Coursera, founded in 2012, emerged as one of the pioneering platforms of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) movement. Soon, leading universities – Stanford, Princeton, Michigan, Duke and others – joined in and education began to spill beyond campuses into the hands of anyone with an Internet connection. What printing had achieved for the written word, MOOCs began to achieve for university-level learning: expanding the circle of who gets to learn.

But technology did not stop there. While MOOCs delivered information, AI (Artificial Intelligence) began shaping tools that could interact with learners. Unlike a textbook, these tools could respond, adjust, explain, and guide. AI assistants such as ChatGPT represent a moment when

education becomes personalized, flexible, and available at any hour of the day. They are not simply repositories of information – they are companions in thinking.

The roots of ChatGPT lie in a breakthrough known as the Transformer architecture, introduced in 2017 under the title “Attention Is All You Need.” This innovation made possible a family of models – GPT-1, GPT-2, GPT-3 and further – capable of understanding patterns in human language at remarkable depth. Over time, ChatGPT evolved from a single model into a spectrum of specialized assistants, able to analyze, create, and collaborate. (https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/models)

Yet the idea that knowledge will one day reach everyone, without distinction, is not new.

A narration attributed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) conveys a striking divine promise:

“God said, ‘In the end of time, I will spread knowledge so widely that men and women, the free and the enslaved, the young and the old – everyone – will have the opportunity to learn.’” (Ibn Abd al-Barr. Jami’ Bayan al-‘Ilm wa Fadlih)

This narration is not found in the authenticated primary sources due to weak chain of narration. It is found in secondary sources; but the fact that renowned scholars like Ibn Abd al-Barr noted it in their works makes it worth pondering over. This wise saying predicts not simply an expansion of education, but a transformation of society. In a world where access to learning has historically been shaped by gender, wealth, age, or social position, these words imagine a future where knowledge becomes universal and where the privilege of learning dissolves into a shared human inheritance.

“Men and women” – a hint that gender will no longer determine who may seek understanding. “The free and the enslaved” – that knowledge will transcend status and economic barriers. “The young and the old” – that learning becomes lifelong, not limited to childhood and youth.

One cannot help but assume that long before our age of digital platforms and AI, a future where learning flows to all corners of society was already being imagined in the ancient world. It is not difficult to see resonances with the present moment: AI tutors on smartphones, open courses from world-class universities, translated materials, adaptive learning systems, and global communities of learners who can study together without ever meeting in person.

From this perspective, AI technology is not an isolated achievement of the 21st century; it is part of a broader human journey toward expanding the horizons of knowledge. And perhaps, as this narration suggests, it is also part of a spiritual journey, one in which the spread of learning reflects a divine mercy extended to all people.

One post in a social media account opened by his fans shows Fr. Thomas Michel lying on the ground with several stray dogs sitting around him. They are at peace being near him, just as kids in another photo who joyfully give hugs to this man of God. I saw him for the first time more than two decades ago in a symposium in Istanbul dedicated to research on the life and teachings of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (d. 1960), one of the leading Islamic scholars of the twentieth century. Now not surprising at all, he was giving hugs to all that came by, including myself with other youth reading Nursi.

We lost Fr. Michel recently (November 24, 2025). He was 84. A big loss for interfaith dialogue practitioners, Fr. Michel has left behind a legacy of true love on behalf of God, dedication to community work, and promoting dialogue among members of different faith traditions. He never abstained from praising good behavior and charitable work regardless of faith differences. He was so committed to education and dialogue that, despite his age and illness, he continued to work for a school in Thailand, where he passed away. One picture shows him happy as he stood in front of a girls’ dorm still under construction.

Even while suffering from health problems, he continued to deliver academic papers and lectures to the last minute – if the doctors had not disallowed him from travel, he would have flown from Thailand to the United States in September for a conference by Respect Graduate School to honor Fethullah Gülen’s life and service. I remember he had to stay in the US during the lockdown due to Covid. After it was over, he wrote to me he was buying a one-way ticket to Thailand to teach at a school, which he did until his last breath.

Another picture shows a dog on guard where the remains of Fr. Michel is kept. As one enters the premise, one can see an epitaph by Fr. Michel himself, which summarizes his life work: “Helping people understand each other is worth spending a lifetime on.” There are thousands of friends he had over the years from around the world who would firmly testify that Uncle Tom lived such a life.

In this issue, Abdullah Aymaz’s eulogy for Uncle Tom is worth reading.

Even more striking for me was connecting with Germans of Turkish ancestry, which began some 30 years ago. I met them in Berlin and across Germany during my lecture tours. Everywhere I gathered the same impression: a fully occupied auditorium, dozens of volunteers, and open, eager faces all expressing the same message: I want to be part of this society, and I want to learn! These gatherings also meant starting the day with a hearty breakfast and ending it with an opulent meal.

I dare say that no other migrant group has such a successful story of education and integration as the supporters and friends of Fethullah Gülen. Within three generations, many have reached—and often even surpassed—the educational level of German society.

I am myself a descendent of migrants who, for religious reasons, had to leave their homeland. I therefore know what is going on in the hearts of those who cannot see their parents and relatives in Turkey. For them, Fethullah Gülen was a source of strength and hope, much like John Paul II was for Poland during times of turmoil and trouble. Here again faith played an important role!

