I’ll steal any assignment if I think it’s relevant to student success. Today’s theft was from the wife, who used this with her kids the other day.
It starts with a simple question to my seniors–What skills do you think you should have once you enter the real world in a couple of months? What should an 18-yr-old be able to do? Pretty much, what skills should anyone have to navigate the big bad world?
I gave students some time to answer. They did. Then we talked about their answers, where I wrote them in teacher-speak on the board. Surprisingly, anyone should not be amazed that students know what they should be able to do. Some of them can’t do these things yet, but they want to, and know that not having certain skills limits them in life.
We talked, asked questions, laughed, used personal examples. You know, teacher/student stuff.
Then, on the old overhead projector, I put up the article my wife used with her kids. It’s written by a former Stanford dean who has also done TED Talks on the subject of adulthood and kids. Her examples make a ton of sense, as they should have, since my students came up with seven of her eight. You can find the article HERE.
But you know the one that students didn’t say? It’s the last one–an 18-yr-old must be able to take risks. Seems easy enough, right? Too bad taking risks is not a priority for most students these days. If so, they would have to try. And, if they try and fail, then they might be uncomfortable. If they’re uncomfortable . . . who knows what could happen?
They’re still young, but this is what Huxley wrote about in Brave New World. We don’t take risks, obstacles are removed for us, and we just consume and satiate ourselves on anything shiny that we want right here right now.
Try, fail, repeat. I do it every single day, so you could say I’ve given my students a good model. I hear that’s a good thing.