Students don’t need more rules. They need more responsibility.

At Pebble, we’ve seen what happens when students take ownership of what they learn. In our hackathons, learners pick the problem, form their own teams, and decide how they’ll solve it. Some build apps. Others design research plans. No one waits for instructions.

When students are in charge, they stay curious longer. They build real skills faster. They take more risks. And they reflect more honestly on what worked and what didn’t.

This doesn’t just apply to events. One of our most committed club leads rewrote our AI curriculum to fit their school’s pacing. A student in another chapter chose to skip ahead in linear algebra, taught themselves NumPy, and ended up helping others in the same course. These weren’t assignments. These were choices.

Education systems are built around control: what to learn, how to learn it, and when you’re allowed to move forward. But students already know what drives them. They just need a path—and permission—to follow it.

We can still offer structure. We still need guidance, deadlines, and community. But we should stop pretending that one pace, one path, or one outcome works for everyone.

So if you’re designing a program, running a club, or teaching a course, ask your students: what do you want to learn next? Then help them do it.

— Arnav Bonigala