“I wish I had acquired the tools to love me, for me. After 4th grade I never really felt like I fit into the mold that I was being put in.”
~College Freshman
What are the right tools for success?
It’s no secret that the world of education has conditioned us to “Race for the Top” for academic achievement. The standards are high and the schooling is rigorous. For the most part, parents have even become more and more involved in sharing these high expectations for their children. After all we just want them to be their best right?!
Of course we want our kids to do well. Of course we think they are capable of achieving academic success. Of course we want to hold them accountable for working hard and making the grades. But at what expense?
I wish my education would have been more about learning and less about the testing.
College Freshman (My Former 3rd Grade Student)
Is our focus misplaced?
In preparation for publishing my book, I had an interview with a former student of mine that suffers with depression. In his freshman year of college, he even considered self-harm. He has since gotten his depression under control and continues to work to keep a healthy mindset. One thing he said really stuck out to me…
So I ask the question again, “Is our focus on achievement and success misplaced?” How the heck are we supposed to expect students to achieve success when they don’t even love who they are. As my former student shared the history of his depression and how it slowly declined as he struggled to fit the mold through his middle school/high school years, I was left sad and disappointed with education in a general sense.
In the past 20 years education has taken a turn. In the early 2000’s with No Child Left Behind the focus was shifted to mastering standards. This shift held teachers, principals, and school systems accountable for teaching mandated State Standards. Our school district was strategic about teaching the standards for mastery! The focus was data driven, standards based (they call it). But what about the unwritten less measurable standards? What about being student driven?
This left little time for teaching students about character development, organization, planning, self-confidence, etc. Much of the fun stuff was tossed out the window to create more time for data driven instruction. We met with parents and taught them to think in this same manner. In some ways our generations of parents have been conditioned to support this data driven educational system.
Are we teaching standards or humans?
Our Admin once debated dropping handwriting to teach typing skills…they said, ” We need to change with the times, kids are different, our world is different.” Let’s think about that…are they really different? Not really folks!
Our world is different – TRUE
Our world has changed. Technology has made life easier in so many ways, yet harder in so many more! Kids are facing stress the our generation has never experienced. Because of technology, they are consumed in comparing themselves, wanting the best of everything, the coolest of everything. They are bullied in ways we cannot even understand. They can accidentally stumble upon things that they are not ready to hear or process. They have access to more information than ever before. Kids are becoming obsessed with their own technology and that leads to isolation. Parents too, are on their devices instead of playing with their kids. I’m guilty…we are ALL guilty! But just because we feel guilty doesn’t mean it’s ok. Just because our kids want to be on their own devices, doesn’t mean it’s healthy or right.
Our kids are different- FALSE
Our kids are human. Humans were built for connection with other humans. We were built for communication, connection, and love. We are the only species that can sense how others feel and have compassion and empathy. We know more today about the brain and how it develops. That research is proving that kids need to be developed through play, interactions, communication, and imagination. That research also proves that relationships are necessary for brain development. Kids develop the same today, as they did in past generations. It’s not the kids that are changing.
I’m writing this book for Elementary Teachers and Administrators and I hope to make a BIG Difference!
The anxiety and depression that students and even teachers are facing today has much to do with ever changing world around us. My book reminds educators that our job is to focus on providing students with the tools that will equip them for achieving success. It gives little moves and big moves that educators can made in order to do this. The book provides specific strategies for developing children to be ready for a rigorous world of learning.
Whether at school or at home, do you teach the young people in your life to love themselves for who they are? Are you intentional about encouraging young people around you to be proud of the unique gifts and talents that they possess. Are you that teacher, principal, or parent that cares about your child’s mental, physical, and emotional health? I think deep down, we all are! I think the world changing around us has shifted our focus a bit. I know, that we want our kids to feel as though they are equipped with the tools needed to love themselves for who they are!
What I want for education
I would just love to see this new shift in education. I would love to see the focus in elementary education (k-5) shift from academic rigor to developmental growth.
Everyone is so focused on academic performance, when really shouldn’t we just focus on learning something?
College Freshman (My Former Student)
If we could just SLOW DOWN to focus on the learning and be less concerned about the performance (data), then I believe in the long run, our students will achieve overall academic success. Slow down to help them develop physically, mentally, and emotionally. SLOW DOWN to equip our students with the tools needed to find success.
How we can equip our youth with the proper tools to achieve success.
We shift our focus in the early elementary years to developmental growth. What I’ve observed through my years of teaching many different grade levels is that we provide strategies in the following areas to students who are developmentally delayed, identified with a learning disability or behavioral concern, but we just assume that the Average Joe or Advanced Addie will develop these skills on their own. But the truth is that all children need to develop the following areas.
- Executive Function Skills
- Growth Mindset
- Teach through Natural Curiosity
- Focus less on the Performance and more on the learning
If you want to learn more about strategies that develop these skills, check out my Developmental Growth Series through Dominican University. You can get credit hours while creating this new mindset for your own classroom.
I Can’t Wait!
I’m pretty sure you can feel the passion in my voice of this post! I can’t wait to share my ideas and strategies for developmental growth with world of education! I am so pumped to get this out there! I know that many teachers feel the same as I do. I would venture to say that most administrators in education do as well! But I am hopping that the message in this book of mine will really make a difference in the world of education!
Slow Down to Get Ahead!
Enjoy Being Their Difference!
