This week I said something out loud that caught me off guard:

“I think we lost a generation.”

As creative educators, many of us remember when students would disappear into projects — obsess, iterate, compete to be the strongest piece on the board. Lately, the energy feels different. More completion-focused. More cautious. Less hunger.

In this episode, I unpack what that statement was really about.

We talk about:

• The grief behind shifting classroom energy
• Optimization vs. obsession
• Why today’s students may struggle with ambiguity
• The difference between motivation and structure
• And how scaffolding might actually protect creative immersion

This isn’t about blaming students. It’s about recalibrating as educators in a changed environment.

Maybe we didn’t lose a genera ...