We know from many sources that Fethullah Gülen had a gift for inspiring many people. They listened to him, they followed him and spread his sermons. Thanks to the ongoing technological revolution, he was able to reach millions around the world. I witnessed his impact firsthand as I met people who responded to his call for education—across Asia, America, Africa, and throughout Europe.

The memory of Fethullah Gülen will endure, the schools of the Hizmet movement will stand as lasting evidence of a faith capable of moving mountains. Farewell, Fethullah Gülen!

Rooted in Turkish Sunni Islam, Mr. Gülen’s teachings, faith, and way of life focused on education, achievement, charity, and positive engagement with people of other faiths. The movement he inspired—Hizmet (service, in Turkish)—focused the energies of hundreds of thousands of Turks and others to apply their acumen, resources, and business and professional networks, to build robust civil-society organizations.

Mr. Gülen modeled for his students worldwide the values of graciousness, generosity, and fidelity to principles.

My nearly 20-year relationship with Hizmet began through the Niagara Foundation in Chicago, whose representatives reached out to the Jewish community after their arrival. I was privileged to work with them on interfaith issues, outreach, and dialogue for much of my career as a communications executive at Chicago’s Jewish Federation.

At first, Mr. Gülen and Hizmet were mysteries to my colleagues and me. We all wanted to know: who are these people and what do they want? I was particularly curious due to having some background in Turkish language and culture.

The answers emerged, more implicitly than overtly, throughout our long relationship. If I had to sum up Hizmet’s message in one phrase, it is: “Be the change you want to see.”

Both our peoples, Turks and Muslims, and Jews and Israelis, have experienced triumphs and endured calamities, which can make people bitter. Persecutions of Hizmet in Turkey began in 2013 and exploded in a violent purge in the summer of 2016. The Turkish government under President Erdoğan arrested, imprisoned, tortured, impoverished, and exiled thousands on the debunked pretext that Mr. Gülen was behind an alleged coup attempt (likely a false-flag operation).

Despite the depredations they continue to suffer, the students of Mr. Gülen I know are not bitter. Indeed, they continue to plant the seeds of respect, human kindness, learning, charity, and peace, for those are the pillars of their faith.

Through them I have come to know their teacher, their beloved Hocaefendi, who I was honored to meet a few years back.

May the day come when the good people of Hizmet know no fear in their beloved homeland. May the day come quickly when the spirit and teachings of Mr. Gülen help those of good conscience and good faith make the change all peace-loving people want to see.

Fethullah Gülen was a multifaceted personality—a Sunni Turkish Muslim devoted to the well-being of the Turkish people; a renowned Sufi Islamic scholar; a mujaddid (renewer of faith); a humanist, visionary, teacher, poet, philosopher, and educationist; a preacher and motivator; a philanthropist; an ardent advocate of peace and non-violence; an Islamically grounded postmodern critic of the modernist vision of development; an ascetic and a loner; a voice for the voiceless and marginalized; a spiritual mentor and guide for millions; and the builder of one of the most vibrant Islamic civic-social movements and developmental models, known as Hizmet. This movement, originating in Turkey, has spread to approximately 160 countries across the world. Above all, he gave hope to the hopeless.

The inclusivity of Gülen’s Islamic thought, along with its philosophy of positive action and adaptive culture, enabled him and the Hizmet movement to thrive in diverse contexts—be they political, social, economic, modern, or traditional. This inclusivity fostered interactions with diverse viewpoints, including political ones, and facilitated collaborative relationships across cultures, faith groups, languages, and civilizations, all with the aim of serving humanity through social initiatives.

For this reason, modern social science scholarship, particularly in the field of religious movements, struggles to categorize Gülen and the Hizmet movement. Labels such as modernist, reformist, revivalist, fundamentalist, traditionalist, conservative, or Islamist fail to capture their essence. This difficulty also highlights why a “modernist mindset” often fails to grasp Gülen’s Islamic moral and ethical universalism and his everyday humility, which is deeply rooted in Prophetic traditions. For example, Dexter Filkins, a writer for The New Yorker who published a largely critical piece on the Hizmet movement following Turkey’s disputed 2016 military coup, expressed surprise and disbelief at Gülen’s response to a question during their interview that same year. When asked how he wished to be remembered, Gülen replied: “I wish to be forgotten after I die. I wish for my grave to remain unknown. I hope to die in solitude, with no one becoming aware of my death, and thus, no one conducting my funeral prayer. I wish for no one to remember me.” The writer sarcastically noted that this was “an answer the like of which I’ve never heard from another leader in politics or religion.”

Filkins, unfamiliar with Sufi discourse, failed to understand the depth of Gülen’s response. In the Sufi tradition, one lives in a constant state of nothingness, or fana (self-annihilation) before God, striving to remain His humble servant and to avoid the worldly temptations of glory, power, fame, and recognition. Similarly, some Western writers reduced the Hizmet movement to the concept of “market Islam.” Such characterizations reveal the limitations of a modernist framework, which relies heavily on rigid categories, binaries, and power-centric narratives. Unsurprisingly, many Western and Westernized media outlets interpreted Gülen’s legacy narrowly through the lens of the disputed 2016 military coup in Turkey.

