Don't Underestimate the Youngest Generation

Because I'm a mom and my career is primary and secondary education adjacent, I feel like I know a thing or two about the youngest generation of Memphians. When I try to distill my thoughts and emotions about this age group into the simplest language, I keep landing on two words.

Potential and Adaptability.

Kids are born with near limitless potential. There is plenty of science showing that human brains are basically the same at birth and wired to soak up knowledge, but I don't need a Ph.D. to know this deeply with every fiber of my being. I see it in my own boys, and in the students we work with at our partner schools.

But potential is only valuable when it's tapped in the right way and in the right environment. That's why I'm so deeply committed to the work we do at M.O.S.T.

Every school year, we help hundreds of families access those environments through our scholarships.

Once a student is in the right environment to tap their full potential, it's their adaptability that makes the most of it.

In the right Pre-K program, a four-year-old adapts to being around large groups of their peers. In kindergarten, they adapt to making sense of letters and words. In elementary school, they adapt to understand math concepts, how to read for understanding and for fun, how to navigate an argument on the playground. In secondary school, they begin to adapt to who they will grow into as adults.

In these environments, how will they adapt to unleash their potential? Will they discover that an artist lives inside them? An electrical engineer, an algebra teacher, an immigration lawyer, a chef with a Michelin Star in their future?

Because of their potential, it's all on the table. Because of their adaptability, the future is theirs to shape.