Grade Levels, Mindset & the School Funding Myth | Wednesday Night Live

So first and foremost, I want to share a... question that I was engaging with this week and it was as follows it's titled learning struggles I have a 10 year old that struggles academically She's always been homeschooled and we don't compare to other children, but she's starting to notice it and compare herself to friends her age that go to school.

I'm wondering what other families do to support their kids' self-esteem and mental health in these situations.

So the response to that is the language that you are using in the first place and the title that you are giving your children truly matters.

This lady has said, this person says that my 10-year-old struggles academically.

That is a label that you are giving them.

It is based off of the environment that they've been educated in, the method that has been used to educate them, but more importantly, the mindset that she carries into her academics.

when our leaders at Apogee sit down and they initially struggled or didn't want to engage with their academic learning, we noticed something significant that we rectified almost immediately.

And because we instill so much opportunity for freedom, we recognize that when it came time to academics, that this was very commonly not an exciting part of the day.

So we took this as an opportunity to instill the principle of accomplishment.

So as opposed to, oh, I don't want to do my maths or, oh, man, I've got to sit down and do my writing.

Head goes down, shoulders shrug.

The language immediately is suggesting that this is something that I don't want to do.

As opposed to saying, I am going to accomplish this.

Head up, eyes up, shoulders down.

facing upwards, chest puffed out, the language, I am going to accomplish this.

You are painting a completely different story.

And then, because we're talking about young children, this doesn't need to be a ridiculous amount of time per day, at least in the beginning, 10 minutes at the start is fine, because then that is going to create momentum.

Off the back of that, they are going to build.

And as they start to accomplish, and this starts to compound day after day, week after week, they will start to understand that that accomplishment actually allows them to go out and achieve further in the other endeavours that they are pursuing.

Because if you have a good academic understanding, then it makes your capacity to build something, to design something, to create something infinitely better.

Your capacity for pattern recognition is increased.

So then it goes on to, this lady, this person, goes on to speak about comparison.

And she speaks about self-esteem, which, once again, I go back to this piece on comparison.

the story that we're telling ourselves, but also this game of comparison that being at a grade level does, because what we're talking about here, it's not necessarily aspirational in any way.

Grade level is the middle ground.