What has been your most important achievement? What did you do to accomplish it? Our achievements are tied to strengthening what we're naturally good at. It's about combining what we enjoy doing with the ease with which we do it — what is that thing you do well and effortlessly? Maybe it's painting, dancing, doing math, managing the household, or organizing family activities. There's a parable called "Soar with Your Strengths" by Donald Clifton and Paula Nelson, from 1992. It talks about how education has traditionally focused on fixing or improving the areas where children fall short. In other words, when you were in school, teachers evaluated content to improve the areas where the group needed to get better, without realizing that doing the opposite is actually better for students. What would happen if you could handle anything that feels difficult by leaning on what you already do well, whatever that may be? Strengths help build tools for life — they're the qualities each of us has that, once we're able to recognize them, we can use to our advantage in any situation. How can I identify my strengths and my children's strengths? You can observe your children's interests — what they pay the most attention to on a regular day, what they like to play, and how they behave while playing. If you notice them focused and having fun, that's an important clue for discovering their qualities. You can also take an online test on the VIA Institute on Character website (https://www.viacharacter.org/), where you'll answer a series of questions and learn what your main strengths are. The strengths we've been discussing were developed by the father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman. They're grouped into universal virtue categories — virtues being the moral qualities people can develop or consistently use to act well, choose what's best, and align with their own values. Go back and read the list of strengths, and first think about which ones you might have most developed based on your personality or the way you act — you can mark them. Then think about which ones your children might have most developed. It's worth noting that everyone has all of these strengths to some degree, but not everyone has them equally developed. What matters most when you take the VIA Institute test is discovering your top 10. Don't worry about the ones you have less developed — you could work on a plan to strengthen them, but the idea behind these strengths is that they come naturally, feel genuine, and contribute to your wellbeing. What do I do with my strengths? Strengths contribute to our wellbeing, to feeling good about ourselves, and to realizing that we have certain "superpowers" ready to be used. Use your strengths to be authentic, positive, and to find greater happiness. What matters most is being able to share your strengths and put them at the service of others — you can help someone by drawing on one of your strengths. Using one strength doesn't overshadow the others. Strengths are observable, they include character traits unique to each person, and they don't define you. They're there for you to use to solve problems or grow as a person. With us, your children strengthen what they do best in their classes. We aim for their activities to support their wellbeing, helping them gradually recognize their own qualities by getting to know themselves through what they do at school, with others, and on their own. It's important to us that they feel secure enough for their qualities to come through whenever needed. That's why one of the core pillars of their education is future guidance. We aim to help them explore their strengths in a guided way, through real experiences and by getting to know their own abilities, all to help prepare their path toward the years ahead.
