Children are naturally curious and have incredible mental flexibility. Education should deepen and expand their thinking, not narrow it. Thanks to rapid technological advancements and social changes in recent years, our world is evolving faster than ever. Information is incredibly accessible, and specialized skills are in high demand. With information, sound and otherwise, just a click away, it’s important for students to learn how to find, assess, combine, and creatively use information to create something valuable.
The ability to quickly turn ideas and information into real results has always been important for success. In our fast-paced world, this ability is particularly essential for leaders in all fields.
To succeed in this 21st-century landscape, children need chances to practice making decisions, working together to solve problems, and experimenting as they explore their unique gifts, talents, and passions. Our goal as the Agile Learning Center is to help learners navigate and shape their own futures. We design our daily activities around purpose, agency, digital literacy, collaboration, culture creation, and sharing to this end.
Purpose
Many adults wish they had discovered their passions earlier in life. What are you here to do? How do you find your purpose? One thing is clear: you won’t find it without plenty of opportunities to explore. If you don’t try out what you think you might love, you won’t know if it truly makes you happy.
Parents often share that they wish they had the chance to explore their interests earlier, so they could have a stronger sense of purpose. Maybe they wouldn’t have had to change their college majors multiple times or experience a mid-life crisis to finally figure out what they really wanted.
By high school, many students have identified their core passions and are organizing their futures around them. The sooner a child has the chance to pursue their interests, the sooner they can gain skills in those areas. Achieving mastery builds confidence, helping them move through life with a sense of purpose and an understanding of the impact they can make.
Agency
Even in just the past few decades in the US, the job market and the nature of work have changed dramatically. Today, 80% of new jobs are in small businesses and freelance work. The days of plentiful jobs in large companies and assembly lines are gone. Our educational system was designed for an older economy, where the best skills were simply showing up and following directions. Now, we need creative thinkers who can independently spot needs, come up with solutions, and take action. A good learning experience must include these important skills.
Digital Literacy
Reading and writing are essential for a healthy society, but as more communication and collaboration shift online, being skilled in digital media is just as important. With so much information at our fingertips, we now need to focus on how to navigate and think critically about that information, rather than just memorizing it. Digital literacy shouldn’t just be taught in a weekly computer class; it should be part of our daily learning experiences, with discussions about the impact of technology on society.
Collaboration
Most big projects can’t be done alone, but working together can sometimes be frustrating when conditions feel forced and people aren’t truly engaged. Effective collaboration happens when everyone cares about what they’re doing and has the right tools to work well together. When collaboration feels genuine, people can tap into each other’s strengths and experience a real sense of accomplishment.
Culture Creation
Many people think of culture as something fixed and unchangeable, but we can actually create and change culture intentionally, especially in smaller communities like schools or businesses. This has become more clear with the rise of the internet, which has made diverse subcultures more visible. By embedding our values and behaviors into our culture, we can work together without needing a long list of rules. When everyone contributes to creating a positive culture, they become invested in supporting it. Tools that help with intentional culture creation make implicit norms clear, encourage new patterns of behavior, and improve accountability by making intentions and outcomes visible to everyone.
Sharing
Learning isn’t complete until it’s shared with others. Many people find that when they teach someone else, they truly understand what they’ve learned. In today’s world, sharing can happen in so many ways—through words, images, videos, and digital interactions. This allows students to contribute to the wider world in ways that weren’t possible before. These contributions and the learning behind them is often not captured by traditional report cards. At ALC-NYC, students take time every week to create and add to personalized multimedia portfolios that reflect their unique learning journeys.
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