Executive Functioning Wrap Up

There are no more executive functioning skills to discuss although I’m sure in the future I’ll circle back to different aspects of executive function as they show back up in whatever topic is being discussed. To wrap up that series I wanted to talk about the golden thread that was present throughout each topic. A lot of times people forget just the basics for fancy systems or routines or tricks or the list goes on and on. What has been consistent to me in my career and life is that improvement doesn’t happen by accident. There’s some change that occurs that causes a shift. Millimeter shifts can sometimes create massive results that feel like it is a mile further than where it started. Which means the two golden threads woven throughout executive functioning skills are intention and mindfulness. A lot of the skills require paying attention (one even is just attention itself) which allows for concentrated effort. A lot of times it’s just the act of thinking itself that people seem to shy away from, especially in modern society. Social media is the highlight reel. It doesn’t show all of the steps in the process along the way. This seems to be the biggest barrier for a lot of kids and teens in doing things. If they aren’t immediately good at it they have a tendency of quitting. And the key thing with these skills is they don’t improve unless you work at them. The bright side is they show up in all areas of life which gives ample opportunity to improve them. The downside is that they will keep biting you in the butt until you work on them. The most important lesson kids can learn is that learning is never over and done. It’s a continuous process. The sooner you learn to love the process more than the results the happier you will be. Loving the process also seems to help eliminate the negative impacts of entitlement and the unpleasant aspects of modern American culture. Character gets built along with executive functioning skills. Learning discipline and consistency are elements of success that are possible for all students regardless of whether or not they have learning disabilities. Everyone has natural talents and weaknesses. Guiding students to work with what they’re given is essential to positive outcomes. 

Executive Functioning Skill: Self-Monitoring

The last of the executive functioning skills to talk about is self-monitoring. This makes sense to do last because it is perhaps the skill that is often lacking even with adults whose other executive functioning skills are on point. Self-monitoring specifically is “the ability to pay attention to your thoughts, processes, and behaviors, and to keep track of what you are doing to improve practices and productivity.” This skill requires the ability to critique yourself and make adjustments. The best way to start building this skill is to encourage students to observe the world around them. It’s easier to notice patterns with other people’s behavior first. Then you need to learn how to take that lens and turn it to yourself. There are lots of different productivity apps and hacks out there, but I find the best way to improve self-monitoring is to have a plan each day and to reflect at the end of the day (usually with a journal) the things that went well and the things that didn’t. This is also why meditation is helpful. It lets you focus on your inner world and just observe without judgement. The two impairments to self-monitoring are perfectionism and ignorance. Perfectionism will have you missing the forest for the trees because you didn’t do something perfectly. Ignorance will have you not even knowing you're in a forest with trees. Set goals and observe without judgement. Also learn to take criticism because sometimes the observations of others will help clue us into the areas we need to work on. Ultimately, stay curious and keep working towards improvement.

Executive Functioning Skill: Time Management

This particular skill is easy to identify and define but difficult to develop. I’m talking about time management, which is being aware of the amount of time it takes to complete tasks or to get from point A to point B. There are all kinds of different time management techniques including the Pomodoro Method, Time Blocking, and my favorite in name The Eat the Frog Method. Each one of these has a different trick to them. When Eating the Frog you do the task you want to do least first. The Pomodoro Method you set a time and work for about 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. The Pomodoro Method can be problematic for kids who have transitioning issues (moving from one task to the next). The quickest way to develop time management skills is to stop multitasking. Mainly because your brain can’t multitask. It cannot do something that requires the same cognitive output at the same time (like learning math and writing an essay). With students with ADHD they do well when tasks utilize more than one sense. For instance, reading a book while listening to the same audio. This has actually been found to improve attention and focus. I also highly recommend doing cleaning tasks while listening to music to break up the monotony. It’s also important to work on time awareness, meaning being mindful of how long a task is going to take you. Routine homework shouldn’t be more than an hour while a project is going to need several hours of time. This skill also pairs well with prioritization and planning which means if you are weak in one area it affects the other two. The other thing that affects time management the most in a negative way is procrastination. The word is from the Latin word pro meaning “for” and cras meaning “tomorrow” which means the word literally means “for tomorrow”which makes it the opposite of discipline. With students this is why I like the Eat the Frog Method because it gets out of the way of the task that would be the most likely to make you procrastinate. As a kid I always would eat my vegetables first to get it out of the way to enjoy more of my meal. This is an effective strategy that helps you have more time for the things that you want to do. Starting out with this when working and later building this into long term planning tends to work well for most people. Play around with knowing how long tasks take you to do and then start implementing planning. Time blocking is a more advanced skill but tends to work well for adults especially those who are self-employed. This week pay attention to how long things take you as the first step towards building this skill. Happy Learning!

