Falls Church, Where Curiosity Thrives: Introducing the Education Passport

What would happen if learning didn’t stop at the classroom door? What if a whole city became a space for exploration, connection, and purpose-driven discovery?

The Learning Quest is proud to launch the Education Passport—a new initiative that invites young people (and the young at heart) to help co-design a city-wide learning adventure, starting in Falls Church, Virginia.

Known as The Little City, Falls Church has long fostered a deep sense of community, creativity, and civic engagement. Now, it’s taking a bold step forward in reimagining what learning can look like when it’s open-walled—extending beyond schools and into parks, businesses, libraries, cafés, museums, nonprofits, and city departments.

What Is the Education Passport?

The Education Passport is more than a booklet or a program—it’s a co-designed invitation to learn anywhere, with anyone. It helps learners document their journeys, earn recognition for experiences, and celebrate curiosity in everyday life. But what makes this initiative different is that it’s being shaped by learners themselves, from the very beginning.

Through a short form (linked here), we’re asking youth and other curious minds to tell us:
What are you curious about? What do you want to learn, build, explore, or change in the world around you?

Their answers will guide the development of the Education Passport—making it a tool for learners, by learners.

Why It Matters

Traditional education often misses the rich learning that happens outside of classrooms: when a student volunteers at a food pantry, repairs a bike at a Fix-It Clinic, interviews a local entrepreneur, or solves a real-world problem for City Hall. The Education Passport helps legitimise and amplify these experiences.

By recognizing learning that happens across the community, we’re building an open-walled learning ecosystem—where every resident, business, and institution becomes a potential teacher, partner, or spark for discovery.

From Falls Church to Everywhere

While the Education Passport is launching in Falls Church, it is designed to be replicable and adaptable to any city that wants to embrace a learner-centered approach. The model fosters equity, agency, and relevance in learning—inviting all voices to participate in co-creating what education looks like in their context.

This is the future of learning: rooted in place, powered by curiosity, and designed together.

Join us.
👉 Fill out the co-design form here: https://bit.ly/FCEduPassport
📎 Download the flyer to help us spread the word!