Although I am not aware of the context of this quote, I think Bill Gates is perceiving the phrase oddly. Having seen where student agency has worked (in UK HE at least) has been where students are genuinely empowered and given autonomy (love Deci and Ryan’s work!) to choose and dig into an issue, problem or task and to engage in partnership with other students and/or staff to solve it. As I always say ‘we learn more from our differences than our similarities’ . I think student agency can allow these different perspectives to influence our thinking, learning spaces and therefore societal awareness, far more than a fixed curriculum currently does! But it takes an open and confident academic to give away the power they hold, to trust the students to take the opportunity seriously and to allow the freedom of choice that makes supervision more flexible. It also takes a systemic shift from tests to select the highest achieving 20% to an educational system that instead desires the potential of all students to be better achieving their potential. Salamon Khan and Sir Ken Robinson have both alluded to this necessary shift I believe. Just my two pennies… thanks for the thought provoking post Will Richardson.

P.S. You may be interested in the REACT project at Uni of Winchester, the RAISE Community, The Student Engagement Partnership and Jisc Change Agent Network from a UK perspective (not as K12 but principles adopted can apply)