Executive Function: Planning

This week we are going to talk about planning. What is planning? According to Merriam-Webster “it is the act or process of making or carrying out plans

specifically: the establishment of goals, policies, and procedures for a social or economic unit” now we are going to focus our attention on the first part of that along with the establishment of goals and procedures for this discussion. As I have previously mentioned, one of the things that people with ADHD are very good at is living in the present moment. The present moment means that you are just reacting to what is currently within your orbit or attention. The danger with this is that we live in a world that is pretty heavily scheduled which means planning needs to be implemented often times just to get through the day. Hungry and no food in the house? You have to make sure the grocery store is open or the restaurant you need to get takeout from isn’t closed. Planning requires forethought. In fact before a plan can be put into place there needs to be a goal or a direction. This is often the piece that a lot of people get tripped up with because the plan is the roadmap to a destination but is useless if you don’t know your destination. This means the first step is outlining a purpose or goal for students so everything that is actually interconnected becomes interconnected. They are much more willing to create and follow through on a plan where they have skin in the game. This can be started with children at very young ages with fun things like going to a theme park or even a toy store. Let them map out and visualize what they are going to do. As they get older that planning can then get turned loose on projects and essays for school. It also will lower their anxiety because they know if they have a plan they will be ok and they know how to make a plan. This is why teachers love rubrics. The problem is they think they make the requirements obvious but they often don’t. This is why the best things  are examples or templates of how assignments or projects should be done. These are things that students should be asking for from their teachers. If they have older siblings or friends who have taken the class before that is also helpful. Failing those or if the plan is for something entirely unrelated to school then the student needs to visualize and possibly run through any potential roadblocks and brainstorm solutions before they happen. This is a way to anchor them in confidence and self-sufficiency for later life.

Executive Functioning: Inhibition

Perhaps the executive functioning skill that is becoming increasingly apparent that the younger generation needs serious help with is inhibition. This is the ability to control your thoughts, emotions, and actions. One of the most important aspects of this is to start at a young age teaching kids emotion regulation. The issue with this is that there are a lot of adults who are lacking in this skill. This is most often obvious in people who experience outbursts out in public and otherwise look like they are out of control. It makes sense that this skill is hardest for kids because it is one where the prefrontal cortex dominates. Gentle parenting attempts to instill emotion regulation in children and is perhaps the positive aspect of this style. The key part is how do you teach emotion regulation? Or if you are an adult and are lacking in this skill how can you learn it? The most important thing is not to teach kids to press their emotions down because that actually ends up increasing the chance of emotional outbursts and behavior problems. The emotions need to have a place to go. Acknowledging and giving voice to them is the first step. Understanding that emotions have a time and place and addressing that is the second step (sometimes you need to get something done) because of a deadline. In that case delaying gratification helps with inhibition. The idea that this assignment is due tomorrow which means I need to get it done today might mean I don’t get to do what I want to do. It also should be noted that these skills at times can play together. Time management will influence this which is why working ahead or in small bites over a long period of time allows for students when they are having an off day the time to take a break because emotionally that’s what they need. Inhibition also helps students from engaging in destructive behaviors like hitting a fellow student. If they think about the consequences of their action or are taught to pause and think of the consequences they are much more likely to choose a different option. Accountability should be taught to children at a young age. There needs to be an understanding of childhood development and to link appropriate expectations with behavior. Expectations and models for behavior act help kids behavior because they know what to expect. So to set up their ability to learn inhibition first by setting clear expectations and consequences. After this, modeling how to make decisions and think through problems is the next step.

