NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES, May 17, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — “If we don’t pay attention, a lot of our youth’s thinking prowess and problem-solving skills could be lost through the chaos of technology,” concerns our guest. He expresses that while technology in and of itself is not bad, it does have the potential to hinder the education process for students. In other words, it can become the “end game” for educators and the actual art of thinking can be lost inside it. Our guest offers a teaching method which encourages students to take a more active role regarding education material. This is the story of Brian Horner.

Brian Horner is a respected educator with a career spanning over a quarter of a century. He teaches in a gifted education program within District 203 in Naperville, Illinois. He is also the founder of Kid Innovation College which offers academic enrichment to students and is a consultant with the Institute for the Habits of Mind.

A National Board-Certified teacher, his accolades include his district’s Mission Maker Award, the Office Max Teacher Innovator Award, and multiple nominations for national awards, including Disney’s American Teacher Award and Golden Apple Awards. He holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Illinois State University and dual master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction, from North Central College, and differentiation and giftedness, from Concordia University.

“Being aware of the current condition in education in terms of strategic thinking is important,” he declares. “With the inception of the internet, kids’ free thinking and creative thinking took a nosedive. The moment we get out of kindergarten, creativity plummets. This can be due to the speed at which teachers are forced to move through curriculum, including the pressure to prepare students for standardized tests. It can also be a result of how we ask students to engage in information itself. Hence, the art of creation and innovation is being lost. We need to keep fighting for students and youth everywhere.” Brian accomplished that by establishing Kid Innovation College.

Founded in 2008, Kid Innovation College is an academic enrichment camp in the summer that offers advanced and thought-provoking courses that cater to the kindergarten through fifth grade students. Teachers at Kid Innovation College are not only encouraged to explore topics and courses that they have a passion about, but also intertwine important “thinking themes” within each course. These can be essential thinking behaviors such as persistence, empathy, or responding with wonderment and awe. “We want our students to be as excited about life and learning as our staff is. It’s very inquiry-based and has a strong metacognitive component to it,” explains Brian. “In other words, we focus on the art of strategic thinking, instead of having facts dictate the curriculum.”

“The art of strategic thinking is being lost,” concerns Brian. “We want students to be synthesizers of information and transformative thinkers—not just regurgitate simple facts. Knowing straight facts within a vacuum doesn’t make you smart. We want kids to create something new.”

“The students in our program are more academic-oriented,” notes Brian. “They need this mental engagement because their mind is active and always going. This program is trying to get gifted kids to learn how to create and be game changers in the world.”

Brian describes his program as highly metacognitive, which means that he gets the students to think about thinking, which is one of the sixteen Habits of Mind, according to The Institute for Habits of Mind. On April 5th 2024, Brian had the opportunity to speak at the Habits of Mind Conference in Vista, CA, on the topic of Activating Metacognition in the Classroom.

As for the future, Brian plans to continue his teaching. A long-term goal that he holds is to eventually offer consulting to other school districts to help them incorporate the art of strategic thinking within their classrooms.

“Youth in general are being threatened by the mental apathy that can be fostered through staring at screens,” concludes Brian. “Technology itself is not bad in any way. However, balance is required to find ways to help engage students in the world around them, to help them find their passion. It’s hard to find that passion when you are chained to a screen twenty-four hours a day. You become bland and soft. Parents and teachers alike need to fight against that, to help children create and innovate and continue to find wonder in the world around them. And you can only do this through engaging in this world.”

Close Up Radio will feature Brian Horner in an interview with Doug Llewelyn on Tuesday May 21st at 6pm Eastern

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio

If you have any questions for our guest, please call (347) 996-3389

For more information, please visit https://kidinnovationcollege.com/

For consulting purposes you can reach out to Brian at [email protected] or The Institute for the Habits of Mind (https://www.habitsofmindinstitute.org/)

Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
+1 631-850-3314
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