For this blog post for MehtA+, we welcome guest contributor Mr. Dan Fouts, co-founder of Teach Different to talk about his organization and our collaboration. This is a blog from our website from 2021.
Teach Different was founded in the fall of 2017 by my brother, Steve, who was at that time working on the west side of Chicago as a social studies and math teacher. Steve was trying to figure out a way to encourage his students to have more conversations in class, and to show through these conversations how they could learn to think better. After a few years hearing about his experiences, I joined his efforts and helped develop a specific protocol for having conversations. The protocol starts with a philosophical quote from which students generate a claim which paraphrases the quote. Then, they develop a counterclaim which challenges the quote by providing a new way of thinking. It ends with an essential question which serves to close down the conversation and leaves students with some intellectual problem to resolve.
Steve and I spent much of the early pandemic having conversations over selected quotes, all of which we digitized and stored in an online library at Teach Different. Then, one day I connected with Bhagirath Mehta, a former student of mine from Maine West High School in Des Plaines, IL, via email. Bhagirath told me that the mission of his organization, MehtA+ Tutoring, was to blend the computer science fields with the humanities to promote social good. He said he was looking to support organizations that were aligned with this mission. With its emphasis on conversations and critical thinking, Teach Different was the perfect fit.
He and his sister, Haripriya, decided to organize a special project for their students to create an app for Teach Different. The app would be a tool that users could use to search for and organize conversations conveniently for the classroom and home. Steve and I were delighted with this idea, and after a few orientation meetings, the students began work in late summer 2020. The students assigned to work on the Teach Different app came from all over the world, including the Canada, China and India.
As the project marched forward, Steve and I continued our ritual of finding quotes and building conversations in our online library. As we did our work, we met periodically with MehtA+ students and answered their questions related to functionality, design and user experience. Steve and I were extremely impressed with the talent and professionalism with which these students did their work. At all times, they understood their expectations and worked tirelessly to complete tasks. This was a complicated and challenging project to be sure, but despite these challenges and with the active support of Haripriya and Bhagirath, the students persevered.
In April 2021, seven months after the project began, the students finished their work and the beta version of the app rolled out. Since then the project has been managed by one of the project’s students, Karen S. from Vancouver, British Columbia, who is now responsible for making updates, executing functionality changes and completing other app-related tasks. As a gesture of thanks, Teach Different provided scholarship money for the students which they could use for their upcoming college expenses.
This project was a herculean success on all fronts. To think that a group of high school students from around the world, organized virtually, could use their coding skills to design something of this complexity is really astounding. Teach Different will market this app as a feature of its subscription service offered to teachers and parents from all parts of the globe. To this end, Teach Different will advance the social good by helping all people think better and participate in unforgettable conversations every day.
The success of this project is a testament to the high quality leadership at MehtA+ Tutoring. Teach Different owes a special debt of gratitude to Bhagirath and Haripriya for making the intellectual and emotional investment in their students, and challenging them to create something beyond what they thought possible.
To those students who are considering being clients for MehtA+ Tutoring services, rest assured you have an amazing opportunity to work with a leadership team who can not only teach you first-class coding practices, but even more importantly, inspire you to work on real-life projects that change the world for the better. It is an opportunity of a lifetime.
To everyone who contributed to make this project a success, thank you.
Dan Fouts
Co-Founder, Teach Different