Some Thoughts

The point of an education should be about learning how to be a better human. Contrary to popular belief, especially in America, the point of schooling is not to get degrees to get a job. A career is more than just a job. It’s a collection of skill sets and value added to society and in exchange money is given to build a lifestyle of your choosing. Exchange for exchange. This is something to not lose sight of throughout life. Providing value never gets old, and it never fails you. Making a commitment to be a lifelong learner is also a commitment to become a better human. You can either close yourself off from connection and learning or you can embrace it. Life is hard. You have the ability to choose your hard. You have the ability to shift your perspective. And you have the ability to choose your lifestyle. Choose wisely. Will see you back next week to continue learning about executive functioning skills.

In the meantime start a journal and record your progress. What are you finding is working? What isn’t? List an achievable but slightly difficult goal to achieve and start working towards that.

Executive Function Skill: Working Memory

In terms of executive functioning skills the one that seems to be more rigid or rather set based on genetics and seems to have less fluidity is working memory. This is the part of memory that stores information as you are working on a task. Students with working memory problems have difficulty completing tasks that are process oriented which is pretty much all of learning. The more complex the task for example, calculus, the harder someone with working memory problems will have. Working memory also seems to face difficulties in older people as they face cognitive declines in old age. Now the picture might seem grim but there are some things that can be done to boost what you already have. The main thing is to eliminate distractions (I’m looking at you cell phones). The best way to throw off working memory is to have it interrupted by notifications or sounds. This is why learning environments are critical. Phones have no place in the classroom or in a study area. There are students who are clearly exhibiting addictive behaviors with phones and part of the reason why is not just the fact that they are designed that way but because they are not treated as the tool that they are. They are not our life in a box. They are a tool to use. The sooner students can get into that mindset the better off they are. One common trait I notice among students who are high achievers is they are also terrible at texting back because they will literally put their phone down and not touch it for hours. Students who have their phones with them when studying are increasing the amount of time they need to spend studying because our brains are not designed to multitask. We can only really do one thing at a time especially if it is a heavy cognitive load process. Anyone who has attempted to have a conversation with someone while watching a new movie will note this or if you are trying a new recipe and listening to a podcast at the same time. New things require complete attention.  The exception to this is a household task that isn’t a heavy cognitive load (like folding laundry) and listening to an audiobook. They are tasks that require completely separate parts of the brain (don’t try that if you are learning how to fold clothes in a new way). The only way to aid working memory is to give something new your full attention so distractions do not make you lose your place in the process. This also will naturally improve with tasks like math problems that are done over and over again. Repetition is often looked at as a relic of a long ago era when it’s the best way to get a process to stick. Doctors have to watch first, do themselves, and then teach someone how before they are considered to have completed the learning cycle of a procedure. So for every new thing you don’t fully know something until you can explain it to someone else.

