The biggest obstacle is fear. I think students know what they should try next, but it’s scary. I think we all know what we should try next.
I would love to get paid to give workshops to high school students. Why aren’t I doing it? Fear. I haven’t asked anyone!
I know what I need to do. I need to start emailing people, calling people, offering to lead workshops, learning about their procurement process. But I’m scared.
When you don’t act you can’t fail. Once you start moving on an idea, you can start to hear “no.” And that’s a harsh feeling. It’s a necessary step on any journey, but it’s scary.
So when we give students more and more information, we have to ask, “is information really the problem? or is it something deeper?”
My hunch is that it’s usually fear. Fear of being wrong. Fear of looking bad. Fear of having to start over. Fear of changing your worldview. They’re all valid feelings, but we have to recognize they’re in our way.
Once we recognize that, we can design approaches that explicitly solve for the problem. Rather than focusing on more content, more experts and more memorization, we can build programs that help students take steps to get through the fear barrier. Mini wins that give them belief that they can do more.
So let’s call it out. We’re all scared. Now let’s build solutions that get to the core of the problem.