Note: Some of you have been with us for 15+ years and it is fun to start to share what Animating Kids looks like on a day to day, street level.. We are overwhelmed by the response so far. Drop us a line if this material is resonating. Tell us why. info@animatingkids.com is the email.
Word gets out about what is going on in the class running Animating Kids. Joe is invited to the breakroom for an informal visit.
A teacher in the faculty lounge stands and addresses her peers. "I invited Joe in today—because of a buzz that won’t go away.
It started with a few parents. “My kid can’t stop talking about Joe's visits to class” or "Ask the teachers where the chalk is". Then the family who moved into the neighborhood—specifically because they saw content creation was being taught here, but not in the next school over.
When was the last time a curriculum made families relocate?
This isn’t just a novelty—it’s becoming a reason to choose one school over another. And today, I've asked Joe to explain why." she waves Joe up.
Joe thanks the host,
"I remember when those parents dipped into the classs on their tour of the building. Wow. Didn't know this had that kind of impact.
So, I'll just take 10 minutes and give you the big picture then any questions you have will take up whatever time you want to spend, it's your lunch after all.
I’ve met thousands of students over the years. Curious, clever, astonishingly perceptive. And increasingly, when you ask them what they want to be when they grow up, you get one answer more than any other:
“A YouTuber.”
And I think that’s absolutely… terrifying.
Laugher.
But not for the reason you might think.
It’s not because being a YouTuber is inherently bad. In fact, it requires an extraordinary blend of skills—storytelling, performance, branding, editing, empathy, timing. You know… all the things we don’t teach in elementary school.
What’s troubling is not the dream itself— it’s that we’ve created a world where children are surrounded by media, influenced by it from dawn to dusk...and yet, most of them have no idea how it works.
We wouldn’t dream of sending kids to school or a library without teaching them how to read. But we let them watch glass libraries of infinite persuasion—screens, and hope they'll swipe responsibly.”
It’s not the dream of being a YouTuber that’s the problem. It’s the illiteracy around how media is made. The mystery of what’s behind the curtain. The belief kids have that content simply appears, with no motive, no message, no manipulation.
And that’s where we’ve failed them.
Because not every child will become a YouTuber or a Tiktoker, but every child will be influenced by one. And every one of them will be shaped, targeted, and persuaded by what they see on a screen.
Every single day.
So the question isn’t, “Should we teach media skills?” It’s “How on earth have we waited this long?"
We’re raising a generation of readers— but not writers— in the language of sound and motion.
At Animating Kids, we believe part of the answer isn’t just digital citizenship. It’s digital authorship.
We don't just want kids to write in this new language. We want them to be fluent— to know the grammar of the edit. The rhythm of a cut. The subtle power of a close-up.
We want them to know that music changes meaning, that angles shape emotion, that silence is a narrative tool.
We want them to know how media messages are built— so they can’t be so easily bought by them.
With Animating Kids they learn by doing. They don’t just study media—they make it. They plan a story. Frame it. Shoot it. Cut it. Narrate it.
And in doing so, they discover something profound:
That making media… changes how you see media.
It’s the difference between watching a magic trick… and learning the sleight of hand.
It doesn’t ruin the trick. It deepens the appreciation.
And it gives you the power to spot it when someone’s trying to deceive you.
Here’s what we’ve found: When students make a stop motion movie—even a 1-minute long—they start to understand the architecture of influence.
I'll say that again, the architecture of influence!
They learn that a story has to be built. That meaning is created—not just found. That sound and motion are tools—just like punctuation.
It’s like the Wizard of Oz moment— when you realize the booming voice, the great spectacle, is just a person behind the curtain, pulling levers.
Only in this case, the levers are thumbnails. Headlines. Animation math, Jump cuts. Sound effects. Algorithms.
And once kids see that… you can’t unsee it.
They become aware. Alert. Equipped to make media..
They don’t stop consuming media— they start becoming wise to it..
So let me say it again:
Not every child will become a YouTuber. But every child will live in a world built by them.
And in that world, we have a responsibility— as educators, as parents, as communities— to teach the language of media, just as we’ve taught the language of books.
Because in this century, this is literacy.
We haven’t just imagined what this kind of education might look like. We’ve done it.
For over a decade, we’ve helped tens of thousands of kids—and their non-filmmaking teachers—learn the language of sound and motion in over 20 countries around the world.
We've seen it light up classrooms. We've watched teachers—who thought they couldn’t teach media—thrive with it. And we've seen schools come back, year after year, as they welcome new batches of kids… and turn them into creators.
So that's the big vision. The mission. To create a generation of makers, not just takers— one frame at a time - as it were.
Please drop by anytime to see it in action. Or as one young wise-cracker shouted to me on the way to down here, "Tell them we're killing turtles."
You'll have to drop in to see what that means.
Thank you!
Bon Animate"