Executive Functioning Skill: Flexibility

This week the executive function skill I’m focusing on is flexibility. Each week I typically pick a topic that seems to be relevant to what is going on with my students at this time as a way to highlight one of many pieces to an intricate puzzle. This week seems to highlight this. Flexibility in relation to executive functioning is the ability to switch between tasks and demands in the environment. The lack of this is something that gets particularly noticed in students with an Autism or an OCD diagnosis. Honestly anyone with an anxiety disorder typically has problems with flexibility. This is also the skill that gets highlighted the most when talking about choosing a life or marriage partner being linked to happiness. Here’s the thing though everyone has things they are flexible about and things that they struggle to maintain flexibility. This skill also waxes and wanes depending on the level of stress someone is experiencing in their life. This is also the skill that younger people across the broad are significantly struggling with more recently (yes you can blame the pandemic but this has been a trend long before that). We also see this in the modern political arena so adults have also become less flexible as well. There are multiple ways to approach this. The first and perhaps most critical is not catastrophizing things that are not a big deal. The grade a student gets on a single quiz or test or a missed homework assignment is not the end of the world. It is a problem if it’s a larger part of a bigger pattern but if these incidents are occuring once a marking period there’s usually an explanation (a breakup with a boyfriend/girlfriend, death of a beloved pet, or honestly take your pick their adolescents their brains are wired to catastrophize). The first thing to do is put things in context namely that it’s not the end of the world. What matters is what you do after the bad thing has happened. This prevents severe emotional reactions which actually enhances the ability to be flexible. (There’s a good chance after I finish up the executive functioning skills the next topic will be emotion regulation because that is a skill that if you teach it to your kids young it pays dividends for the rest of their life but I digress). I like to tell my students to let go of the outcome because sometimes you will do everything exactly the right way and how you should and you won’t get the result you want. It’s an unfortunate side effect of life. Letting go of the outcome also oddly enough increases your chances of getting the result you want. The focus always needs to be on the process. The ability to think logically is not always an innate skill. Flexibility in thinking is also something that needs to be taught (this is where playing Devil’s Advocate comes in handy). Students need to be able to look at things from multiple sides and the best way to start building that skill is to teach them how to stand in other people’s shoes. The byproduct of this is that it also builds empathy. This means having kids read fiction is of vital importance but of people who aren’t like them but have problems that they have to deal with that might be similar. Beware of the person who doesn’t understand why that’s relevant to them because that’s someone lacking flexibility in their thinking at the very least. Adults should also work on this particular skill because as we move out of the school system our worlds and viewpoints tend to narrow. If you are not a reader (which you really should give it a try even if that’s listening to audiobooks instead of traditional reading), then the shortcut (ok it’s not a shortcut but reading is so vitally important) would be to travel to a completely different area (a lot of churches do Service Learning projects in the Appalachian area for staying in the USA or in the Latin American countries) or volunteer. Honestly exposing kids to people from different walks of life is actually a good thing. It builds character and character and flexibility often go hand in hand. Not everyone lives the way you do and that is ok. Open up your mind to that and different ways of thinking will start to flow. Double down on being right all the time and your way being the only way and this skill will elude you. So stay open and use your ears and listen to how other people handle problems. You might just learn something.

A Quick Note on Executive Functioning Skills

The one thing I might have not mentioned or potentially emphasized enough is the idea that these skills are what make us do life better in a way. The person who is organized and always seems to have their life together often has learned how to master each of these skills or they’ve focused on one thing at a time and slowly built it in with the rest of their life. This is a lifelong process and pursuit. The greatest gift a parent can give to their child is autonomy. This becomes difficult if your child has a learning disability or in my case a chronic illness because of the fear involved in letting them loose into the world. There has to be a level of faith that they will figure it out given the right support and education (or in worst case scenarios because they have no other option because necessity is the mother of invention). An education is not something solely learned in a classroom. It’s part of what makes you who you are. How you process information. What you think about things (and how). The level of critical reasoning skill you have. These are all life things. They are also things that either directly or indirectly get taught not just by teachers but every person they come into contact with in their life. I tell my students to learn to take advice from people whose lives you admire. Set goals. Write. Think. Engage with the world. It’s not about escaping. It’s about embracing the mess and learning how to tame it. Life is supposed to be hard at times. It’s how you learn through failure and things not working out the way you want that separates the wheat from the chaff as the saying goes. It’s about practice and perseverance. So more than anything work on your attitude. And fall in love with the process. The more you engage in being annoyed that you have to do this. Or question why it has to be so hard. That’s what you get. Toil and strife. When you fall in love with the process you look at the world as a challenge to be tackled and embraced and these skills develop faster. Attitude and mindset are everything. So do it joyfully, not begrudgingly. And for all that is holy let go of the idea that if you can’t do it perfectly you can’t do it or it’s not worth doing. Perfection doesn’t happen without trial and error and tons of failure. Imagine if Thomas Edison gave up on the lightbulb after the first failure the first ten the first fifty. Or don’t engage in that kind of thought train because that’s an interesting can of worms. This week I set a goal to get better at one of the executive functioning skills I’ve been mentioning. Pay attention. Make adjustments. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Executive Functioning Skill: Attention

