Weekly Message from HOS 2026/01/05-2026/01/09
Dear Keystonians,
A warm welcome to 2026! I hope that it will be our best year yet! It has been great to get back to school this week and hear stories about learning, travel and time with loved ones over the last couple of weeks. Did anyone find time to translate the story of Favor Johnson into Chinese? (Link to last letter) If so, you will receive a special gift of appreciation—let me know!
I was so happy to have my family here to be able to enjoy the beautiful wintertime in Beijing and the surrounding areas. We went skiing in Chongli, took meaningful day trips exploring around the Central Axis of Beijing, ate delicious food, and delighted in just spending time together.
Back to school this week, on Wednesday we had our second episode of The Keystone Dialogues, where we invited Dr. Yong Zhao to share his thoughts related to his newest book, “Fix the Past or Invent the Future: Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Education”. The Dialogue was designed to reflect on the education of Generation Alpha—children born from 2020 onward. (I’ve shared some reflections from the event below this letter—let me know if you’d like to discuss this topic further!)
I have long been inspired by Dr. Zhao’s scholarship. Many years ago, as a much younger administrator, I had arranged a chapter club for some colleagues to explore the ideas in one of his first books for a general education audience, “World Class Learners”. I loved that book so much and found that it asked all the right questions for the work of school reform. So, I wrote to him and asked if he would join one of our meetings. I was shocked that he agreed, and it launched a friendship and professional collaboration that has now spanned multiple decades.
This idea of “cold-calling” your intellectual heroes is an important invitation. For our students of all ages, if you are impressed with the work or scholarship that someone has done, think about writing them a letter. Or reaching out to them on social media of some sort (although I feel a thoughtful email or letter is much more likely to leave a positive impression). I remember one time I wrote to a researcher that I particularly admired at Stanford University, Dr. Nel Noddings. I was a graduate student up late working on a paper, and her work just lit me up. Her scholarship created a meaningful connection between education and other fields that ended up being the core of my doctoral research. So, in the light of the early dawn, I wrote to her and thanked her. To my delight, she wrote back! She passed away in 2022 and I will always be grateful for that small kindness.
Whether your letters to your intellectual heroes result in a decades-long collaborative relationship, new research, jobs or other opportunities, or a small note of acknowledgement linking you to the tapestry of knowledge across the world, it is worth it. Even if you get no response, if you get in a habit of assuming that you are a critical part of the vast network of people doing good work around the world, the more quickly that will be true.
I never imagined all those years ago that my first email would lead to supporting the learning of families of children of this complex and important generation, but there you go. The future comes whether you choose to do small things to shape it or not.
Talk soon, I hope，
Emily
Educating China’s Generation Alpha: Navigating Uncharted Futures
We are delighted to welcome you all to the second installment of The Keystone Dialogues. This series is more than a celebration of our first 12 years; it is a commitment. As our inaugural “lifers”—students who have spent more than a decade growing with us—begin to graduate, we hold ourselves accountable to our founding identity as a New World School. This means we must constantly innovate, learn, and lead within the evolving landscape of education in China and the world.
Tonight’s dialogue is dedicated to a pivotal group: the families of Generation Alpha—children born from 2020 onward. You are navigating a world of extraordinary expectations, rapid volatility, and profound uncertainty. The technological and social changes that created vast differences across the last four generations will pale in comparison to the seismic shifts awaiting us over the next 20 years. What do you need to know? To help us begin this essential conversation tonight, we are honored to welcome a true educational visionary, Dr. Yong Zhao.
I. The Paradox of Change: Constant Goals, Volatile Pathways
If you ask parents across Beijing, Shanghai, or San Francisco what they want for their children, the answers are strikingly universal. Research from Harvard’s Making Caring Common project confirms it: safety, security, a life of meaning surrounded by love. This vision of success is a human constant, as true for the parents of Generation Alpha as it was for their own grandparents.
What has changed—dramatically—is the perceived pathway to that life.
For the parents in this room, the pressure to identify and secure the “correct” path is immense. It is fueled by a history of meteoric national progress, where educational attainment was a clear and powerful engine for upward mobility. But that engine is now running on a track that is being rebuilt in real-time, faster than any map can be drawn. The anxiety you feel is not a personal failure of foresight; it is a rational response to a landscape where the old signposts no longer point true north.
II. The Collapse of the Binary Choice
For decades, a seemingly simple framework guided Chinese families: the Gao Kao track or the international pathway. It was a binary with high stakes, but clear rules.
For Gen Alpha, this binary is not just simplistic—it is dangerously obsolete. To frame your child’s future as a choice between these two lanes is to gamble on a static world. We are not just talking about different curricula; we are talking about the fundamental architecture of opportunity. Will universities in 2040 and beyond prioritize standardized test scores over demonstrated portfolios of real-world problem-solving? Will “prestige” be defined by centuries-old names or by dynamic, industry-embedded networks of innovation? Leaders in global higher education will tell you candidly: the system that will judge your five-year-old does not yet exist in its final form. Betting on its stability is the highest-risk strategy of all.
III. The Gen Alpha Parent Profile: Anxious Architects
So who are you, the parents of this unprecedented generation? You are the children of China’s “opening up,” the highly educated beneficiaries of its explosive growth. You are technologically savvy, globally connected, and have seen a wider range of life outcomes among your peers than any generation before you. You were raised with the conviction that the world was yours to know and shape.
And yet, the last five years have delivered a masterclass in volatility. The certainties you grew up with have been tempered. You are pragmatic. You do not quit. But you find yourselves in a disorienting space: the old stories that promised a reliable return on educational investment are broken, and new, trustworthy narratives have not yet emerged. You are, collectively, a generation of anxious architects, tasked with designing a future for your children using blueprints from a different era.
IV. The Imperative for a New Educational Paradigm
This is where the conversation must pivot from anxiety to agency. The question is not, “Which existing path should we choose?” The imperative question is, “What capabilities must our children develop to thrive on any path that emerges?”
For over 30 years, educators, economists, and CEOs have agreed on the answer. They speak of “21st-century skills”: creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and resilience. We are now a quarter of the way through that century, and the painful truth is that most educational systems have not changed at the necessary speed. We have diagnosed the illness but lack the collective will to administer the cure.
For Generation Alpha, this acceleration is not an academic debate; it is a survival skill. The “winners” of this generation will not be those who best memorized a fixed canon of knowledge, but those who can navigate ambiguity with confidence, adapt to disruption with grace, and wield an entrepreneurial spirit to create value where none existed before. Their education must be a toolkit for navigation, not a ticket for a single train.
V. Core Pillars of the Education of Generation Alpha
So, what must this new education look like? At Keystone, our response as a New World School is built on pillars designed for this exact moment:
Identity and Cultural Confidence: In a volatile world, a deep, unshakeable sense of self is the ultimate compass. We must ground our students not in a defensive nationalism, but in a profound appreciation for China, as a source of strength, perspective, and innovative thinking. Our students are writing China’s stories.
Competency over Content: We must relentlessly prioritize durable skills over perishable information. Can they solve a novel problem? Can they communicate a complex idea? Can they lead a team through disagreement? These are the competencies that will outlast any specific technological platform or economic theory.
Agency and Self-Direction: The passive student, waiting for instructions, will continue to have fewer choices. The Gen Alpha learner must be an active author of their own education—curious, self-aware, and capable of setting goals, seeking resources, and persisting through challenge. We must teach them how to learn, unlearn, and relearn.
The “New World School” Ethos: This is about the redefinition of school. We are not a factory delivering a standardized product. We are an innovation hub, a connected network, a safe space for intellectual risk-taking. Our role is to provide the context, the mentorship, and the challenges that allow these inherent capabilities to flourish in our students.
From Anxiety to Agency
The uncertainty you feel is not a trap. It is a calling. It is the result of the old, rigid structures making way for something more dynamic, more human, and ultimately, more hopeful.
Your task as the parents of Gen Alpha is not to find the one perfect path, but to partner with educators who are committed to building your child’s internal navigation system. Our shared task as an educational industry is not to predict the future, but to nurture the individuals who will have the courage and skill to shape it.
This is the work of a New World School. This is the dialogue we begin tonight. We are profoundly grateful that you are here to build it with us.
Emily McCarren, Ph.D.
Keystone Academy Executive Head of School
