About
Meet Professor Taylor
The on-screen guide to Taylor Method Life Lab, inspired by its real-life creator, educator Sierra Taylor.
Professor Taylor is the on-screen guide to Taylor Method Life Lab, inspired by its real-life creator, educator Sierra Taylor.
Sierra is a University of Michigan graduate and special education teacher at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in New Jersey. Her work with children also includes kids' yoga, mindfulness, breathwork, and years of creative teaching. Before moving fully into education, she spent 14 years as a professional cake decorator, with work appearing on Netflix and Food Network.
At the heart of the Taylor Method is a simple passion: helping kids understand themselves, understand the world around them, and feel more capable navigating both.
Sierra's daughter, Emma, was the original inspiration behind the Taylor Method way of teaching. Sierra homeschooled her through age 10, adapting learning to the way Emma actually understood and processed information. Today, Emma is an honors high-school student with a 4.33 GPA and a competitive volleyball player.
In each Life Lab episode, Professor Taylor helps guide the experiment, introduces the question, and brings the lesson together at the end.
Why I Created Life Lab
Working with kids has made me question a lot about traditional education.
I've seen children who are perfectly capable of understanding something start to doubt themselves because they couldn't learn it the way it was being presented. I've seen kids become so nervous about getting an answer wrong that they have trouble remembering things they already know.
And I've wondered why we spend so much time teaching children what they need to know for school, but often leave them to figure out so much of life on their own.
How to deal with difficult feelings. How to recognize when someone isn't treating them well. How to communicate what they need. How to develop confidence in themselves and their ability to figure things out.
I also happen to think learning should be enjoyable. If we're teaching kids about cells, why can't we turn the cell into a factory? If we're teaching percentages, why can't we go on a pirate adventure?
I want kids to be interested in what they're learning. I want them to ask questions, make mistakes, think for themselves, and experience that wonderful feeling when something finally makes sense.
That's what I'm working to create here, one lesson at a time.