Today, legal thriller author and attorney Mark M. Bello is with Erika Twani, who has some strong feelings about the state of our schools and what needs to be done – and can be done -- to fix them.

Erika is author of Becoming Einstein’s Teacher: Awakening the Genius in Your Students, is co-founder and CEO of Learning One to One, where, along with experts, she explores ways to foster human achievement through Relational Learning.

Before co-founding Learning One to One, Erika was Microsoft’s education industry director for Multi-Country Americas.

She has advised government officials and education leaders around the world on the use of technology in education, and has worked with public and private schools to guide the practical use of Relational Learning.

She led Learning One to One into five countries in the first year alone, touching the lives of more than 100,000 students.


Mark: Erika Twani-welcome to Justice Counts. I’m going to call you the mother of relational learning. Perhaps you might consider that too high a compliment, but I think it is appropriate. You have been quoted as saying it takes 10,000 hours to develop an expertise in a particular subject. I would venture to guess that you have way more than that on relational learning. Please tell our listeners what is relational learning and how did you become its mother?

Bob: You’ve written a book called “Becoming Einstein’s Teacher: Awaking the Genius in Your Students.” As I understand it, a so-called “Einstein’s Teacher” has a particular meaning. What exactly is an “Einstein’s Teacher”?

Mark: Should standards be established for each individual student? A truly one-on-one experience? Does each student really have the capacity to achieve his or her dreams?

Bob: Is impossible a dirty word?

Mark: You have said that we are graduating students who lack basic skills in math, reading, writing and that we are also failing to help kids develop critical thinking skills? How do we turn this around? If it isn’t reading, writing and math, what should it be? (Teach them to think for themselves, right from wrong, life preparation skills rather than the so-called “basics” of reading, writing, etc.)

Bob: Should we still ask a kid: What do you want to be when you grow up?


Mark: How do your techniques help a struggling kid unlock the leader inside? Before you answer, I’ve done some homework on you and I don’t want to make you cry, but please tell our listeners about a school in Columbia, a kid named Andres, the techniques he learned, and what he did with them (graduated from the school, went to college, and created a program that permits blind and deaf people to watch movies in movie theatres).

(A kid without limited vision had a grand vision and implemented it. That is the power of what you have been doing throughout your career. How sweet is that? That, folks, is true educational justice. Where a kid like Andres can dream and have those dreams come true to the benefit of all of us. That is the very important part of the story: Look at the societal benefit of investing in a student like Andres who public education might have discarded as “unteachable.” Learning one-to-one. Relational learning. Learn the academics along with valuable life skills. Allow a kid to be who he wants to be and be the best at it.)
Bob: In traditional educational settings, a good student is one who has good attendance, listens to the teacher, does everything the teacher and parent says, and does well on tests. What can we expect of this obedient student as an adult and what would be a better gauge of this notion of “good” when evaluating tomorrow’s adult?
Mark: Two of my books focus on a topic you often speak about, bullying. In Betrayal High, I discuss bullying in the context of a high school shooting case. In my children’s book, Happy Jack Sad Jack, I write that we might see bullying as early as kindergarten. I would suggest that we can start by increasing a student’s self-esteem. But how do we do that and how might your techniques be used to raise safer, more responsible kids, and prevent bullying, criminality or even mass shooting events?

(Twani notes that many school shootings are caused by individuals who are lashing out after being bullied in school, and so, she contends, such shootings could be avoided if schools would do more to control bullying and increase self esteem of vulnerable students who often turn into shooters. “We must respect the benefits that every child has," says Twani, who points out that in most schools today students spend thousands of hours learning how to follow instructions. "But when they are adults, there are no instructions to follow so they get lost. What's next is crime because they have no other option. That's why it is so important for us to be teaching life skills." )

Bob: You are spreading the concept of relational learning worldwide. How is it going? Are you making a difference? How many students in how many countries have been impacted by your work?

Bob: We’ve just been through (and are still going through) a pandemic. You have said that our solutions to this health crisis have punished or, at the very least, created an injustice for low-income students. How so? (only 55% of today’s student can afford internet access and the public schools’ solution to COVID was to keep kids at home and teach them online. This shut out 45% of the school population from school. They are months and months behind.)

Mark: How do we rectify this injustice?

Mark: Is there a direct link between crime and poor educational environments or systems?


Bob: Is a good education still the ticket to success in America? What does a good education look like in the Internet age, where access to information, good or bad, can be obtained by a mouse click or a text? How does a kid today distinguish between information and disinformation?

Bob: We’ve got kids like the Buffalo shooter who was encouraged to do what he did by online hate groups. How do parents and kids prevent indoctrination or brain washing?

Mark: Where do you stand on banning books and discussions in school about race and sexuality? So-called “don’t say gay” or critical race legislation? Instead of banning relevant educational materials, what should educators do? (Help develop critical thinking skills so that students, who already have instant access to information, can think for themselves and be prepared for life. Absence of information is not the answer. Enhancing the development of critical thinking and deciding these issues for themselves provides a better solution than denying access to information.)

Bob: You advocate for curriculums that provide what you call “scalable learning frameworks.” Take us through that process and how do we implement these techniques at the local level?