By Pamela Cantor, from the American Educator
Education has long been central to the promise of the United States of America. But our current education system has never been designed to promote the equitable opportunities or outcomes that our children and families deserve and that our democracy, society, and economy now need. The people who built the education system in the 19th and 20th centuries believed that talent and skills were scarce. They trusted averages as measures of individuals. And many of their educational beliefs were grounded in racist stereotypes that deemed only some children worthy of opportunity. These beliefs influenced the learning and development ecosystem beyond school as well, such that access to high-quality enrichment opportunities were more often a reflection of wealth and zip code than need or interest.
COVID-19, the resulting recession in the service economy, and ongoing racialized violence have laid bare the inequities of experience and opportunity among our youth. They have also highlighted the resiliency of our young people, families, educators, and community organizations. When schools were forced to close abruptly and convert to remote instruction, teachers, school staff, and community partners stepped up to reinforce relationships, provide critical supports, and acknowledge both the losses and the learning happening. It can be hard to find silver linings when there has been so much suffering. But here is one: we now have a chance to design something different and better for all of our children.
In recent years, teams of educators, youth development practitioners, and researchers have been striving to dismantle our outdated system. Today, there is a new vision for learning and development emerging for all children across the United States:
Imagine a world where every child’s life was a succession of opportunities in which they come to know who they are and in which they discover who they could become…. Imagine too that educators could find how best to identify each child’s specific abilities, interests, and aspirations and then align these attributes with the specific contexts that best promoted the child’s talents, achievements, and successes in life. Finally, imagine that each child lived in a world that removed the constraints of racism, poverty, disparities, and injustices and provided them with the specific relationships and supports needed for thriving.1
Intuitively, we know that each of our journeys through life is unique. They take place through an open-ended set of experiences that happen all the time and in every space in which we grow and learn across the lifespan. A comprehensive understanding of whole-child development, learning, and thriving requires a dynamic and integrated view of the journey each young person takes, namely the environments, experiences, and relationships they are exposed to. Current scientific understanding and measurement of these dynamic, individualized journeys must become the foundation for the beliefs, knowledge, and practices of all practitioners, administrators, and policymakers working with and on behalf of children. Specifically, they must understand the learning processes, potentialities, and capabilities that can and will emerge in students across time and across settings, especially when such settings are intentionally designed to promote whole-child development, learning, and thriving.
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