A student’s brain is not a blank slate on which we inscribe knowledge. It is not a flash drive onto which we download information. And it is not a processor that executes Python instructions to be obeyed. Learning occurs when the brain’s intricate neural networks adapt to the world, driven by an interaction between genes and the environment. Whether during early childhood or adolescence, traditional curricula and pedagogies do scant justice to the extraordinary dynamism and complexity of the developing brain.