Upper School

April 29, 2020

How we work, and therefore, how we prepare students for their future careers, is changing rapidly in the time of COVID-19. A meteoric rise in telecommuting, virtual learning, and video conferencing has reinforced the tremendous speed at which the work world changes in the 21st century. In fact, the nature of jobs themselves are transforming as antiquated job models are being phased out and new approaches are taking center stage. The fundamental change in career paths and professional expectations, brought on by globalism and technology, and accelerated by COVID-19, is shaping and illustrating how progressive independent schools like Mounds Park Academy prepare students for life beyond the four walls of a classroom.

Alison Kay, global accounts committee chair at Ernst and Young, outlines the key skills that will help students prepare for jobs in this new marketplace that does not yet exist:

• Embracing risk. Kay encourages parents to “…fight against (children’s) fear of failure and embarrassment—and stop ourselves from overprotecting them. It’s important for them to ask, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’, because that process of identifying risks and thinking through consequences will be useful throughout their lives and careers.”
• Nurturing resilience. “We all make mistakes,” says Kay. “We all make bad decisions. But if you have resilience, you don’t give up. You learn from your mistakes. And you do it better the next time. Those are the kinds of people that we need in an age of disruption, where established rules are overturned. We need creative thinkers who know how to dig deep and keep trying.”
• Instilling self-belief. Explains Kay, “Possibly the most fundamental of all is self-belief. I really believe self-belief is one of the most important qualities we need to foster in the next generation. There’s something incredibly powerful that happens when the people who you look up to tell you, ‘Of course you can do it.’”

MPA is preparing students for the new marketplace by modeling and facilitating innovation, adaptability, and resilience, especially during this complicated era of quarantine and social distancing. It starts with great teachers, says head of School, Dr. Bill Hudson. “Teachers are like conductors of an orchestra. They are attentive to the needs of and draw the best from each individual, but also blend together the various sounds into a magnificent whole.”

Innovative educators employ a variety of methods and pedagogical techniques, intermingling different activities to complement the lesson and the situation. Hudson adds, “I’ve said it many times over the last several weeks that great teachers make great online teachers because the core elements of virtual learning happen all the time in MPA classrooms.”

Kindergarten teacher Kristine Peterson saw an opportunity to incorporate a digital component to her lesson on weather. She created an activity in which kindergarteners recorded a clip of themselves doing the weather, just like a like on the local news, and then as a class, they had the opportunity to watch each child’s performance.

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