Gülen’s Islamic ecumenism enabled him to critically address extremist, ideological, reactionary, and exclusivist traditions—whether rooted in Islamic or secular discourses. As such, he refrained from aligning with or approving, and often directly denounced, both the anti-religious, ideological secular state, including Kemalism, and Islamist constructs, such as Erdoğanism. For Gülen, these ideological and political frameworks were inherently inimical to the common good, as they relied on divisive “us versus them” binaries. Instead, he advocated for governance by a “neutral state” that respects the boundaries and autonomy of civil society, alongside the principles of equality, freedom, non-discrimination, and citizenship. This stance explains why both Gülen and the Hizmet movement became targets of attack from various ideological factions in Turkey—Kemalist, secularist, nationalist, and Islamist—primarily from state-centric political forces. These groups perceived Gülen’s vision of a “civil society Islam” as “too autonomous,” “too democratic,” and therefore “too dangerous” for the survival of Turkey’s tradition of statism, prompting efforts to suppress the movement under various pretexts.

It is extremely challenging to encapsulate the legacy of such a multifaceted personality, one who had over five decades of active public life within and beyond Turkey. Yet, certain elements of Gülen’s ideas and actions emerge as uniquely remarkable and exemplary.

First, Gülen’s Islamic hermeneutics is based on interpreting both the Qur’an and the life of the Prophet in synchrony, the latter as the explainer of the former. While many scholars of the twentieth century focused only on the Qur’an and many times on its literal interpretation. Gülen emphasized that the Qur’an is best exemplified through the life and practices of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his Companions, viewing them as inseparable. He believed that a proper, balanced, and inclusive understanding of the Qur’an—and its application to modern challenges—requires a profound knowledge of their lives and legacies.

Gülen introduced a methodological framework: an inclusive understanding of Islamic universalism requires an intra-textual approach that integrates the Qur’an and other Scriptures with the lived world of Prophetic Traditions, as narrated in multiple Islamic sources. He argued that an ahistorical, literal, and mechanical reading of the Qur’an and other Islamic texts has, in some cases, led to distorted, radicalized, power-centered, and violence-prone interpretations of Islam and its history. These misinterpretations, depending on the individuals or groups propagating them, have significantly harmed the image of Islam.

For this reason, Gülen emphasized that Muslims must prioritize the accurate representation of Islam in both private and public domains, both among themselves and in their interactions with others. Notably, he was one of the first Islamic scholars to unequivocally condemn the 9/11 attacks and global terrorism. Drawing from his understanding of Islamic universal ethics and morality, he boldly stated: “A Muslim cannot be a terrorist, and a terrorist cannot be a Muslim.”

Second, Gülen’s Islamic ontology and praxis, following the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), has developed a human-centered theology. This paradigm, rare in the annals of Islamic philosophical and theological thought, advocates for the peaceful coexistence of diverse cultures, religions, civilizations, nationalities, races, political ideologies, and governing systems in the rapidly globalizing world. It is grounded in God-ordained universal human values such as love, tolerance, peace, friendship, trust, altruism, respect, compassion, forgiveness, solidarity, and social responsibility.

For this reason, Gülen, departing from conventional understandings of the Divine, boldly declared that “diversity is divinely intended.” This entails that promoting and preserving diversity in its various forms is a sacred act. Notably, for Gülen, the concept of diversity extends beyond collective differences to include diversity within each collective. He believed that faith in diversity is fundamental to any conception of democracy, as it necessitates an accommodation of differences. Most violent conflicts, in his view, arise from the politics of intolerance and a rejection of differences.

It is therefore unsurprising that Gülen prioritized “dialogue” and “consultation” as the two most essential principles for the functioning of any democratic society and state.

These humanistic values were crushed under various forms of modernity, pursued in the name of “science,” “positivism,” and “systems,” which have produced and continue to foster violence and homogenization. For Gülen, the challenge of his era—and for future generations—was to re-center these humanistic values within global developmental and political discourses. He believed that the promotion and expansion of these values are the true measure of sincerity, worship, and service to both God and humanity.

For this reason, Gülen strongly advocated for the need to “humanize and spiritualize” modernity and modern governance systems. Such an approach, he argued, would prioritize “human security” over the narrower concept of “national security.”

A third prominent legacy of Fethullah Gülen is his groundbreaking work in education, for which the Hizmet movement is renowned across the globe. One of the key reasons behind Gülen’s success in the field of education, both within and beyond Turkey, is his framing of access to and attainment of education as a fundamental expression of Islamic universal faith, identity, and humanity. While many have advocated for education, few have transformed their call into a vibrant social movement that has significantly contributed to the democratization of Turkish public life. This peaceful, democratic assertion of the “Muslim periphery” has made Turkish society more inclusive and diverse—a remarkable legacy in the Turkish context.

Gülen viewed education not only as a prerequisite for attaining iman (faith) but also as an equalizing force and a means of building capabilities to navigate the complexities of the modern world. This perspective inspired a dedicated generation, who, within a short span of time, carried the educational mission to many parts of the world, often in the face of great challenges and difficulties. I believe Gülen’s educational model as a “social movement” is desperately needed in underdeveloped regions across the globe to help reduce social and economic inequalities and contribute to the common good.

