Melanie Pressler: Redefining What Fairness in Education Can Look Like

There are children in every classroom who move quietly through the school day, doing their best to fit into structures that were never designed with their lives in mind. They are not lacking ability or curiosity - they are simply not being fully seen.

For Melanie Pressler, founder of LUX Lernförderung, this quiet invisibility is not an abstract concept. It is the starting point of her work.

She speaks with a calm clarity that reflects the depth of her observations. Her conviction is simple yet transformative: children do not fail school - the system fails to understand them.

This belief was shaped not in a policy office, but in a hospital classroom - at the hospital-based school “Schule in der Charité” in Berlin, where she taught in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry unit. There, Melanie saw how children can struggle when their needs go unnoticed - and how quickly they regain confidence when someone truly listens.

LUX grew from this understanding.

A Mission Rooted in Biography and Vision

Melanie’s journey with education began long before she stood in front of a classroom. As the daughter of a Filipino immigrant, she experienced firsthand how strongly educational pathways in Germany are linked to cultural and social background. She learned early how quickly children can be judged before their potential is truly recognized.

Years later, working with young people navigating psychological crises, these early insights became clearer. She met students labeled as “difficult” or “unmotivated” when, in truth, they were carrying emotional and structural burdens that had never been understood.

Out of this experience emerged the question that would become the foundation of LUX:

“What do you need?”

This is not a slogan. It is a principle, a framework for understanding, listening, and creating environments in which children and adults can grow.

A Different Approach to School Support

LUX is often mistaken for a tutoring service.

But Melanie is clear: tutoring fills gaps.

LUX builds systems.

Her team works with a systemic perspective: seeing the child, yes, but also the adults, routines, expectations, and institutional context that shape learning.

At the center are the learning mentors and learning support assistants, who help students reconnect with their strengths, rebuild trust in their abilities, and understand themselves in ways traditional evaluations rarely capture.

Melanie emphasizes:

“No one at LUX works alone. Our mentors, assistants, and our back office - everyone contributes to the stability and clarity schools urgently need.”

Schools Are Changing Faster Than the System

German classrooms are more diverse than ever.
Teachers work with students who bring different languages, cultural backgrounds, emotional realities, and life experiences.

Mental health challenges are rising.
A shared value base is weakening.
More career changers are entering the profession - bringing valuable perspectives, but also requiring structured pedagogical support.

Melanie’s view is direct and compassionate:
“Teachers are not failing. They are being asked to succeed within systems that give them too little support.”

LUX addresses this by strengthening team structures, emotional literacy, routines, and providing time for reflection - essential elements for teacher well-being and student success.

Inclusion Means Belonging, Not Compliance

For Melanie Pressler, inclusion is a worldview.
It means recognizing that differences are the norm - and creating environments where children do not have to shrink or hide parts of themselves to belong.

Belonging grows through relationships, not rules.
LUX supports schools in establishing the structures that allow belonging to flourish: reliable routines, emotionally aware teams, listening leadership, and open communication with families.

“Inclusion,” Melanie says, “requires time, clarity, and systems that see the whole child.”

Technology With a Human Heart

LUX integrates digital diagnostics and AI where they genuinely help:
to reveal learning patterns, personalize support, and make development transparent.

But Melanie is clear:

“Values are carried by people, not algorithms.”

Technology can guide.
It can support.
But it cannot replace presence or empathy.

Innovation is only meaningful when it strengthens human relationships.

This perspective allows LUX to design interventions that are sustainable, realistic, and closely aligned with the environments in which children learn. It also strengthens collaborations with schools, families, and professionals, ensuring that everyone works toward shared goals

Breaking Barriers to Educational Equality

Melanie believes the greatest obstacle to educational equality lies in mindset. While society often speaks of equal opportunity, what it frequently delivers is compensation rather than genuine fairness. True equity, she argues, can only emerge when the systems that perpetuate inequality are transformed.

In Germany, academic success remains strongly tied to social and cultural background. Children do not begin from the same starting point, and current structures do little to bridge that gap. Another issue arises from how achievement itself is defined. Schools tend to value outcomes but overlook the effort and resilience behind them. Children facing emotional challenges, language barriers, or learning differences often go unseen, even when they possess remarkable abilities.

Melanie observes that the educational framework remains largely monocultural. Diversity is discussed more often than it is embodied. Multilingualism is still treated as a problem rather than a strength, and those who think, feel, or learn differently are expected to adapt rather than be embraced.

She also draws attention to the immense pressure teachers face. Many carry the responsibility of fairness within a rigid system that gives them little power to change it. As a result, burnout is common among educators who care deeply but lack support.

For Melanie, real equality means empowering both students and teachers. She envisions learning spaces where people are seen before they are judged, and where relationships come before evaluations. True educational justice, in her view, exists when every child and every teacher can live up to their highest potential, whether or not they fit the norm.

