Middle schools take on a higher purpose by making every effort to empower all of their students to attain their highest potential. This article rediscovers the "substance of soul" in the 21st century middle schools. The author stresses that returning to one's substance of soul goes beyond merely revisiting what educators truly value and then aligning what they say they value with what they are actually doing in their professional practice. Educators must explore and develop new teaching and learning practices. New technologies now afford students and teachers the opportunity to fundamentally change the nature of the classroom, to dramatically increase access to resources for learning content well beyond the traditional school day, and to empower students in the middle grades with the capacity to create digital content that rivals the quality of any publisher or production studio in the world. Educators must find ways of using these technologies to allow student use of schoolwork to make the world a better place.