Gülen considered education as a vocation, an ethical enterprise, a holistic experience, and a social process with the potential to transform human beings. The high modernism of the West, while making significant positive contributions to humanity, has also produced a “scientific-technocratic, heartless mind” that has failed to prevent cycles of violence and destruction. Gülen’s educational model seeks to balance the virtues of the heart with the rational mind, ensuring that softer humanistic values guide and temper the destructive ambitions often associated with unchecked scientific and technological advancement. I believe this model of education, particularly in schools, is highly relevant to today’s globalized world, which stands at a crossroads marked by high nationalist-populist politics. The unpredictable impulses of these movements risk pushing the world toward greater conflict and violence on a global scale.

Above all, Gülen will be remembered as an apostle of peace and non-violence. This is evident in his resolute commitment to ensuring the Hizmet movement remained peaceful despite decades of relentless, systematic attacks by the Erdoğan regime. These attacks included the illegal appropriation of Hizmet properties, estimated at approximately $50 billion, and the widespread persecution of its volunteers. Few instances of such prolonged persecution exist in recent human history. Despite these immense challenges and false accusations, he responded with unwavering peace, legality, and non-violence. He lifted the “Gülen community” from a “slumber of hopelessness” and guided them to continue their hizmet—service to humanity for the sake of Allah—without expectation of reward.

As an instructor of statistics, I sometimes cannot help but explain the phenomena of the social sciences through mathematical expressions. This is especially true when there is almost complete correspondence between the two. One such topic is the “powers” of ignorance. When I say “powers,” I obviously do not mean how “mighty” ignorance makes a person. I mean the exponential expressions of ignorance:

Ignorance to the power of one (ignorance¹);

Ignorance to the power of two (ignorance²);

Ignorance to the power of three (ignorance³).

Powers of ignorance

Let us start with the simple definitions of these three powers:

Ignorance¹: Does not know;

Ignorance²: Does not know AND does not know that s/he does not know;

Ignorance³: Does not know AND does not know that s/he does not know AND insists that s/he does know.

Among the three, the first power is the most powerless in terms of leading the person to mistakes. The person is aware that s/he does not know. The solution to this case is simple: the person would go after the needed knowledge and acquire it, remedying this form of ignorance.

The second power is not that bad, either. The person does not know AND is not aware of the knowledge s/he lacks, either. Therefore, this person, when alerted to the necessity and existence of the knowledge in question, would acquire it, successfully ending the ignorance. In this sense, this power is also not that powerful in terms of leading the person to mistakes.

The third power is the most powerful at fooling its owner. The person does not know AND does not realize that s/he lacks certain knowledge. What is more, when alerted to the necessity and existence of the knowledge in question, s/he insists that s/he has nothing to learn. As you can tell, the ignorance cannot be eliminated easily—if at all—in this case. Such ignorance cannot be overcome by alerting the person to the knowledge in question and/or providing it. This is an attitudinal problem that “guards” the person against learning.­ ­

Now, let us return briefly to the math. Just as the magnitude of the difference between the consecutive powers of a mathematical entity increases as the powers increase, the differences between consecutive powers of ignorance are also different. For example, while the difference between the first power of two (2¹) and its second power (2²) is two (four minus two), the difference between the second power (2²) and the third (2³) is four (eight minus four). Likewise, there is a bigger leap in the severity of the problem from the second to the third power of ignorance, compared to the difference between the first and the second.

Known unknowns vs. unknown unknowns

I believe this hierarchical definition of ignorance might provide some insight into the relationship between the teacher and the learner. From the perspective of the constructivist theory of learning, the best scenario for a learner is to be the architect of his/her own knowledge palace. In this approach, the teacher is a facilitator of the learning process while the learner builds his/her knowledge palace piece by piece. For a learner who smoothly goes through this process, the first power of ignorance can easily be eliminated without much assistance, especially in this information age. In other words, in this kind of ignorance, there are “known unknowns” that can be learned.

Some initial guidance might be needed to eliminate the second power of ignorance. The learner might successfully decorate the existing rooms of her/his palace by herself/himself, yet might be unaware that there might be brand new rooms that can be added. At this point, the teacher might provide guidance and vision to the learner, so that s/he might start sailing in these uncharted territories. Once new land is discovered, the teacher might return to the role of facilitator. While there are “unknown unknowns” in this case, there is no resistance to the realization and acknowledgement of this situation by the learner.

The biggest challenge we face nowadays is undoubtedly around the third power. The teacher facing the third power of ignorance is helpless in helping the learner. In addition to “unknown unknowns”, there is this denial of the “unknowing”. In old times, the difficulty in overcoming ignorance was mostly about accessing knowledge. People who appreciated knowledge used to get very happy when they attained it. They also mostly exhibited the attitude that the more they learned, the more they realized how ignorant they were. In this sense, it is very odd that we can now access knowledge in seconds, yet we do not appreciate it. Nor do we have the wisdom that the more we learn, the humbler we should become about our knowledge.

Such an attitude also has a high potential of hurting the teacher-learner relationship, since the learner denies the fact that s/he sometimes needs guidance. Such learners only seek “depositories” of information, with the thinking that they, by themselves, can correctly and sufficiently process and digest all the information taken in. In this sense, they are closed to any advice, guidance, perspective, or vision provided by the teacher. Their approach implicitly says, “Just give me the information I am asking for and shut up!” This is where wisdom is lost between generations.

