Healthy, Thriving Adult
Healthy Thriving Adult
K12 education has a primary job of preparing and inspiring students for adulthood, when the guardrails and support are removed. Preparing students and supporting educators to be healthy, thriving adults involves designing education from multiple stakeholder perspectives, embedded with the components needed to be a healthy, thriving adult into content and school culture. Schools should be individualized, centered around the core of who the person is and what experiences will help them move toward where they want to go, capitalizing on the social and the emotional aspect of human beings for all stakeholders- students, staff, and families.
Big Ideas: Components of Healthy, Thriving Adult
Who we are & what we value is the GPS navigation of our lives. However, unlike the car in our driveway or the app on our phone, this GPS doesn't automatically warn us if we're headed in the wrong direction or if we veer off track. Our navigational system is also unique to us- it isn't the same as another person in our family or in our workplace. We must continually discover who we are and intentionally reflect on our path and our desired destinations because our GPS may lead us one way today and open our eyes to another pathway or destination next month or next year.
The people around you are the passengers in the car you're driving. You want people who you enjoy being around on your journey, who will pull over and sit with you when you're down or stuck, and who will push you forward when you get off track.
You are not on fire- your car light just came on
In all contexts of our lives, we can feel people operating in a sense of heightened emotion or constant crisis, moving from one fire to put out directly to the next. When we're in this state, we can feel trapped, stuck, and a range of other emotions. We can begin to feel like there is no forward progress, just a constant wheel on our way to burnout. We need to reflect on our boundaries and imbalance we feel. Ensuring the people surrounding us and the ways we are spending our time is aligned to our values is like a check-up for your car. Sometimes we need to pull over for a minute and make sure everything is in alignment.
For those in our lives, we want their words and actions to match. When they don't, it feels tense or sticky, like a spiderweb stuck on your or a room you want to get out of. It's this same coherence that we are seeking in ourselves. Our GPS navigation can tell us how to reach a destination, but we still have to decide if we follow that, or if we know a shortcut or expect too much traffic. With our values/priorities in our head and our people by our side, we can use a design thinking approach to creatively innovate new vision and goals for any concern or problem, both internal and external to ourselves.
You know your destination and have your GPS navigation route determined. Your vehicle has the brakes and steering in alignment and has a full tank of gas. With you in the vehicle are the passengers who matter to you. Now what? There will be days you hit a pothole that jilts the vehicle and days there's a lot of traffic that make you feel a little stuck. There are times you'll want to take an exit and just explore, or moments you spend at a rest stop seeing if you need to alter your route or your destination. The key is finding your balance. How fast do you want to drive? How many stops do you want to make? How much conversation do you want with your people?