The boardroom taught me what schools were missing. The classroom gave me a chance to fix it.
For 18 years, I hired people. I sat across the table from candidates with degrees, certifications, and perfect resumes — and watched them fall apart the moment something didn't go as planned. They couldn't adapt. They couldn't think under pressure. They couldn't separate what they felt from what the data said. I kept asking the same question: where were they supposed to learn this?
Then I became a teacher. And I found out — they weren't. The system was built to deliver content, not develop thinkers. So I started building what I couldn't find: a way to put students in the middle of real decisions and let them discover how their own brain works.
I'm still in the classroom. I'm also the mayor of my city. Both jobs taught me the same thing — the people who thrive aren't the ones with the most information. They're the ones who know how to think when the information isn't enough.
AI is automating the cognitive tasks we've been teaching for decades. Research papers, data analysis, problem sets — machines do them faster and cheaper every year. We can't predict what the 2035 workforce looks like, and we shouldn't pretend we can. What we can do is develop the kind of thinker who stays valuable no matter what changes next.
That's why I built PATIENCE.
Every PATIENCE simulation is built on John Hattie's Visible Learning research — the largest evidence base in education. Seven high-impact strategies are woven into every simulation as design elements, not add-ons:
All instruction follows Hattie's DIIE model: Diagnosis, Intervention, Implementation, Evaluation — delivered within standard class periods.
The PATIENCE Framework is not affiliated with or endorsed by John Hattie or Visible Learning.
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