The missing link: wisdom

This might remind some readers of movies or TV series that depict the wisdom exhibited by a Far Eastern master of martial arts. The master would accept a Western person as his apprentice. Yet, he asks the apprentice to do extremely difficult and exhausting chores that are seemingly unrelated to the martial arts. Moreover, these chores appear as if they are geared towards the comfort of the master. Yet, as the apprentice proceeds in her/his training, s/he realizes how vital those chores have been in acquiring the necessary skills as well as attitudes, such as stamina, perseverance, and patience. Only then does s/he realize that it should be the master, not the apprentice, who defines the format of the master-apprentice relationship.

The more learners see knowledgeable people as only “depositories of information”, the more damage is done to a productive and meaningful teacher-learner relationship. Learners start to think that the second they acquire the information they lack, they become “even” with their teachers. And this exactly is the way of thinking that is a major source of the third power of ignorance.

Let us give a simple and practical example to illustrate this phenomenon. Think of a learner who wants to cook a dish. In response, the teacher provides the learner with the full list of ingredients for the dish. The learner, in turn, adds this to her/his library of information. As a second step, the teacher attempts to explain how and when each ingredient should be added to the pot, at what heat the dish should be cooked, and suggestions to add more flavor, etc. However, the learner declines this offer, claiming that s/he can handle these by herself/himself. Just like in this example, obtaining information about a topic is just the beginning. Applying this information to various situations, analyzing or synthesizing it, and comparing it with similar information are examples of tasks that require experience and are more important than simply depositing unprocessed information into one’s library. What is needed is to continue the learning process during these stages as well. This is only possible if the learner exhibits humility through awareness that s/he has yet learned little and keeps the channels of learning open.

Two disclaimers are in order here. First, this article is not to discredit learner-centered learning; rather, it seeks to highlight some points during the process where the teacher’s guidance and vision should play a critical role in the learner’s healthy progress in acquiring, digesting, and internalizing information. Second, it is not the intent here to imply that it should be the teacher alone who shapes the format of the learning-teaching process, and that the student should only be the object of it, as has been the case in many traditional educational systems. There is no doubt that a successful teacher will continually gauge the learner’s progress and gather constant feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of the learner and use these to provide proper guidance and vision.

It is crucial to help learners acquire the right attitude towards learning and knowledge. In an era where individuals are flooded with information and asked to mostly make pragmatic use of it, it is of the utmost importance to caution learners against the pitfalls of this approach and guide them towards successfully turning it into internalized knowledge. That would also bring about the wisdom and humility necessary for learners to continue to build their wonderful palaces of knowledge.

It was December 31^st, 2019 when Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia seen in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Later, we’ve learned that it was due to a new virus initially found in a seafood bazaar within the city. The virus was a type of coronavirus, a category of respiratory viruses that are known to cause severe acute respiratory syndrome, also known as SARS. (CDC, 2019). Because the original virus that is responsible for the Covid-19 Pandemic was similar to SARS-CoV it was named SARS-CoV-2 (CDC, 2019). To be precise, the virus’s name Covid-19 is an acronym of CO (corona), VI (virus), D (disease), and 19 (last two digits of the year it was found) (CDC, 2019).

Nobody in the United States where I live in, including myself, paid much attention to the news about this new coronavirus incident because we simply thought we did not need to worry about a virus that had appeared so far away from home.

However, in March 2020, the director general of World Health Organization (WHO, 2020) declared Covid-19 as a pandemic after assessment of the rapid spread and severity of the virus across the globe. The organization then warned people with additional precautions of using face mask and social distancing in public in the hopes that it might help curb the spread of the pandemic (Red Cross, 2020). This was just the beginning, and nobody had no idea about unforeseen policies and applications in peoples’ lives all over the world. Then, most governments dictated global physical closures of businesses, sport activities, schools, and pushed all institutions to migrate to online platforms (Adedoyin & Soykan, 2020). Online learning meant the use of the Internet with some other important technologies to develop materials for educational purposes, instructional delivery, and management of programs (Fry, 2001).

In the following sections, I will summarize some of my readings about the effects of COVID-19 on our lives; especially on K-12 education settings.

The new normal: Online education

According to the United Nation’s (UN) August 2020 report, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries (UN, 2020). Impacts of school closures across the world affected all children but in different degrees depending on country/region where they live, their ages, family backgrounds, gender, and such. These children were deprived from daily access to school, the basic support schools provided for them, group activities, team sports, and recreational options such as pools and playgrounds. Unfortunately, the crisis has exacerbated pre-existing educa­tional inequalities by reducing the opportunities for many of the most vulnerable children, youth, and adults.

As a result, the education we have known and provided has changed dramatically and online e-learning, or digital learning, have become the new normal. Teaching was undertaken remotely and on digital platforms (Li, & Lalani, 2020). However, this was far from perfect and it came with some challenges associated with several benefits.

Benefits of online learning

One major silver lining that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic is a much greater appreciation for physical schooling and the pivotal roles that teachers play in society (Vegas, & Winthrop, 2020). Indeed, as a parent I know firsthand that we struggled to work with our children at home due to school closures which led much more public recognition of the essential caretaking role schools and teachers play in. This is especially true for teachers because younger students struggle to learn from home, especially when their parents are not available to help them. This let us to multiply our gratitude for teachers, their skills, and their invaluable role in student well-being.

