The Science of
Human Potential

Scott Barry Kaufman

Children aren't machines to be manipulated, exploited, extracted.
Children are developing whole human beings with a multitude of needs, motivations, and future goals.

In some ways, each child is like every other child.

All children need food, water, and a stable environment free of crime, violence, harshness, and unpredictability. All children need social connections — a sense of belonging and relatedness. All children need opportunities for mastery, so that they can develop authentic pride in their learning and work.

In other ways, each child is profoundly unique. The self-actualization journey of each child is a very sacred one.

Each child needs to explore their unique potentialities and discover what they like and dislike, and to be able to learn the skills of expressing to others what they like and dislike in a mature, effective fashion.

Each child needs to explore learning and knowledge through direct experience and active project-based learning of the material. Passive learning offers little way for the child to get the knowledge deep into their bones. To link the material to their own lives, and to the future person they dream of becoming.

To be with the material, not just do the material.

Each child needs to learn how to be loving with others who seem very different from them. To learn how to disagree with others in a mature fashion, to present valid arguments rather than resort to name calling and bullying. To admire others not solely for their utility value, but for their human value.

To be love.

To be able to witness a person very different and show love and compassion is a higher form of love. It's easy to feel connection with those who share similar values and goals, but to show love for those who are very different is part of the process of becoming fully human.

Each child also needs to have a higher priority goal than merely doing well on standardized tests.

Each child needs a purpose, a north star goal, something larger that they are working toward that brings them a unique sense of satisfaction and energizes them as they move toward this broader goal. Ultimately, each child needs to be able to work toward a goal that goes beyond themselves, and can have a positive impact on the broader society.

So I make this call:

Do not rob children of the opportunity to create personal meaning. Do not rob children of the opportunity to explore and be curious about themselves, others, and the knowledge in which they are learning. To create. To move toward a desired future goal.

Yes we can temporarily get high performance out of children by treating them as machines, but we don't set up each child for a lifelong journey of becoming and unfolding who they are destined to become. This does the world no favors.

We need a human-centered education system, one that acknowledges the universal needs for safety, security, connection, and mastery, as well as nurtures the unique developmental trajectory of each child and the yearning for transcendence that exists deep within each child.

And we need it now.