The Future Looks...

When my son was five years old, I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. “I’m going to be a policeman, superhero, and architect,” he replied. At ten years of age, he still aspires to be an architect, but he also plans to moonlight as a professional skateboarder and magician. Our daughter, on the other hand, looks forward to being an adult veterinarian by day, and hip hop dancer by night. As parents, my husband and I have never tried to dash our children’s dreams, and love getting these tiny, periodic glimpses into their growing passions and aspirations. They morph and evolve constantly, and demonstrate how life experiences can nurture and shape one’s character. Although their ultimate career paths are still uncertain, I have faith that both of my children’s futures look bright.

As educators, we are periodically asked to evaluate future student success using various performance measures, including tests, interviews, speeches, reports, athletic events, and artistic talents. We find ourselves constantly being asked to track student grades, scores, and results, comparing individual performance across a certain subset of students. I feel strongly that we are missing the boat when we only view students in this manner, for we know that future success alone cannot be determined by examining these objective or standardized student snapshots.

The global economy of today demands that our children acquire a toolkit abundant in life skills and habits, including teamwork, work ethic, creative thinking, accountability, negotiation, kindness, collaboration, conflict resolution, time management, and integrity. The workforce arena will always be looking for employees with emotional IQ, problem-solving skills, and the ability to get along well with colleagues. In my opinion, these transferable, relational skills are going to be more highly predictive of success in adulthood, and the research increasingly cites this. Indeed, while one’s academic skillset may help get the job, it is the relational skillset that usually helps one maintain a job over time.

This fall, I had the unique opportunity to seek community input as a start-of-school exercise. I asked one simple question to our faculty, staff, and parents: “What are your hopes and dreams for your child(ren) this year?” The results were heartwarming, as nearly all of the comments pertained to students, their emotional well-being, and relational skills.

“Joy, laughter, learning and growth.”

“To focus on a child’s strengths, especially when they are struggling.”

“Be virtuous…have integrity…be good to others.”

“We want our son to become more independent.”

“To gain great confidence.”

“I want my daughter and sons to be good people; to be comfortable making mistakes and learning from them.”

“I want her to be fearless in her pursuit of happiness.”

“To be open to new challenges, new friends, new opportunities, and to enjoy it all!”

“My hope is that we are creating a generation of learners who are committed to justice: social, environmental, and educational. I hope that our students are committed to equality”

“May she always feel joy, amore, aloha, gratitude, and confidence.”

“Teach her to protect her happy spirit and attitude, and know that everything is possible.”

“To just be.”

Reading the many ways our community measures student success was quite affirming. Ultimately, I believe that all of our children can grow into marvelous human beings who make a positive difference in the world, whether they move on to become a moonlighting hip hop dancer or a skateboard-shredding architect. Their futures will be bright, if we continue to stress the importance of developing relational competency in a world that increasingly needs it more than anything.