Understanding the science is key
I will never forget the day in medical school when I learned this: human beings are born with 20,000 genes but over our lifetimes only 10% get expressed.
What determines what gets expressed? It’s context: the environments, relationships, and experiences of our lives.
Who we become depends on a two-way “conversation” between our genes—nature, and how we grow up—nurture. And no one develops along the exact same path. Why? Because no two people, not even identical twins, have the exact same experiences and relationships influencing the expression of their genes.
This is why variation is the norm, not the exception, in human development and learning. Our lives don’t begin in the same developmental place or unfold the same ways. There are many pathways and those pathways are rarely linear; they are jagged. All of us have a developmental range of performance but few of us have opportunities to fully explore the peak of what is possible for each of us. What if we could?
We have failed many young people because we haven’t interrogated our assumptions about the potential of every single child. We haven’t deeply investigated how growth, competency, performance, and the fullest expression of human potential happens. It’s not that we don’t know what the problems are. We haven’t solved them. Yet.
Experiences and relationships shape who we become and we can shape the experiences and relationships young people have.
Who we become depends on a two-way “conversation” between our genes—nature, and how we grow up—nurture.
Explore the science
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We can unlock human potential
Science provides the roadmap.
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Variation is the norm
Variation and individuality are the essential features of human development.
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Trauma is not destiny
Developmental and learning science tell an optimistic story.
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