Developing Super Strengths, Not Super Deficits!

All too often our brilliant students are defined by what they don’t do well…

Imagine judging a dolphin for its inability to walk on land or a giraffe for not being able to dive deep into the water. It seems so blatantly obvious here, but we do this to our students all the time.

When our students are immersed in their interest areas, their strengths are supported and developed, there is truly no limit to what they can accomplish.

Look no further than this website that our eight-year-old students made. Let me repeat, for emphasis: eight-year-olds created this incredible website in our Climate Combatants course to bring awareness to aspects of climate change that they’re passionate about.

Are you not blown away? Every time I see this site I am in complete awe!

A careful eye will notice that these 2 kiddos are:

• informing
• designing
• researching
• REFERENCING THEIR SOURCES, for heaven’s sake!

Is this not the kind of work that we dream to have our students do?

So, what’s different? How were these young twice-exceptional girls empowered to do work years beyond their age? The answer is rather straightforward: “It’s interesting. It’s authentic. It’s meaningful. Most of all, it’s hugely important to them!” This is the kind of work our students stay up late and get up early to do. They may not be doing all of the work they’re assigned, but they’re doing the “real” stuff. They’re solving burning problems.

This is the product of passion, commitment, focus, strength-application flow state work, and a dynamic partnership!

To better understand this, we can look to the work of world-renowned psychologist Dr. Joseph Renzulli’s 3-Ring Conception of Giftedness. Renzulli teaches us that gifted abilities present themselves when our students are in the center of the 3 rings:

1. Above Average Abilities
2. Task Commitment
3. Creativity

Dr. Renzulli helps us understand that “gifted behaviors appear: in certain people at certain times under certain circumstances.”

Going back to our girls, we can see that these girls were exhibiting gifted behaviors because they were in the center of their rings. They are the right people, exploring the right interests, in the right place—Young Scholars Academy, of course!

This is just one example happening in one class! To look at more amazing gifted behaviors on display, take a look at the work from some of our slightly older students who were tasked to design and render sustainable, off-the-grid houses. This was purposefully a difficult task, assigned to demonstrate what kinds of challenges real scientists face and the innovations needed to overcome these real-world challenges.

Isn’t this amazing?

Our twice-exceptional students have both gifted areas and areas where they have learning differences. At Young Scholars Academy, we’re choosing to encourage them to develop and apply their gifts to be the passionate, capable, agents of change that our world so desperately needs!

As parents, educators, professionals, etc., we are village elders who have a great deal of influence over our students’ learning environments. It’s our responsibility to support them and to empower them to develop their strengths and talents and not worry as much about struggle areas or what they’re not doing as well. That will come.

Immerse your kiddo in environments where they feel strong, build confidence, foster creativity, and obsess over the work that they do.

That’s where they will find purpose.

That’s where they will find friends.

That’s where will find belonging.

That’s where they will thrive!

To discover a place where this happens, look no further: Your superhero belongs here!!!

It’s time to start with strengths.

THIS IS YOUR SUPERHERO’S YEAR!