The pandemic has also shifted who is involved in our children’s education (Quilter-Pinner, & Ambrose, 2020). Although formal learning primarily involves students and teachers, Covid-19 has given parents some extra and daunting but much more active and important roles in their children’s education. In other words, parents are back to being their kids’ teacher again but this time there was one difference because they have literally become a teacher of their kids.

Research suggests that online teaching has helped students learn better and faster within a short time compared to education that takes place in classrooms (Li, & Lalani, 2020). This is especially true for those who have the right technology and internet. Some research has found that students retain 25-60% more material when learning online compared to only 8-10% in a traditional classroom. This is mostly due to the flexibility that it gives students in learning such as learning at their own pace, going back and re-reading, re-watching, and skipping content. These findings, and others, all indicate that the changes the pandemic brought about might be here to stay.

Cons

The pandemic has affected us all globally not only in terms of our social, economic, and political lives, but also emotionally and psychologically (Miller, 2020). For example, Jansen (2020) pointed out that, “Our biggest mistake would be to treat children as cognitive machines that can simply be switched on again after the trauma of Covid-19.” Health experts indicates that students, parents, and teachers might have been going through a great deal of anxiety and stress (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020) and transition back to normal might take longer than expected.

In online learning, learners do not have much choice on the platforms they sign up to use if they want to continue their education. User data and digital footprints are the new oil for companies in terms of marketing (Kerres, 2020), because they are being collected, analyzed and, in some cases, sold to third parties (Prinsloo, Slade, & Khalil, 2019).

In other cases, there is a need for better cyber security as user data can potentially be hacked or leaked (Davey, 2020). Safety and security while in virtual calls has also been an issue due to “bombers” that hack in and display rude or inappropriate messages (Manskar, 2020). The use of online proctoring services has also surged during the pandemic to prevent cheating and academic dishonesty, which raises some serious concerns about student privacy and test anxiety students feel as a result of being surveilled.

Digital divide

With the majority of schools closed due to Covid-19, many emergency remote education approaches have depended on access to the Internet in addition to data and devices to provide continuation of teaching and learning. This shift to online has highlighted the stark digital divide between those who have access to electricity, internet infrastructure, data, and devices and those that do not. For example, as of 2019, only 39.6% of Africans have internet access compared to 87.7% of Europeans and 95% of North Americans (Internet World Stats, 2020). Where there is access, there are further inequalities in bandwidth distribution, data prices, and internet speed, which are further shaped by socio-economic factors of gender, age, employment, educational background, neighborhood and household income (Rohs, & Ganz, 2015).

Similarly, there are also differences in access to laptops, smartphones, feature phones, TV and radios between high-, middle-, and low-income countries and populations within countries. Even when these devices are present in households there are often not enough devices to accommodate the simultaneous educational needs of multiple children, as well as parents, who may need them for remote working.

Inequity and social justice

The digital divide between communities has become more explicit and stronger with Covid-19 than ever before. The material, cultural, and geopolitical inequalities are now clearly visible through the lens of Covid-19. During the epidemic, wealthy people have been able to supply food, safely self-isolate, and purchase cleaning products, yet lower income citizens often have not had access to the same necessities. Many workers in service industries have lost their jobs due to lockdowns and have had no source of income to support their families, while others have put their lives at risk every day because they have had to work outside the home.

This has been pretty much similar for education all over the world. While high-income groups have afforded alternative means to support their kids, including but not limited to buying laptops, faster internet services, and paying for private tutoring, many low- and middle-income populations have had to suffice with whatever learning options that were provided for them. Some children did not even have access to food programs that provided them with some level of basic nourishment.

Gender issues

While shutting down schools and forcing people to do homeschooling were key to slow down the spread of Covid-19, this had some negative effects for others especially adolescent girls and women (Mutavati, Zaman, & Olajide, 2020). Many countries have reported increases in domestic and sexual violence (ibid.). For instance, a study directed in times of Ebola showed that school closures led to increased gender-based violence, teenage pregnancies, child marriage, exploitation and other forms of abuse against adolescent girls (Bandiera et al., 2019). The Global Partnership for Education (2020) warns that “the impact of Covid-19 on adolescent girls is likely to surpass that caused by the Ebola epidemic.”

In addition to domestic and sexual violence, Covid-19 has also disproportionately affected women, particularly mothers and those in care-giver roles. Women had already spent a lot more time, compared to men, in handling domestic tasks such as laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, and taking care of kids (Medina & Lerer, 2020). This imbalance has increased exponentially during the crisis where women’s professional careers have taken the greatest hit (ibid.). What’s more, it was usually mothers who have had to take on the role of teacher in out-of-school learning, women have been asked to take time off their jobs so their husbands could continue working through Covid-19 unimpeded.

Implications

The pandemic has highlighted what skills and competencies are needed to be prepared for a crisis like Covid-19. The need for digital literacy for students, parents and teachers arose as most critical in emergency remote education.