This week the executive function skill I’m focusing on is attention. This is perhaps the easiest one to identify because people are either engaged and are giving their attention or they are not. The interesting thing is that a quick google search for the definition of attention yields the description of “notice taken of someone or something; the regarding of someone or something as interesting or important” or “the action of dealing with or taking special care of someone or something.” Now there’s all different ways to approach how to improve attention with ADHD (medication being a common go to), and I have a different take on how to improve attention with students in general but those with ADHD in particular (yes sometimes medicine is needed, but I think if you don’t also work on skills there medicine is never going to help a student improve academically). People put attention to the things that they are interested in and in fact there’s a flip side to ADHD in which kids will hyperfocus which is where they will eat, sleep, dream and breathe about whatever topic or thing that has caught their interest. The problem sometimes with labels is in how they are internalized which then limit behavior, belief, or identity for students. Instead I prefer to approach more from a place of who am I? What do I want? And what do I need in order to be able to get what I want? By approaching study skills in this manner it allows students to view school as a means to an end (which let’s face it often is the case). If you want to create lifelong learners (which I definitely do) then the way to do that is to encourage growth and exploration. We seem to be stuck in a world of fear at the moment which naturally inhibits people from stretching their wings. Encouraging students who already aren’t performing well in school which then makes them want to put even less time and attention into it requires a different tactic. Learning can, is and should be fun. It also is not relegated to a school building. It can and should happen anywhere. Learning is an important part of living. When they start having fun whether that is in increased grades or an improved sense of autonomy, their attention is more likely to be placed on academics because it becomes a self-fulfilling feedback loop. This is also why some kids are good at school and some aren’t. It comes down to whose attention gets rewarded or rather people put their attention to the things they feel in control over or rewarded by instead of things that make them feel bad about themselves. Attention also requires thought. The things we give attention to are the things we end up thinking about the most. The students who are the most interesting too or rather the best conversationalist are always students with ADHD. Why might that be? Well it’s simple because they love to talk about the things they are interested in and have a natural joy in sharing that information. All you have to do is take what they love and figure out how it’s connected to school related topics. If they can develop the study skills they often go on to be successful in their chosen fields. Again why is that? Because they chose jobs and careers that interest them which sets up a feedback loop that continues to reward them for their attention and interest. This is the secret and magic that can happen. There just needs to be structures put in place so they remember to do things like eat while they're in a hyperfixation spiral. The challenge in life is learning how to manage everything. So when working on how to improve attention, teaching kids the what and why of the behavior you are encouraged often increases the chance of them following through. In fact teaching why we do what we do is always a worthwhile tack to take with any academic skill. It helps them engage and give better attention.

