GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAL!
Student success, not just soccer, depends on goals
Soccer has been in the news lately, as the U.S. Women’s team won the World Cup. All the soccer talk has us thinking about goals, and the role they play in success on the field and in the classroom.
In 1953, a study was done regarding the graduating class of Yale University. The study looked at how many members of the class had written, long-term goals. The researchers found that only three percent of the class had taken the time to write down their goals.
Twenty years later, a follow-up study found that the three percent of the class who had written goals were worth more financially than the other 97 percent of the class combined.
The lesson: Goals can be a powerful predictor when it comes to student success.
Purposefully helping your child map out his or her future by setting clear, achievable goals and milestones is a great way to build confidence and create goal-oriented adults.
Goal setting can start early, and goals should be revisited often.
Most children have ideas from an early age about what they want to be when they grow up. These dreams should be given more attention – and credence – than they sometimes are. For example, parents can encourage would-be astronauts by signing them up for STEM camps and visiting museums and facilities where space exploration is the focus. Even if the child’s goals change over time, they will relish parental support for the things that are important to them.
Parents can also help their children by taking time at the beginning of each school year to discuss three types of goals: short-term, mid-range and long-term.
A long-term goal for an incoming 4th grader might be finishing the school year reading at 5th grade level. Mid-range and short-term goals should support that objective. For example, a good short-term goal for the student would be a commitment to read at least 20 minutes each day. The supporting mid-range goal would be to read at a level of 4.6 (fourth grade, sixth month) by the Christmas break.
It’s important that goals are written, and that metrics are set to help students stay on track. In essence, parents should help kids come up with a plan that works, and then teach them to “work” their plan. The results will be more confident and, in the long-run, more successful students.
And that, my friends, is always worth celebrating.