KnackNow Blog: What defines a person?
By Matthew Henry
Dean of Innovative Education and Chief Information Officer
Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
LeTourneau University
Longview, Texas
What are the indicators that young people will be successful in life on their paths to becoming doctors, engineers or pilots? And once we’ve identified these metrics for success, how shall we measure them?
Today, parents watch their children build engineering marvels out of Legos, or excel at musical instruments, and maybe the parents get an idea of what their son or daughter is to become. Then the tween and teenage years arrive, and still the parents watch and guide them with the hope that their progeny will go on to greater things than they did.
The parents give room for their children to make their own decisions for some things (what foods they like; what clothes to wear), while removing other choices (social circles; whether to attend private, charter or public schools). There’s no set standard for crafting an environment of possibilities for our next generation.
The years go by quicker than parents would like, and their babies — no matter how old they are — go off to university, and the parents still consider how best to provide guidance in the way of college choice, declaration of major, and all of those pesky standardized test scores that keep cropping up, which are so critical to their children’s’ future in the world of undergraduate academia: scholarship funding, what universities become affordable versus which ones their young adults get priced out of, first-second-third choices getting upgraded or downgraded because of cost considerations. Maybe college gets pushed off the list entirely for a job in a local factory to save up for that “maybe one day” hope of getting a college education that leads to better opportunities.
We can build a better future for our children through the currency of “personness,” a functional measure of talent, aptitude, mindset and grit that answers what defines a person. This currency can be used to make better decisions, like what college to attend. Better yet, this currency can be used to better prepare and match a person to situations that will heighten his or her levels of success — such as career choices — which affects every aspect of a person’s life.
I believe Knack is developing this currency of personness by creating a system that measures the many aspects of what makes up a person. Playing games to measure and better understand who we are, then match that potential to educational and career pathways on our very human journey.
There is still work to do, research to be shown, and people waiting to know who they are.
The pathway is before us. Let’s advance.
Dean of Innovative Education and Chief Information Officer
Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning
LeTourneau University, Texas
