Just Imagine by Jeremy

Just Imagine by Jeremy - March 2018 Scholarship Essay

Your typical second grader has a lot going on under the hood. That is to say, brain development for an average 7-to-8 year old makes definitive progress, allowing children of that age to understand more complex ideas, have more awareness of the world around them, and develop mindsets that stay with them for the rest of their lives. It’s a fantastic time to prepare them for their long-term goals, and one of the most relevant goals you can discuss with them is their education! The downside is, second graders have a notoriously short attention span (as most children do), especially when it’s about something they can’t understand or relate to. How can you breach topics like this without losing the interest of the student? The answer is simple: you have to use their imagination.
Imagine you’re playing a video game, but you can’t use any of the powerups! Your character never learned how to throw a fireball, catch a star, or fly with a cape. The game would be boring, right? You wouldn’t be able to do as much. Education is just like a powerup - you learn how to do cool things you wouldn’t be able to do if you didn’t have it. That’s why education is important!
Imagine a story about a wizard student that doesn’t go to wizarding school! The wizard just stays at home with his boring uncle instead. He never learns how to cast spells, ride brooms, or talk to snakes - no, he decides spends his life underneath a staircase and shares his bed with spiders. What a sad story! Just like how wizards learn spells at wizarding school, we learn things at real school that make life the adventure that it is. So, it’s important to learn all we can while we’re there!
Each student is unique, and has something that he or she resonates with. By recognizing what that is and using it to draw a parallel to something important (like education), young students form a mental link between the two and start to grasp the concept. It may take multiple attempts over an extended period of time, but by likening key principles to the things that students love, parents and mentors can help them see the point of - and the joy in - lifelong learning.