If you’ve ever seen a baby – or a toddler – gaze at a novel sight, crawl to the furthest boundaries of a room, or whack or chew anything it can find, then you know how innately curious we humans are. And if you’ve ever been told to sit still, face forward, and keep your hands to yourself, then you know how badly our mainstream education system stifles that innate curiosity.
At the Buffalo Academy of Scholars, you’ll find a radically different educational environment – one that fosters creativity, encourages exploration, and praises healthy and calculated risk-taking. We don’t penalize mistakes – we use them to grow. We don’t stigmatize failure – we encourage another try. We don’t use test scores to label students’ self-worth – we use them as feedback to measure progress toward their larger goals.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Why do I have to learn this?” you’ll find an answer here: Learning is the process of training your neural network to fire in certain patterns. And every second of every day, you’re learning, whether you’re consciously controlling that process or not. Sure, one type of learning is training your neurons to associate the year “1941” with “the year America entered WWII,” or associating Right Triangles with the Pythagorean Theorem, but that’s not the only kind of learning, and it’s definitely not the most important kind for long-term success in today’s world. A high achiever needs to think critically, to argue rationally, and to solve problems efficiently. He or she needs to set goals appropriately, to use resources considerately, and to persevere tenaciously. Each of these characteristics – and its negative counterpart – is a habit that is developed over time. And every moment is an opportunity to practice these skills, whether you’re aware of it or not. Every moment you sit in class, you’re training yourself to be either focused or distracted, either disciplined or undisciplined, either persistent or apathetic. Every time you contemplate doing your homework, you decide – and train yourself – either to work toward your goals, or to abandon them. You decide to strengthen your skill set, or to weaken it. You decide to invest in something with a huge lifelong payoff, or to neglect the long-term reward for merely ephemeral distractions. All these ‘little’ choices will contribute to forming a person’s life-long habits, both positive and negative. So that’s “why you have to learn this” – because success is a habit, not an outcome, and you must practice it every day.
If you’d like to learn these critical life skills – problem-solving, critical thinking, resourcefulness, and many more – in addition to the standard curriculum, then The Buffalo Academy of Scholars could be right for you. Call us at (716) 464-3244, and we’d be happy to schedule your visit.
Learn forever,
Alan
The Buffalo Academy of Scholars Executive Director