The Importance of Hope This School Year
by Steven Dahl, M. Ed, Director of Learning Solutions at VirtualJobShadow.com
As educators, we’re all feeling trepidation about what sorts of obstacles this upcoming school year will bring. Uncertainty is scary, and if we’re feeling trepidation, so are the students. The pandemic is also compounding traumatic experiences for a portion of our students, and it’s frustrating for many of us to not know how to address these needs when we’re not even sure yet how our year will be structured.
There’s no easy answer here, no one-stop solution that will solve this cornucopia of issues, but there is a relatively easy feeling of reassurance we could inspire in our students — hope.
Hope is far from a novel concept, but too often relegated to the realm of wishers and dreamers. It was Dr. Chan Hellman’s Hope Score that first got me thinking about hope as an actionable, scientific concept that can be observe and measured in students and help change their lives in measurable ways. Research shows those with more hope have better physical health, better social supports, and live longer than those without it. High levels of hope are also related to the perception of intelligence, social acceptance, athletic ability, and greater problem solving.
Merriam-Webster defines hope as “to want something to be true or happen.” It’s the assumption that a positive outcome is possible. It allows students to set coherent and attainable goals, construct multiple strategies to reach these goals, and stay motivated to reach those goals despite any setbacks. Hope allows students to imagine a reality different than their current situation, which I know from my experience teaching special populations, including incarcerated juveniles, is paramount to the success of students who’ve experienced trauma.
Hope is paramount for all students this upcoming school year. It allows them to envision something beyond our current climate and gives them the motivation to work towards that, even in these unprecedented times.
One of the best things about hope? It transcends location. Providing students hope is a service one can provide in a traditional brick and mortar classroom, can be fostered if students and instructors need to work remotely, and similarly is easily accessible in a hybrid setting.
If you think about hope less as an abstract quality, and more in that assumption that a positive outcome is possible, it becomes a relatively easy and powerful tool we could provide students. Students with hope can envision those positive outcomes in the form of goals and began strategizing ways to reach those goals. We can help create hopeful students by:
Leaning into the strength-based philosophy — A strength-based learning philosophy says we should focus on our students’ areas of strengths instead of their detriments, the thinking being that too often we focus on what students can’t do, eschew what they can, and thus set them up for failure. Focusing on what they’re good at is an easy way to help them envision being successful in their postsecondary lives.
Talking about the future — What better way to help students envision their future than to talk about it? Ask them what they envision being when they get older. Ask them what they envision for postsecondary options. Ask them what would need to happen for them to consider themselves successful and ask them how they’ll achieve this in this new normal.
Searching for silver linings — Both this current pandemic and current social justice movements have underscored the foundational cracks in many of our institutes. There are students who will inevitably benefit from these changes, even if they seem scary now or don’t happen right away. This may just be the catalyst that allows some students to envision that more positive future.
Making career exploration a priority — Career exploration is the best way for students to envision a reality different than their own and gives them a tangible goal to work towards. It provides purpose to their education and connects what they’re learning to why they’re learning. Everyone eventually needs to work, right? That means every teacher is in some respects a career exploration teacher. Asking students what they want to do after school and finding ways to connect your discipline to their goals is a surefire way to up engagement.
Focusing on “soft skills” — This goes hand in hand with career exploration. Soft skills are those skills like adaptability, creativity, critical thinking, resilience, and curiosity that we aren’t mandated to teach by any standards, but employers are looking for. They can inspire hope because they’re scalable skills every student can succeed at; a student may always struggle with math, but if they continue trying, they’re succeeding at resilience. We have “Life Skills” videos on VirtualJobShadow.com, the college and career exploration platform I work for, and we consistently get feedback from instructors that the Life Skills Videos focusing on soft skills boost students’ confidence in their plans for the future.
Giving purposeful encouragement — The easiest thing a teacher can do to provide students hope is verbalize that they are hopeful for a student’s future. The trick here? Don’t be generic. Give tailored encouragement to each student for their specific goals.
Being hopeful for all students — We need to not just be hopeful for that student overcoming insurmountable odds or the star pupil. We need to be hopeful for every student can achieve success, despite their circumstances. This isn’t the naivete that every student is going to be the next global superstar, but the belief that every student can succeed on their terms if given the proper motivation.
Being hopeful yourself -Remember hope isn’t an unrealistic dream. It’s simply the assumption that a positive outcome is possible and positive doesn’t necessarily mean ideal. This year is going to be bumpy. It’s going to be uncertain and likely frustrating, but that’s life isn’t it? Putting forth an actionable plan hoping for the best outcome is how we navigate life. Let’s all hope for the best.
About the Author:
Steven Dahl, M. Ed, is the Director of Learning Solutions for EdTech innovator Strivven Media, creator of online career exploration platforms VirtualJobShadow.com and VJSJunior.com. His unique perspective combines his current role of creating diverse and engaging curriculum for online learning, as well as over 14 years in the classroom, including experience as a special education teacher and district administrator.
