The biggest problem in American secondary schools may be boredom. What American youth need more then anything is opportunity to discover their passions and unleash them into the world. The Future Project, a NYC-based startup, is addressing this challenge by mobilizing an army -- the Future Corps -- to help American high school students find and begin working toward their dream.
My daughter Katie (who co-authored this piece) shares an interest in helping young people find their own dream. We believe in passion-driven learning. We believe that most young people can make a difference -- they just need at least one person that believes in them and a few skills. The skills required to make an impact look a lot like employability skills -- the ability to communicate a vision, to build a team, to manage project, and to measure results.
The Future Project (as described in this video) stands at the intersection of educational redesign, national service, social innovation and entrepreneurship, personal and community transformation and even science, art and technology.
The Future Corps consists of local college students, graduate students or young professionals in who are matched with students (called Future Fellows). This 'dream team' gets to work putting dreams into action. Some students have started non-profits, filed patents, build teams, conducted events, and launched campaigns aimed at transforming New York, New Haven, and Washington D.C.
Fellows in the Future Corps have shown increased engagement in school and are very positive about their futures. To date there are 251 Future Projects in action, some which were showcased in New Haven last week. It's a daunting task to make the large-scale social change that the Future Projects sets out to but their work has proven to positively reach students and engage a community simultaneously.
Founders Andrew Mangino and Kanya Balakrishna hatched an idea while running in Washington, D.C., in 2010 and since then have built an organization that is passionate about engaging a generation to make a difference. Challenges will arise, but The Future Project is determined to change America's education system by creating partnerships and spreading inspiration. Their pilot year was a success by many standards. We invite you to join us in helping Future Corps spread passion driven learning nationwide.
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Tom Nixon
http://BestOnlineHighSchools.com
I agree.
I also love this project. It addresses a different, equally critical need. Many teen drug and alcohol counselors will tell you that the best anti-drug interventions involve real, achievable goals for the future.
Dreams need to be nurtured.Teens need adults in their lives to help them recognize their talents and create plans for the future. A teen with a dream is more willing to put up with boring classes to achieve his or her dream. A teen with a dream is also more likely to engage with school enough to realize the classes he or she thought were boring, in fact, have a lot of offer.
That said, a lot of school is unnecessarily boring. Helping teens develop a real vision for the future is key. If we can pair that effort with an educational system that places real, day-to-day responsibility for learning on the student, rather than the teacher, we will have made real progress. I see promise in many of the hybrid learning solutions currently under development. My concern is that we look at the whole education system appropriately - starting with the desired outcome: Engaged, motivated students bursting with dreams for the future - who are well equipped to make those dreams come true.