The pandemic has also emphasized the need for educators to become familiar and trained in online pedagogies because of differences in income and constraints between online and in-person learning environments. In low- and middle-income countries, familiarity with how low-tech solutions can be used to support learning is needed for teachers. Thus, as suggested by Koehler and Mishra (2009), the need to redesign the curriculum for technological knowledge in addition to pedagogical and content knowledge was obvious and teacher professional development needs to be expanded to cover this deficiency.

Beyond the skills that are needed to survive a crisis, the pandemic has also shown us many skills that can be carried forward when we return to a new normal. The pandemic has shown the need for a pedagogy of care in addition to integrating digital teaching to their curriculum. Now more than ever before educators are thinking about their learners beyond their roles in the classroom such as the difficulties they may be facing in their personal lives. The pandemic has also reminded us one more time of the need to shift to more student-centered practices and pedagogies that emphasizes the process of learning, student experience, and engagement online.

Another lesson we can learn from this pandemic is that increased parental engagement leads to better learning outcomes. Therefore, governments should better develop programs and provide funding to strengthen the relationship between schools, parents, and their children.

Finally, for those that have been facing injustices prior to Covid-19, the hope is not to return to normal but to use this crisis as an opportunity to fix an education system that was already broken to begin with (Black, 2020).

Shortly, the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects will have lasting outcomes on educators, students, their parents and on whole country, especially on women.

Back to school

Schools returned to 100% in-person education as it was before the Covid-19 in fall 2021. Governments and school districts have taken protective measures in school settings to prevent transmission of the Covid-19 viruses including social distancing, correct use of masks, handwashing, and respiratory protocol.

The outcomes of the education with Covid needs a separate article to discuss. Now, I will briefly touch upon some of the results from most current research on our students’ learning after a year of online education.

Researchers were expecting educational disruptions caused by the pandemic in the form of weakened student learning (Kuhfeld et al., 2020; Hamilton et al., 2020). However, early results of research on student learning yielded mixed results. For example, Renaissance (2021) examined at a large sample of about 3.8 million 1^st through 8^th grade students who had taken their Star assessments in math or reading during the winter of the 2020-2021 school year. They compared students’ scores for those who also took fall 2019 and fall 2020 tests. Overall, they found that students’ scores rose during the first half of the 2020-2021 school year in the amount of what Renaissance (2021) would expect in a non-pandemic school year. In another research, however, Pier et al. (2021) found that California students’ learning during the Covid-19 school year caused them slower academic growth where they lost around 2.6 months in English/Language Arts and 2.5 months in math compared tp regular school years. It seems that we need more and comprehensive research to see how our students’ academic learning are affected by online education.

Qualitative research regarding students’ experiences of online learning revealed that most of the students, regardless of age, want to return to physical schools for their education (Sahin & Matteson, 2021). Younger kids are especially more interested in in-person instruction than older kids do (Sahin & Matteson, 2021). This might stem from the fact that younger students are still children and miss their friends and teachers more for socialization and fun. Similarly, high schoolers are more likely to be in hybrid or online instruction model than younger learners (Henderson et al., 2020). Clearly students missed the physical social interaction and engagement with their friends and teachers instead of being isolated at home a whole year.

References

• Adedoyin, O. B., & Soykan, E. (2020). Covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities. Interactive Learning Environments, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1813180
• Bozkurt, A. et al., (2020). A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. Asian Journal of Distance Education 15(1), 1-126.
• Li, C., & Lalani, F. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/
• Centers for Diesease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020). Coping with stress. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html
• Devercelli, A. (2020). Supporting the youngest learners and their families in the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) response. World Bank. https://blogs.worldbank.org/education/supporting-youngest-learners-and-their-families-covid-19-coronavirus-response
• Henderson, M. B., Peterson, P. E., & West, M. R. (2020). Pandemic parent survey finds perverse pattern: Students are more likely to be attending school in person where covid is spreading more rapidly. Retrieved from https://www.educationnext.org/pandemic-parent-survey-finds-perverse-pattern-students-more-likely-to-be-attending-school-in-person-where-covid-is-spreading-more-rapidly/
• Sahin, A. & Matteson, S. (2021). Impact of online learning and students’ personal factors on students’ NWEA scores. Submitted for publication.   
• Vegas, E., & Winthrop, R. (2020). Beyond reopening schools: How education can emerge stronger than before COVID-19. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/beyond-reopening-schools-how-education-can-emerge-stronger-than-before-covid-19

Education

Articles

Schools are places of learning and development, but they are not free from conflicts. Acts of violence, bullying, and other incidents of conflicts occur at school campuses on a daily basis among students, which then also require teachers, administrations, and parents to get involved. Schools have been closed down due to government-imposed lockdowns because of the spread of the Coronavirus thus temporarily halting traditional bullying. However, cyberbullying still remains as a problem and it has been one of the growing issues among the latest generation of students [1]. An ease of access of smartphones and computers, along with an inadequate amount of widespread education on best Internet safety and social networking portal practices, has caused cyberbullying to also grow among young adults and adults.

Instances of cyberbullying often require principals to get directly involved in order to successfully resolve conflicts. Decisions made by school administrators can affect students’ futures, both psychologically and physically, therefore they should refrain from making poor or biased judgments that can mislead school personnel and students. Even though technology has become a big part of learning and teaching at schools, not all school boards have specific and clear set policies about Internet safety and acceptable online behaviors for students and teachers [2]. After having increased reports and media awareness about bullying and cyberbullying, districts and school boards started to change the nature of school policy on bullying [3].