Executive Functioning Skill: Organizing

Organization is something that is easy to understand and identify but difficult to define. It’s the part of the brain that is able to recognize when something is out of order or misplaced. Organization in relation to executive functioning can be as specific as how to write an essay to as mundane as where to place your coat in your house. One of the tell-tale signs of ADHD is a messy room, but it’s also generally an indicator of executive functioning malfunction. Human beings (especially those that have estrogen dominant brains) do not like clutter. The United States has taken over consumption to a level that is not present in other countries. Sometimes clutter can actually produce a cortisol response which is the stress hormone. This means that the more cluttered a space the more likely for the reaction to be stress. The outside environment is a mirror to the inside environment. The first step in undertaking any new task or anytime I want to change my habits or introduce something new into my life: I organize which includes moving furniture around and working with the energy of the room. Spaces should be open because they feel better. What does this have to do with organization? The best way to build organizational skills is first to talk about the environment and the tools that are needed in order to begin the task (this also helps with task initiation discussed last week). Anyone who has had to help an older relative downsize knows that it is completely overwhelming in terms of where to start. Organization creates a built in model for how to begin and also how to continue. When making a sandwich you don’t start with the finished product, you have to start the process first. This means that the more consistent you are with a student the less likely they are to get lost because they know the process because it’s already organized for them, and all they have to do is execute. Growing up every year at school we’d get a new agenda book (that’s what they were called) and it would be where we were supposed to write down assignments. With the digital age everything is on the phone, yet they are not often used by students to keep track of things. So the first step is to help students create an organizational system that works for them. There are tons of options which means the choices can be overwhelming. Developing a routine with cues to create good habits is also required. Students with ADHD in particular need to constantly be cued which means forming habits takes longer for them than for others. However, phones in general allow people to offload things that in the past they would have memorized or just known. Phone numbers are the best example of that. I still remember my grandparent’s phone numbers even though they are no longer with us. Organization is an underrated skill but one that can make the rest of the process run smoothly and help with problems linked to other aspects of executive function. In short: organize rooms, backpacks, and even cell phones to provide a way to seamlessly transition from task to task or to make the process flow.

Executive Skill #1 Initiation

Initiation or Task Initiation is pretty much defined exactly how it sounds, which is the ability to start a task. Teachers (and parents) can often see the lack of this skill as the student sitting after directions being given and no movement or change in behavior is noted (which for teenagers in the middle of something could just be because they don’t want to do what you’re asking them to do). There needs to be an understanding that children’s brains today are not the brains of previous generations even those of ten years ago. I remember hearing about a study that was conducted back in 2016 that giving toddlers iphones and the way their brains processed it was the equivalent of giving them crack cocaine which was quite a statement and quite a conclusion to reach back then. 2016 is almost 10 years ago now and teaching teenagers today compared to ten years ago is a stark difference. Task Initiation in particular is a skill that is in deficit because students are often not even aware of what task they are required to perform, and when they are aware they don’t know where to start. This is even more apparent with writing tasks. AI is coming and it’s not going away so blaming all the problems on Chat GPT is shortsighted and also doesn’t take into consideration all the other factors that are contributing. Most adults do not know how to take initiative and is perhaps why this is a quality concentrated in good leaders. So how do you work with a student who has difficulty initiating tasks? The first step is teaching them how to break down the process. Anything process orientated is thinking orientated which means they have to use their brains and can’t offload it to something external. The lack of initiating is also rooted in anxiety which has consistently been on the rise with adolescents for years. In the future I might include a further reading section for each topic. For now, I want to start with the basics and can do a deep dive in the future when the basics are mastered. This is an example of scaffolding. It’s understanding that I can't write an essay without first knowing the topic and requirements. I can’t solve an algebra problem without first knowing the concepts and how to work through the steps. Baby steps are always how you start. You focus on getting really good at one part of the process and then you build off of that. I often ask students who seem to be sitting and waiting what they think they should be doing at the moment (sometimes the responses can be hilarious) and this will jar them out of inaction. Other times the response is “I don’t know” which I always emphasize with my students one key understanding. That is a question not a statement because you always know something and that’s your starting point. The use of questions throughout every part of a process is helpful and needed. Is it repetitive? You bet, but eventually they internalize your voice asking what to do next and they start doing it on their own without prompting. The anxiety component is that the school system teaches in a way that makes it seem like they always have to have the answers and when they don’t there’s something wrong with them. No one knows everything. That quality is omniscience, and I haven’t met anyone who knows everything (and for the religious that is a trait only God has and pretty sure he’s not walking among us). I have had a student refer to me as their human Chat GPT lately which annoys me and results in a conversation about trusting people’s word without confirming from other sources. The bottom line is to encourage questions and instead of quickly answering them to ask them questions that might help get them going in the direction they need to move. This is called the Socratic Method and is the oldest teaching method that I know of at the moment. It’s also incredibly effective if you want to create independent thinkers. The other key component with task initiation is to set an expectation that I should not have to ask every time to get you started which of course is the part that takes the longest to build. The best thing that parents (and educators) can do is not immediately take over and do things for them. And because we are all human and time can be an issue with this, having the grace to realize that the amount of patience that is required to do this effectively every single time is superhuman. So pick your battles and be patient with the amount of time it takes them to learn this skill. It’s often times the last one to develop.

