Meet Priten

Biography

He is the author of two books published by Wiley/Jossey-Bass: AI and the Future of Education (2023), now translated into five languages, and Ethical Ed Tech (2026), a practical guide for K-12 educators navigating AI and digital safety. As executive director of the nonprofit PedagogyFutures, he has led professional development reaching more than 50,000 teachers, with courses approved for state PD credit in Massachusetts and six other states.

Priten’s work in education started early. In high school he founded a tutoring nonprofit that served hundreds of students. He went on to coach debate at Commonwealth School and with programs across the country, study philosophy at Harvard College, and earn his Ed.M. in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Today he serves as a visiting associate in the Harvard Department of Philosophy, teaches adult learners earning bachelor’s degrees at College Unbound, and co-founded Academy 4 Social Civics, a nonprofit whose free civics curricula have reached students around the world.

His commentary on education and technology has appeared in Education Week, Inside Higher Ed, and Newsweek, and he has keynoted education conferences across the country and internationally. He hosts Margin of Thought, a podcast in conversation with teachers, students, and researchers about how we raise and educate children.

Priten and his partner chose Brookline as the place to build their life and raise their family. He is a candidate for School Committee and for Town Meeting in his home precinct.

The books

Two books, three years apart — and where the second disagrees with the first, that’s the evidence changing my mind in public. I’d want a School Committee member who can do that.

A note about my stake in these schools

I’ll be direct about this, because it’s a fair question. I don’t have a child in the schools today. My partner and I chose Brookline because this is where we want to raise our children, and these are the schools we’re counting on. But that’s not why I think I can do this job.

School Committee members with kids in the schools bring something real, and I’m glad they’re at the table. At the same time, most Brookline residents don’t have a child enrolled right now, and many families who do can’t make a Thursday night meeting. Working parents, renters, METCO families, families still learning English. All of them fund these schools and live with what this committee decides. I’ve spent my whole career on education, in classrooms, in research, and in the hard questions about what technology is doing to kids. What I’d bring is that experience plus a commitment to go find the families this process doesn’t reach, instead of assuming my own experience covers theirs.

— Priten