The New Bill of Rights for All Students — from thegallupblog.gallup.com by Brandon Busteed, Executive Director of Gallup Education; with thanks to Jackie Gerstein for posting this on Twitter
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Gallup has a silver bullet for solving many of the world’s problems. Here it is: Every student in the world, from pre-K to higher ed, needs:
- Someone who cares about their development
- To do what they like to do each day
- To do what they are best at every day
That’s it.
…
This insight is rooted in Gallup’s most important findings — everyone in the world wants a good job, and no one ever became successful by trying to improve their weaknesses. They became great by playing to their strengths and leveraging their innate talents. These two findings have absolutely everything in common with the new bill of rights.
…
Gallup estimates that — at most — 30% of the United State’s workforce is actively engaged in their work. We also know the outlook is pretty miserable in schools; in elementary school, engagement peaks at 76%, but then decreases each year students are in school — down to 61% in middle school and then 44% in high school. If schools focused on students’ strengths rather than their weaknesses, students would be more engaged throughout their entire education.
From DSC:
Marcus Buckingham’s work is key here and I agree with his perspectives on this.
I’d like to add that beyond foundational knowledge/skills, our time is best spent developing our passions, gifts, and abilities — applied towards read-world issues, problems, fun.