Intro to Executive Functioning skills

Executive Functioning Skills are a term that is mentioned and bandied about by educators in the last decade (or more) and with the addition of smartphones and technology a critical mass seems to have been reached.  In the past students with ADHD were the ones who needed the most assistance in building these skills. Now every student I meet seems to have weak executive functioning skills. What I have learned over time is that these skills are not self-evident and require modeling, practice and repetition. They are also skills that can be started at any age (and the earlier you start the better). Things like verbally breaking down the steps of a task to anything that is process oriented helps children. Honestly it helps learning because it’s rooted in how human beings learn, process information, and yes think. It requires planning, organization, time management, initiation, flexibility, inhibition, self-monitoring, working memory, and attention. That’s quite the list. Now some students can have working memory issues (and I feel for students with weak working memory especially because it does create a deficit that requires work to overcome), problems with attention (the root of ADHD), and initiation especially. Students have difficulty starting. Sometimes it’s better to ask what do you think you need to do first to help break them out of the cycle of looking to adults or others before they begin a task. The good news is these are skills that can be built up and once you have them then learning how to apply to other tasks becomes easier with each attempt. Entrepreneurs in particular need good executive functioning skills to launch their businesses or need to be good at finding the right people to fulfill the right roles. Bottom line: these skills affect not just your educational life but also your everyday life including chores like laundry, cooking a meal, and especially cleaning the house. Each week on Friday I will post a more in depth look at each of these skills and how to craft age appropriate ways to build them with a focus on teenagers. I also will include information about what learning disabilities or sometimes personality traits make it more difficult to build these skills and what that means. In the meantime, have hope that your child will be able to work on their weaknesses. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one and the second step is breaking down the process into actionable steps and then getting to work. 

Why Latin is not a dead language but a window into a vibrant world.

The common understanding of a dead language is one that is no longer spoken in daily life and if you check dictionary.com the example given is Latin. Growing up I always knew I wanted to learn Latin because it just seemed so cool. It was the root of multiple languages and so many words. This is not surprising considering that Latin was the spoken language of the Romans who at one time conquered land that spanned three continents. Still to this day words for commerce, medicine, and other fields have terms that come from ancient Latin words. 

Why then is there a modern aversion to learning it that is resulting in High Schools and Universities cutting their programs and channeling funds into others? Perhaps the simplest answer is the current trend in education away from memorization which is a shame because memorization is a skill and one that is needed in life. The ability to know something off the top of one’s head is a time saver rather than pulling out one’s phone and quickly typing a question into a search engine and waiting for an answer (which without a foundation how do you even know if the information is correct?) As well as the current belief that Chinese is useful because of being helpful for business (which was the same belief that was held in the 1980s about Japanese my how trends change over the decades). As well as the fact that Latin naturally breeds discipline in order to be successful at it. Even more so if students are exposed to Roman culture. 

