Some students want to be physicists. Others want to be poets. Some want to be both. Most aren't sure yet, but they want to be people who make a difference.
Regardless of the future we imagine for our children, and the one they imagine for themselves, we hope that they:
1. Exercise good judgment
2. Make sense of the world
3. Collaborate to solve difficult problems
In all possible futures, these three traits stand out as essential. Not only to prepare for the future, but to live a life of meaning and joy.
So how do you get better at making tough decisions? How do you make better sense of a complex world? How do you learn how to navigate the waves of competition and collaboration? How do you innovate?
You need practice making tough decisions.
Unfortunately, practice is hard to come by, especially as a kid. Practice happens in sports or music, but the greater focus tends to be on discipline and execution. If the exercise of true agency comes in the daily life of an elementary or middle school student, it tends to happen by accident rather than by design.
At Synthesis, we focus on developing the areas that will have the greatest impact in all possible futures: judgment, collaboration, and sense-making.
So how do you design for growth? To begin, you need to be in an environment where mistakes are opportunities. You need to be wrong, a lot, before you can understand what it feels like to be right. You need experiences that are complex yet welcoming. Collaborative yet competitive. And more than anything, highly engaging and student-centered. Experiences have more meaning if you reflect on them and use those memories to tell your own story.
At Synthesis, we design compelling experiences so students can feel high-level concepts while navigating the complexities of teamwork.
Finding the best networks in Constellation, curating a collection in Art for All, or managing an ecosystem in Fish, are all opportunities for students to grow as collaborators and problem solvers. We feel confident that over time, our students will think more effectively and be better equipped to solve thorny problems than anyone (adults included). We know that students want the real thing. They crave creative challenges that reflect our world.
Synthesis is where students become problem solvers.
