
When leaders struggle through the same learning process as students, they get real empathy for what’s actually hard. This creates the first turn of the flywheel—credibility that comes from shared struggle instead of job titles.
▽ - Building Speed: Assume Everyone Needs Help
The flywheel picks up momentum when leaders stop assuming people naturally understand new systems. “We have to make the assumption that most people do not know how to use technology,” Amber says. “No matter how intuitive the system is, they don’t know how to use it until they’ve used it.”
This mindset shift takes leadership back to the student role. Instead of getting frustrated when teachers struggle, leaders expect struggle and prepare for it.
Remove the resistance, and suddenly everyone’s rowing in the same direction. Teachers stop dreading new rollouts, students actually ask for help, and each victory creates appetite for tackling whatever comes next.
▽ - Getting Momentum: Work Together Instead of Giving Orders
Traditional leadership sends down commands from the office. Instead, tackle the new classroom system as a group project where everyone’s ideas are valid, and nobody gets stuck doing all the work alone. “Having that person tag-team and collaborate is always a good position.”
This teamwork removes the shame from not knowing stuff. Teachers feel safe to try new things and mess up. Students watch adults learning and struggling, which makes their own learning feel normal. The flywheel spins faster because everyone adds energy instead of creating drag.
▽ - Maximum Power: Break Everything Into Smaller Pieces
The flywheel hits peak performance when leaders use the same learning strategies with adults that work with students. Big changes get chopped into bite-sized steps for everyone in the system. Amber explains it simply: “Things are too big or too overwhelming, and they need to be smaller, but they don’t know how to put them into those smaller places.”
Leaders show this chunking strategy by breaking their own learning into visible steps. The flywheel now runs itself—each successful change makes the next one easier because the culture expects teamwork learning instead of demanding instant expertise.
∞
The magic of this flywheel is that it keeps itself going. Once it’s spinning, it creates exactly the kind of culture needed to handle whatever challenge shows up next.
From “Faking It” to “Making It”
This student-first strategy tackles three big problems hitting educational systems:
- Districts can’t find enough teachers, which means they need to support the ones they have instead of making their lives miserable.
- Standardized testing breeds a ‘one right answer’ culture that kills creativity for students, teachers, and district leaders alike
- Technology overwhelm is hitting everyone from kindergarteners to superintendents like they’re all trying to drink from a fire hose.
Amber’s flywheel gets districts ahead of these challenges by building cultures that get stronger through learning instead of cracking under pressure—an all too common frustration. When leaders break down their own learning and show collaborative methods in action, they create systems that bend with rapid change instead of snapping like a twig.
Educational systems that embrace this method will gain serious advantages in keeping teachers, engaging students, and sparking real innovation. Districts become places where people actually want to learn and grow, instead of places where they’re counting down to Friday.
Think of it as the difference between working at a place that feels like The Office versus one that feels like Parks and Recreation—same basic job, completely different energy.
The Student-First Leadership Code
True success can only happen when educators embrace these three core principles that flip traditional assumptions like a pancake that’s been burning on one side.
- Learn before you lead—experience the full student journey of any initiative before expecting others to navigate it.
- Focus on understanding over performance at all levels—look at real growth and learning instead of surface-level compliance.
- Make not knowing normal—show the help-seeking and teamwork behaviors you want throughout your organization.
Everyone from superintendents to students should operate from curiosity instead of fear, learning instead of performing, and teamwork instead of competition.
You’re building places where every person discovers they’re capable of more than they ever imagined.
…with no fake expertise required—and no mystery meat in the cafeteria either.