The Roman virtues were qualities that citizens were to aspire to throughout their life. In many aspects it was a foundational stone for a higher power. It was something to cling to and have belief in because it was something higher than the individual alone. With the world seeming to crumble all around us after the pandemic these values are perhaps more important now. These virtues represented both private and public life. They are also where the Christian virtues came from because of the influence of the Roman world. They are still things to aspire to in the modern age. Character and integrity are timeless regardless of what is going on in the world. The idea of becoming educated was the idea of dedicating oneself to the cultivation of these virtues; dignitas, pietas, gravitas, prudentia, and veritas, just to name a few. These words show up in English as dignity, piety, gravity, prudence, and verity. The Roman equivalent contains so much more than what the watered down version of the English conveys. Piety is now equated with merely being religious while the Roman understanding of that virtue was duty to a higher power to the point to the point of personal sacrifice. Talk about commitment to something larger than oneself. Prudentia was the ability to understand the past, present, and future and act accordingly with that foresight. It was directional and sure not anxiety driven. In many respects it was an ability to see the big picture as well as the long term consequences of something. In a day and age of instant gratification prudence would be a useful skill to have let along virtue to embody.

The point is that in studying Latin and the culture of the Ancient Romans there are benefits to students not just from an academic level but also one of character. The certainty of character that these virtues instill is one that lasts for a lifetime and can never be taken away. It is something to strive for and attempt to live up to that is very much needed in our world today.

What is an education?

Dictionary.com defines an education as “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. [T]he act or process of imparting or acquiring particular knowledge or skills, as for a profession”. The reason I chose this definition out of the more traditional Oxford Dictionary of “a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools, colleges or universities, to improve knowledge and develop skills” is because the former clearly outlines education as a personal endeavor while the latter focuses more on traditional ideas.

I don’t know when we got away from the original idea that education is about the individual and each education is an individual experience as opposed to this cookie cutter factory model approach. An argument actually can be made for how the United States started off modeling their education system after the Prussians (which is why we still call it Kindergarten which is literally German for Children’s Garden) and then later got a little too invested in Scientific Management and turned it into a factory system complete with being stuck in one place for the entirety of the day. The idea of treating schools as an extension of a business is still commonplace today where administrators are hired for having a degree in both business and education (with a larger emphasis on business). These two things are not actually inclusive of each other. They also negate the idea that learning can and does take place outside of an educational institution.

The pandemic and its immediate need to switch to Virtual learning was at best a mess and at worst a disaster. The interesting thing is that it shouldn’t have been. People have been earning online degrees from Universities for decades and even correspondence courses were commonplace especially for those in rural areas. Let alone kids have been homeschooled for forever and that does not fit the traditional educational model. Virtual learning does and can work. So why didn’t it? The emergency aspect of having to switch over to virtual without much warning meant poor planning. There also is the problem with American public schools in general. The current teacher shortage isn’t a surprise to anyone who works in the field. The system has been broken for years and individual patch jobs are no longer sufficient. 

There is a cultural shift towards entitlement and increased anxiety about education in general. Parents are worried about making sure their children get into the right colleges for their future. Everything is goal orientated towards a specific trajectory which is typically college where the process and the journey get lost along the way. To go back to the earlier definitions there is a clear agreement by both that an education is about the acquiring of skills and knowledge. There is no ending to it. An education is something you build towards. There is a well known maxim that is often attributed to Mark Twain but was originated by a writer named Grant Allen and it simply is “don’t let your schooling interfere with your education” which is something everyone should always seek to keep in mind. The purpose of schooling is to model individuals into productive members of society. Schooling is about the benefit of the country or society, not the benefit of the individual solely. It is no surprise that as a sense of entitlement has risen in the country, schools have been criticized and looked at with suspicion. There is a very strong reason why they should be which I’m sure I will explore at a later date. However, there is a general neglecting of personal responsibility and accountability. No one is going to be as invested in your own success and happiness as you are. The word educator is Latin in origin and comes from e which means out of and ducere which means to lead. So literally an educator or an education is what is being led out of you. So everything is innately in you. It’s just a matter of bringing your talents and strengths to the surface. The skill building is for shoring up weaknesses and improving strengths. But the idea is to be continually growing because well you’re going to be doing it anyway. Wouldn’t it just be better to be aware of and directing it?