We want our children to be successful. And we want them to be happy. That goes without saying. But what exactly does that mean? For most parents that means doing well academically at a great school. It can also mean following in a parent’s successful career. Doctors want their children to become doctors. Restaurant owners assume their children will be taking over the family business.

But if we think about it, ultimately it means helping our children to achieve their highest potential. Increasingly as a society we are recognizing that this is more than maximizing cognitive potential. It is more than having the highest test scores. It is also about awakening creativity and innovative thinking. It is also about dreams and inspiration.

Today’s and tomorrow’s work environments will increasingly need creative thinkers. Yet they will also increasingly need workers with those cognitive capabilities associated with high test scores. If our children are to truly have successful futures they will need to develop minds that are bright and curious as well as minds that are highly trained and skilled. As parents our challenge is to raise children who have both a passion for learning and an ability to dream and imagine.

So how do we reconcile what seems to be two very different developmental paths?

One approach to consider is actually to look backward to an educational theory from the 1800’s. When the name ‘John Dewey’ is brought up the vast majority of people first think of the Dewey Decimal System that he invented for cataloging books. But John Dewey contributed much more to education that a numbering system. Dewey was a proponent of experiential learning.

Experiential learning is premised on the belief that learning occurs best when the learner, your young child, is actively engaged in and contributing to the learning process. The core of the Dewey approach to education is your child’s active participation in crafting their own learning experience.

Awakening your child’s creativity and following their passions is the very first step in John Dewey’s approach to education. The process begins with looking to the child to determine what he or she is interested in. What do they dream about? Do they dream about driving race cars or flying planes? Do they love working in the kitchen making up recipes? Do they love clothes and accessories? What grabs their imagination? Whatever they are passionate about becomes the focus of the educational approach.

Let’s take the young girl, Caroline, who loves everything about cars and trucks as an example. Typically she will spend 8 or more hours at school studying everything but cars and trucks. But at home the walls of her room are covered with pictures of shiny red corvettes and green Land Rovers covered with mud. Where do you think her creativity and inspiration will arise - during class and doing her homework or when she is dreaming of driving that Land Rover over an African Savannah?

The Dewey system of approach to education is to take that passion and shape the learning around it. For Caroline this would mean that cars and trucks would always be at the center of what she is learning.

How does this happen? Well, the educational experience might begin by asking Caroline if she knows what makes that Land Rover so powerful on an open track. What would she need to study to know that? Any number of topics could come up. If she dreams about driving across an African Savannah then this can be the basis of geography, zoology, and botany lessons. It can also lead to ecology studies. If she wants to know more about how a car works then she can learn about internal combustion and ultimately chemistry and physics. The point is that everything that Caroline studies and learns has her dreams at its center.

Of course, Dewey's approach is not easy. You cannot change our standardized educational system, so it will take extra work from you as a parent. You will struggle with helping Caroline to find time for this dream-focused learning in the midst of school work that doesn't make much sense to her. One way that you can help her is to find ways to connect what she is learning in school with her dreams. Take for instance her curiosity about what makes a Land Rover more suited for open track driving than the red Corvette. This can help her understand why she needs to learn math. You can also help her by creating learning experiences for her that focus on her dreams. The annual auto shows, trips to a garage, go-kart racing – all of these and many more experiences can keep her dreams alive and help her to reach her highest potential.

In summary, if you let your child follow his or her dream then their creativity and inspiration will fuel their educational experience and lead to extraordinary results.

We strongly believe that when choosing an occupation adolescents and young adults should follow their inspiration and interests. To facilitate this approach, Dr. Shenfield developed special career assessment system. What makes this system unique is the multifaceted analysis of student's aptitude, interests, and psychological traits based on results of three specialized tests. Using this analysis psychologists can identify optimal career selections that deliver the best combination of all factors and match person't strengths and talents with their interests and psychological characteristics.

Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dolldreamer/5897393856