The Box: How a Simple Workshop Grew From Seeds of Knowledge
(Seeds of Knowledge: The Seeds Story Series — Article 5)
Every now and then, an idea arrives that feels both simple and powerful. For me, one of those ideas became The Box.
As Seeds of Knowledge continued to grow, through LinkedIn articles, social media conversations, and countless messages with educators around the world, one theme kept returning:
How do we move beyond the limitations of traditional schooling?
How do we free ourselves, and our students, from the invisible constraints we often don’t even realise we’ve placed around learning?
Again and again, in posts and chats, I found myself using a metaphor: “the box.” It became a way to describe the structures, assumptions, and habits that can unintentionally narrow thinking and stifle creativity, in classrooms, in leadership, even in how schools define success.
At first, it was just a phrase that seemed to resonate. But the more I explored it, the more I realised that this simple metaphor could form the basis for something deeper, an experience that would help educators and leaders see their own boxes, question them, and imagine what lies beyond them.
And so The Box workshop began to take shape.
True to the spirit of Seeds of Knowledge, it wasn’t launched as a formal training or a polished programme. Instead, it emerged through informal conversations and remote sessions, first shared with a small number of colleagues and connections who were curious to explore the concept.
There were no elaborate materials, just a shared space for reflection, usually online, where we could ask:
What boxes do we operate within, as teachers, leaders, schools?
Which of these serve us, and which limit us?
How can we give ourselves permission to explore beyond them?
What might education look like if we reimagined what happens outside the box?
To my surprise, these early sessions, offered remotely, often in response to a simple message or request, revealed just how hungry educators were for this kind of conversation. The simplicity of the metaphor allowed for deep, honest reflection without jargon or defensiveness. The remote format made it easy for these ideas to travel, across borders, across roles, across systems.
Since then, The Box has continued to grow, evolving into a self-paced online experience, (that goes live here in August 2025), and, later, offered in-person when opportunities arise. Yet its heart remains unchanged, it is about curiosity, not compliance. It is about reflection, not prescription. It is about helping educators reclaim their creative agency in a system that too often rewards conformity.
In many ways, The Box captures what Seeds of Knowledge itself is about - planting questions, sparking new ways of seeing, and inviting each educator to grow their own path forward. As the Seeds of Knowledge community continues to evolve, The Box has become a key part of that story, not as an “answer,” but as an invitation.
And in the end, that is perhaps the most important seed of all:
