👋 Blessings on your Thanksgivings day celebrations next week! Tis a great day to begin the release of The RE papers. Onwards with RE Paper 1….

Rethinking Education: Paper One

There is a myth we rarely question — the belief that school is a natural, timeless, and necessary part of childhood. Most adults grew up inside it. Most parents assume it must be the default. And most children today spend the majority of their waking hours within its architecture.

But the modern school is not an ancient institution.
It is not a sacred tradition.
And it was never designed for the upbringing of whole, thriving families.

School, as we know it, is barely 150 years old.
It is an industrial invention — a system built for a world that no longer exists.

In the late 1800s, as factories scaled to global power, nations needed workers who were compliant, punctual, standardized, and easy to manage. The model for schooling was drawn directly from the factory floor:

The goal was simple:
produce predictable citizens.

It worked.
Too well.

The industrial school replaced what humans had relied on for thousands of years:
family rhythms, community learning, outdoor apprenticeship, and real-world contribution.

In just a few generations, we normalized things our ancestors would have found unimaginable:

We built an entire society around the idea that children must be institutionalized to be educated — and then we forgot to ask whether this was true.

It is not. It shapes children’s psychology. It shapes their identity.
It shapes their sense of self-worth, their confidence, their direction, and their inner voice.

The modern school teaches children — quietly but consistently — that:

This is not an accident.
It is architecture.

The school was built for a world of factories, scarcity, and hierarchy.
Today’s world is one of networks, creativity, decentralization, and self-direction.

Yet the system remains largely untouched.

We live in the most dynamic era of human history — and many children spend their days in a structure optimized for 1890.

The mismatch is now impossible to ignore:

Everyone knows something is deeply wrong.
But few can name the root cause.

A system built for factories cannot nurture sovereignty.
A system built for conformity cannot ignite creativity.
A system built to standardize cannot honor the soul of a child.

This is why every attempt at “reform” fails —
you cannot fix a machine that is operating exactly as designed.

In 2 days, you’ll receive RE Paper #2, a tender exploration of what childhood feels like inside a system that was never designed for the human soul.

It’s one of the most important pieces in the entire series.

Until then — thank you for walking this winter path with us.

With presence and purpose,
Brooke & Matthew Lawler
Co-Founders, Bēhere

Winter is a season for clarity — for listening, for reflection, for roots.

The ideas we are releasing are not complicated; they are ancient, intuitive, and deeply human. Families have always been the first teachers. Nature has always been the first classroom. Community has always been the first school.

We are simply returning to what has always been true.

Throughout this Winter Release, we’ll gather around:

This is the start of something bigger than a program.
It’s the beginning of a movement.

A reclaiming of family rhythm.
A re-centering of childhood.
A remembering of our sovereignty.
A redesign of the future.