Embracing the Wholeness of Every Child

For Melanie, true inclusion begins with the belief that everyone belongs not despite their differences but because of them. She envisions learning environments where diversity is the norm and individuality is celebrated rather than corrected. To her, inclusion is not a project or an additional responsibility; it is a deeply humanistic worldview.

Melanie believes that when children are seen in their entirety, with their stories, strengths, fears, and needs, the entire dynamic of learning transforms. Differences are no longer obstacles but valuable resources that enrich classrooms and relationships alike. She emphasizes that belonging does not emerge from rules but from relationships. Schools, she suggests, can foster belonging by creating spaces for open dialogue between teachers, students, and families, spaces where listening replaces labeling.

In her view, genuine inclusion requires time, awareness, and supportive structures. It can only flourish when society stops categorizing children and begins to recognize them as whole human beings, each deserving of acceptance and understanding.

Lasting Change Requires Structures, Not Intentions

Melanie values the extensive funding programs available in Germany.
But she also sees a pattern:

Many initiatives exist in parallel, but too few are connected.
Good ideas lose impact without structure.

LUX builds these structures - sustainable frameworks for inclusion, team culture, learning support, and leadership.

“Impact,” Melanie says, “should not be accidental. It should be intentional.”

The Human Pulse Behind Digital Learning

In Melanie’s philosophy, technology is not the opposite of humanity but an extension of it. At LUX Lernförderung, innovation serves a single purpose: to make education more equitable, personalized, and transparent, without losing sight of the human heart of learning.

She believes that learning will always remain a relational process, shaped by trust and human connection. Digital tools and artificial intelligence can offer valuable insights into learning patterns and individual needs, but their value depends entirely on the educators guiding them. For Melanie, algorithms can never transmit empathy or values; only human role models can.

LUX recognises the significant responsibilities carried by teachers and school teams. The organisation supports them by helping establish clear routines, predictable structures, and effective strategies for both everyday classroom management and challenging situations. Through coaching, consultation, and observation, LUX strengthens team cohesion and provides the tools needed to respond to complex learning needs with clarity and confidence. The goal is always to enable teachers to focus on teaching rather than crisis management.

The Power of Collective Responsibility

For Melanie, education can only succeed through collaboration. She believes that children grow within the interplay of family, school, and society, and when these systems fail to communicate, the consequences fall on the children. In her view, teachers need parents who trust them and share responsibility, while parents need schools that value them as true partners. Both, she insists, depend on political frameworks that provide time, stability, and the necessary resources to make fairness possible.

Melanie observes that what is often missing is genuine dialogue between these levels. Schools are frequently left to manage social expectations on their own, while families and policymakers hold differing visions of what education should achieve. For her, this is not a matter of blame but a call to remember a shared purpose: empowering children. She emphasizes that educational justice is not the task of individuals but a collective responsibility that can only succeed through authentic collaboration.

The Compass of Care

Leadership at  LUX Lernförderung is defined by creating the conditions in which teams can work with stability, focus, and purpose. The organisation’s leadership does not centre on control, but on building systems that make work manageable and transparent. Clear communication, well-defined responsibilities, and supportive structures allow team members to understand how their individual contributions connect to the broader mission. This approach fosters consistency, trust, and a shared sense of direction.

Melanie believes that responsibility should arise through participation rather than hierarchy. Within her team, the focus is not on perfection but on awareness and accountability. Reflection, mutual learning, and honest feedback are key elements of the culture she has built. She often says that work should not merely function; it should carry meaning. When people feel valued and understand that their efforts contribute to something greater, true engagement and innovation emerge.

The culture of trust at LUX extends across the organization. From learning mentors and support assistants working directly with children to the back-office team managing operations with care and precision, every role is recognized as vital. Melanie expresses deep gratitude for her dedicated, talented, and compassionate team, acknowledging that they embody the spirit of LUX in everything they do. For her, leadership is not a title but a mindset, one rooted in presence, listening, guidance, and the empowerment of others to discover their own strength.

Leadership Rooted in Presence, Reflection, and Responsibility

Melanie’s leadership is defined by clarity, respect, and presence.

She believes organisations should empower, not overwhelm.

LUX is built on reflection rather than perfection, shared responsibility rather than hierarchy, and deep gratitude for the people who bring this mission to life.

“I am incredibly proud of our team,” she says.

“Every person plays a meaningful role in a child’s experience. Leadership means creating spaces where others can grow.”

Her Vision for the Future

Melanie’s vision is ambitious and deeply human:

·         A system built on trust instead of fear.

·         A culture where relationships come before evaluation.

·         Schools where children gain self-understanding and responsibility.

·         Environments where teachers feel supported instead of overwhelmed.

·         Structures that enable fairness rather than reinforcing inequality.

With LUX, she is building this future - school by school, team by team, child by child.

Her work reminds us:

Seeing a child is an act of empowerment.

Empowering a child is an act of transformation.

Also Read :- Education Excellence Magazine for moire information