Communicating with Smart Kiddos

Going into class today, I had no idea that we were going to be confronted with being taught by kids from Elon Musk’s Astra Nova school. But I can easily say it was one of most fun classes I’ve had at Cal to this day. It was so fun and interesting to hear how these obviously gifted children break down their constellation game to us. I think I was very lucky in my group because one of the kids was very logical and had a very similar thought process to that of my own. I wanted to know how to deep his knowledge on the game was so I asked questions about the meta-game to it, and how other players would react to it and what had worked in the past. I was so surprised at how advanced his thought processes were, and he seemed like he was around 12/13 and he is already thinking so many layers deep. During our break time my partner and I asked about what he else he did at the school, and were so surprised to learn that he was doing some coding for the school website!! One thing I did notice was that when he said he that he loved coding, he was kinda hesitant so I would love to dig deeper and see what actually taps into his passions, because lets be honest no one actually LOVES coding.

Something I will start doing as a leader is to have them talk first so I can get a sense of what their language is, so that when I do try to lead them I do it in their terms so they understand it clearly. Something I will stop doing is forcing my way, especially with kids, and let them try and fail if they need be.