Ahead of the Curve

In August of 2007 I wrote in this column about how we try to find a good balance at EDS for the educative value of challenge and disappointment:

We want to protect our children and delay the loss of innocence that is part of the human condition. We want to build confidence and self-esteem, while simultaneously teaching the value of challenge and struggle.  We want to teach acceptance, understanding, and brotherly love, while recognizing that everyone will not always get along well with everyone else. Let’s set a goal this year to diminish our push for perfection.  Let’s embrace challenge and occasional disappointment.  Let’s try to bring that natural spirit of playfulness to our collective efforts to raise healthy, competent children.  This is an exciting time to be a citizen of the world.  It is also a challenging time.  Let’s commit ourselves to working together to help equip a generation of EDS students to have a meaningful impact on their world.

Again in January of 2010, I wrote about a Francis Drake poem that proclaims the value of challenge and leaving “comfort zones.”

And now the education world is abuzz about an article in this July’s Atlantic Monthly, “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy” (http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/how-to-land-your-kid-in-therapy/8555/), in which the author discusses the implications of parents’ obsession with their children’s “happiness.” She claims that we are making it more difficult for our children to grow into healthy happy adults by shielding them from discomfort and failure.

But at EDS we had already advanced the conversation further.  Through our leadership in the Elementary Schools Research Collaborative (ESRC), we had already begun work on a project with Educational Testing Services to develop a first-of-its-kind assessment for middle school students in important non-academic but mission-centric areas.  One of these areas is the key to making failure and disappointment a learning experience: resilience. Other characteristics we are assessing are ethical decision-making, intrinsic motivation, collaboration, creative problem solving, and time management.

At EDS we are not just talking about these skills. We are defining and describing them, and we are partnering with some of the best K-8 schools and cognitive psychologists in the country to learn how to assess and impact them.

This Sunday’s New York Times Magazine (the education issue) carried the following headline, “What if the Secret to Success is Failure?” (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?pagewanted=all).  It’s an interesting notion.  Woven into the article are comments about the importance of “grit” and resilience.  This is something that we not only know about at EDS, but we are actively doing something about it.  Because it matters.

At EDS we balance good, solid traditional education with an equal focus on the new demands of the 21^st century – without becoming victim to mere fads.  And it is clearly paying off. Our graduates report higher and higher levels of satisfaction and preparation.

The teachers truly are building foundations for learning and for life.  While the rest of the world talks about it, we see the results every day. Don’t forget to thank an EDS teacher.