Update/Context: Since this article was first published in late 2020, the conversation around education and the importance of fostering agency in learners has only intensified. Too often, traditional education limits the ability for self-directed exploration and growth. To address this, the Life Skills Academy (LSA), is creating a model of learning by doing. By integrating an Entrepreneurial Mindset and project-based learning within a maker space, LSA provides an environment where individuals are empowered to take control of their own learning journeys, fostering the skills and independence needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

 Youth Not Good At Working With Hand Tools 

There are several characteristics shared by many of the young people we met through various youth camps and activities over the years at Fab Lab ICC. First, most are not very good at working with hand tools and in general, working with their hands. With hands-on shop classes all but gone from many of our nation’s school districts, learning to work with our hands has taken a back seat to standardized testing. Some early adopter school districts are starting to incorporate hands-on, (also known as experiential) learning. Perhaps we are moving in the right direction. 

We also see a fixed mindset in many of these young people. The emphasis has been on final results rather than the learning that takes place during the process. Many have not learned about the great knowledge available by learning from failure. Some students are hesitant to try anything new or try to make anything for fear it might not turn out well. Finally, we see students that when they get stuck on knowing what to do next, they raise their hands and stop working until a teacher or advisor can get to them and give them the answer they need to continue. 

Education Without Agency 

All of this combined can be thought of as education without agency. In this case, “agency” means self-confidence, self-reliance, self-efficacy and initiative all rolled into one. Without agency, many young people enter the work force (afraid to start a business on their own) looking for a job in the one area of study for which they went to school. Many go about their workdays waiting for the next instruction from their bosses or the company instruction manuals. They have a hard time looking around to see what needs to be done, and doing it, rather than waiting for the next instruction. 

We observed this regularly in the work-study students and other young people we used at Fab Lab ICC to help us keep the place in shape; cleaned up and ready for our members’ use. We'd give them a tour and try to point out the things we didn’t want to see; excess dust, clutter, dirty floors, etc. We used cleaning check lists and yet it always took a while for most to learn to take initiative and take care of the items needing attention without waiting for use to tell them. Some were never able to make the transition to a “self-starter” with initiative to do what needed to be done. 

Resuming the Path to Agency 

We believe experiential learning—learning by doing while learning from our mistakes-- at all levels of school would greatly help give these young people agency to go along with their education. In previous youth Boot Camps, we found that the young campers could learn about tools like Google and YouTube to answer their questions when there was not a teacher available. This discovery proved to be very empowering and helped them begin to see that they could figure many things out on their own. During those camps, we aimed to give all young people a taste of this “agency” to help enrich all aspects of their future lives; academic, personal and professional. 

School administrators and teachers have a lot on their plates right now trying to figure out how to bring students back up to speed. Let’s all strive to create a path that includes experiential learning.