Students are now well into the fourth “normal” school year post pandemic, and while we are seeing signs that students are regaining some of the ground they lost, the deep and lasting effects that Covid restrictions had on students are still revealing themselves.
Recent studies show evidence of abnormal aging in the brains of adolescent girls and that students who are now in middle school have fallen even farther behind in science than before the pandemic.
These studies are disheartening, but they also reflect what so many of us are observing. Our kids are struggling. Struggling with their mental health, with their connection to school, and with finding reasons to feel hopeful in a world that is long on problems and short on problem solvers.
As we look ahead, we need to stay focused on recovery, but we also need to push for something better than just getting our students to level ground. We need to offer kids learning opportunities that help them thrive again.
At KID, we see promise when centering on key touchstones:
- Choice and Self Direction: As classroom lessons become ever more structured to meet testing requirements and success on assignments more closely linked to rigid grading rubrics, we see kids desperately in need of opportunities to make choices and drive their own learning. KID’s open explore model is designed to let students follow what interests them.
- Our educators are trained to support students in building skills and feeling empowered to take on a challenge, but the how is fully in the students’ hands. We see everyday how this model, at first, unsettles students who are so accustomed to following directions. And then we see them come through the other side of the experience exhilarated by what they were able to figure out on their own.
- Purpose and Relevance. A recent study of medical students showed that a growth mindset made an enormous difference in rates of burnout. Those who could see the importance of what they were learning and saw that their work contributed to the well-being of the community around them were better able to successfully endure the long hours of their training.
- KID’s Invention Programs ask students to develop a solution to a problem they see in the world. Our instructors say that, for students, identifying a problem where they can make a difference is often the most challenging step of the program. But once the students find an issue that moves them and decide on the solution they want to pursue, teachers see a transformation. They report that students feel more engaged and more connected to not only their invention project, but to what they are doing in school overall.
- Confidence: Making something with your hands, creating something new, and figuring out something that seemed impossible at first are all incredible confidence builders. We see it even among the adults who come in for our team building events. Trepidation turns to triumph as people realize they are capable of so much more than they knew.
- At KID, we seek to introduce students to a wide range of tools and then teach them to use them to bring their ideas to life. When a student creates something truly their own, you don’t have to tell them they’ve done a great job; they see and feel it. And we see how that confidence carries through to other parts of school and life.
During the shutdown days of the pandemic, parents had a real-time window into what learning looked like and how hard it was to engage kids. Sadly, in the scramble to support academic recovery, many schools now have reverted back to traditional ways of teaching that do not resonate with kids today.
We need to do more to help students to direct their own learning, see the relevance of what they are studying, and build confidence through doing. These are the experiences that will help our kids thrive in school and in life by building the skills that will support their long-term success in a rapidly evolving world.
CONGRATS
Congratulations to 2024’s Invent the Future award winners who received recognition at our Expo on June 2.
