In my earlier post, I mentioned  a training video of author-filmmaker-futurist Joel Arthur Barker, The Power of Vision.

In the video, Barker shared an interesting anecdote about Eugene Lang:

“In 1981, businessman Eugene M. Lang returned to P.S. 121, the elementary school he had attended in East Harlem 50 years earlier, to address a class of graduating sixth graders. He intended to tell the students, “Work hard and you’ll succeed.” But on the way to the podium, the school principal told Lang that three-quarters of the school’s students would probably never finish high school, prompting Lang to make an impromptu change to his speech: he promised college tuition to every sixth grader who stayed in high school and graduated.” 

Barker stated that the most successful students think in time horizons of five to ten years out while unsuccessful students have nearly no future picture. He also shared the research of Dr Benjamin Singrer on future focused role image.

Successful students saw in long time horizons with multiple alternatives. They had a belief that their own behavior made a big difference in how the future would turn out.

Less successful students saw in short time horizons with no idea of what they were going to be doing. They believed their lives were in the hands of fate.

Children with vision outperformed their assets. They had a profound belief in their future and their ability to use their own efforts to shape it.

If we want to increase student success, it will take more than just a future picture. But those pictures could drive innovation within schools and communities to implement learning opportunities missing in our current structures. Lang set up support systems in addition to the offer of college tuition. What future pictures drive your school and classroom innovations?

“And Lang’s original 61 Dreamers? Of the 54 who remain in contact with the organization, more than 90% have earned their high school diplomas or GED certificates; and 60% have pursued higher education. The Dreamers have received degrees from Bard College, Barnard College, Swarthmore College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, CUNY Hunter, and other schools. Almost all of the P.S. 121 Dreamers hold fulfilling jobs, and now their children are beginning to graduate from college.”