Guest post by Dr. John Gasko, Chief Social and Emotional Learning Officer, Uplift Education

In the recent New York Times bestseller, The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt presents a compelling call as to why young people are just not well. As a result of the rise of mobile phones and social media, he claims that “we have rewired childhood and created an epidemic of mental illness with rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rising sharply, and more than doubling on many measures since 2010.” This rewiring clearly manifests in how young people are showing up for learning in our schools. Students struggle more and more to pay attention and focus, to be self-aware and regulate their emotions, to collaborate and work together, and to build relationships with their teachers and peers. Unfortunately, in many cases, teachers just don’t know what to do and thus the same pedagogical techniques are utilized in the hopes of gleaning academic outcomes while the deeper “tsunami” underway is ignored. But, “the center can no longer hold” and we continue to see a crisis in attendance, under-enrollment, and retention in our schools—a crisis that reflects a deeper, underlying reality of disengagement or, as some say, a crisis of meaning. What then shall we do?

As Chief Social Emotional Learning Officer for one of the largest urban public school charter systems in Texas and the nation, Uplift Education, I have worked tirelessly to get ahead of this crisis through experiments in creativity and innovation. Teachers are burned out and struggle to teach the traditional subjects, so helping them integrate more novel solutions to improve student engagement has been challenging. However, sometimes a partner comes along who understands the state that teachers and students are in and offers solutions that really help the ecosystem of a school reboot and come online around the things that matter, like finding meaning and purpose. For us, our search came to an end when we discovered Wayfinder.

Anchored in the Polynesian tradition of wayfinding, Wayfinder helps teachers and students navigate both their inner and outer lives through an elegantly designed, research-based portfolio of curriculum, activities, and assessments that are the simply the best I have ever encountered. While Polynesian wayfinding involves navigating by stars and observing birds, ocean swells and wind patterns, Wayfinder helps students find meaning and purpose through experiences that help them navigate and observe their own emotions and skills.

In a world where students are losing the ability to focus on what matters most, Wayfinder enables them to become apprentices and “navigators” on the road of life. By encompassing college and career readiness and asking who they want to be in the world, it helps them learn a new GPS system—call it an inner Waze—that supports them to hone in on their own North Stars. The Wayfinder tools equip them with mindsets, maps, durable character development, practical skills, and a new language through which to better understand what’s happening on the inside as their compass points the way forward. 

One particular component of the curriculum that we have found extremely helpful for our teachers and students at Uplift is a course titled Purposeful Leadership. Within this course, there are multiple lessons that really help students become their own navigators towards meaning and purpose in their lives. Those include: Making Life Meaningful, Building Your Boat, Braving the Unknown, and Finding Polaris. These lessons help orient students in step-by-step ways to a different way of thinking about their “why” and support connections to what they are learning in the classroom—whether language arts, history, or mathematics—and their discovery of meaning and purpose. 

Consequently, our students “rewire” in the opposite direction than that highlighted in The Anxious Generation. Instead of rewiring around the flavor of the moment through Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok, students diving deep into the Wayfinder system rewire themselves around confidence, a growth mindset, durability and strength, character, belonging, and meaning. They learn the essential skills of self-awareness, adaptability, empathy, collaboration, agency, and purpose. Rather than staying submerged in the darker realms of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and unregulated technology, our young navigators learn to swim in the waters of courage, daring, hope, and resilience. 

Dr. John Gasko

Chief Social and Emotional Learning Officer, Uplift Education