Why Empowerment Is Important for Student Success in Our Communities
To build a flourishing and sustainable world, we need innovation in the way we educate our communities.
Innovation happens when we say yes to providing support and resources for experimentation. The age or type of student isn’t important. Saying yes empowers people. Saying yes creates an affirmative mindset, where students can explore. They can take risks and learn from them.
Students require strong roots to reach their full potential. Roots are cultivated by the support and guidance of the community of leaders and educators around them. The world they interact with every day.
When a community can focus on empowering its members, people start to believe in themselves and learn new ways to solve problems.
We know that everything we do makes an impact; we need to teach students the same.
In our current systems, students have little say in how their education goes. The focus is on completing tasks instead of solving problems that are exciting and meaningful. Students frequently finish school lacking skills to solve problems in their communities.
The same goes for workplace training. It’s common for employers to have a one-size-fits-all training approach. Followed precisely to fit a specific role, without consideration for the unique individual.
To change this, we need educational systems where teachers act as servant leaders. We need teachers that collaborate with their students. Teachers that value trust, feedback, and sharing of information to figure out the answers.
eduScrum is one example of a framework commonly used in education focused on empowerment. In eduScrum, the teacher provides accountability and support. They answer the what and why of the learning process.
“We have great confidence in young people. We are convinced that they want and can do more than they and many adults think. eduScrum creates a working atmosphere that allows students to get the best out of themselves and their team. That makes education really worthwhile for all involved!” — eduScrum
This way of educating guides students by what calls them, and raises them up while they do it. They get excited. This excitement and passion fuels students to figure out the world around them and how they can make an impact.
When we believe in students and let them decide what projects are valuable, they want to learn. Students need ownership of the learning process.
Ownership produces students that are more engaged when participating in their education. Collaboration occurs naturally, and the output has real-world value.
Our communities need entirely new educational ecosystems.
We need a system where everyone can focus on life long learning and growth. Our goal as a society needs to shift to facilitating connections in our communities and find solutions together.
There’s a lot to change, and it’s a complex effort. We need everyone.
The vision of a leader or community should be to teach the student to become the leader. Students that can practice leadership alongside leaders in their communities and see it in action will have a far better understanding.
Once the student has reached a level of confidence, they can guide others. The cycle continues like that, creating sustainable solutions for the future.
The goal of community education is sharing power, acknowledging everyone, and prioritizing the needs of the students to become their best selves.
This community-based education with a focus on empowering students is starting to prove itself as worthwhile. Lightschools aim is to create a system of education that focuses on learning from life while empowering local communities and a global network of teachers and connectors.
We learn from life, in every moment, as it presents itself. -Lightschools
The teachers fulfill a variety of roles in the community — there isn’t a set of rigid requirements or degree needed. These teachers guide students through by example. They put a high value on freedom and know that trust and support are key to empowering our students.
The emphasis is on enjoying the art of living and learning from whatever challenges and lessons come.
Everybody has unlimited potential; they need to trust the journey they are on.
When we empower people to invest in the future, it creates passion and confidence. This leads to innovation in the world around us.
Sometimes the lessons aren’t so clear. The world and learning are not as structured as our current educational systems would have us believe. We need to learn how to adapt and empower each other.
Learn to take action and solve problems together. Let everyone express themselves and wait for the magic to happen — practice empowerment daily.