Cyberbullying is becoming more rampant than traditional bullying since it is far easier to engage [4]. Bullies may also be motivated to act even crueler online than in person since there is much less risk of physical confrontation. Students who cannot physically bully can easily become a cyberbully by using online platforms in order to hurt other’s feelings and damage their reputations [5].

Cyberbullying is a planned type of attack that can be done by individuals or a group of people in a manner similar to that of traditional bullying [6]. Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that usually involves sending hurtful text messages, spreading rumors through social media sites, creating web pages and fake profiles to make fun of people, taking private pictures in bedroom, bathroom, and posting them online. These hurtful and degrading messages can rapidly spread online among friend groups and grades, and can influence how other people perceive a fellow student [7].

Amanda Todd was a teenager in Canada’s British Columbia. She started using social media portals and video chat rooms when she was in 7th grade to meet new people. One of the people she met online successfully convinced her to expose parts of her body on camera. This person then used these photos to blackmail Amanda and began circulating the photos on social media sites. Amanda had to change her school often because of this issue and each time she moved to schools the person who posted her images would go undercover to become her friend. She eventually posted a video online titled “My Story: Struggling, Bullying, Suicide, and Self-harm,” where she used flash cards to talk about her experiences of being blackmailed and bullied. She hanged herself on October 10, 2012 a month after she posted the video.

Less than a week after Amanda’s death, lawmakers announced that they would start a movement seeking to lay the groundwork for a national bullying prevention strategy. Cyberbullying now is an offense under Canada’s Criminal Code. Sharing intimate images of a person without the consent of that person is a crime. Conviction can result in very serious legal consequences including up to 5 years of jail time. All devices used in the offence can be seized, and the perpetrator can be ordered to reimburse the victim for any costs that may accrue from removing the intimate images from the Internet or elsewhere.

School boards and administrators have to create safe and collaborative learning environments while developing strategies to prevent harmful behaviors and violence among students. Policy requirements are very general and do not provide specific guidance to school administrators. Most policies developed by school boards focus on general information, student code of conduct, and reactive consequences such as expulsion or suspension. Not enough effort has been put out in order to develop policies that work to prevent cyberbullying from happening in the first place. Developing comprehensive prevention and intervention strategies for cyberbullying is a key factor for effective school policies. To date, there are not enough holistic efforts provided to educate students and parents about Internet safety and Digital Citizenship expectations. 

Parents should be aware of what is going on the social networking platforms. There exists a large gap of knowledge, comprehension, and understanding in between the current generation and their parents regarding the Internet and its many different social networks. Most parents have no idea how and for what purposes their kids use their cell phones and electronic devices and have even less of an idea to check their children’s device usage. Parents should pay attention to their kid’s online activities and check the websites or applications that they use on their phones or computers [8]. It is recommended that parents also attend at least one training session about Internet Safety and Social Media Portal Usage, either onsite or online, provided by the school district. To be able to do it, schools need to train the parents by providing presentations, videos, or inviting speakers throughout the year and encourage parents to attend school-wide assemblies or take short online courses on a yearly basis. After completing the course or attending the presentation, schools must present the Certification of Completion to each participant. Notices should follow throughout the year to provide continuous support to parents. Maintaining attendance records will help school administrators to follow up and identify the prevalence of cyberbullying issues among the children of those parents that did attend and compare that data with the data of students whose parents did not attend. To encourage other parents, comments and reflections of participated parents should be posted on school website, bulletin boards, and parent letters.

The most effective prevention and intervention program involves educating our students through a set curriculum on Internet safety and digital citizenship [9]. A digital citizen is someone that is literate and up-to-date on proper Internet usage and best practices. Many students believe that it is almost impossible to prevent cyberbullying due to how easy it is to perpetuate it, however students need more knowledge of available strategies and resources. Digital Citizenship programs should be implemented in all schools within each district and should be covered from kindergarten to senior years as a mandatory semester or yearlong course. Educating our students from an early age will help prevent, or at least diminish, cyberbullying problems as they move on to upper grades. As a part of the program, districts should organize annual competitions about anti-cyberbullying, discussions, and informative panels to students through ongoing assemblies. Districts should establish a good partnership with local law enforcement departments and agencies to set educational programs with them, including special guest speakers about anti-cyberbullying issues.

 On the other side, schools should send educational flyers about these programs to student’s homes. Computer teachers and IT departments should communicate the expectations and proper usages of technology with students and teachers. To be able to have a district-wide effort, all teachers should include same digital citizenship expectations in their syllabus, which needs to be signed by parents. Since there has to be a holistic effort to implement this program successfully, communities and media outlets should be included in these programs. School districts should contact local and national media to have a story about the program and its efficiency [10].

All of these aforementioned efforts will help prevent cyberbullying at a certain point. Government should use their influence, similar to ways that Canada has, to discourage cyberbullying and other malicious behavior online. Social media companies should develop policies and procedures that protect or remove private information from social networks in cases of cyberbullying or content that has been posted without consent [11].

There should be an international consensus among countries to protect online human rights, which will require social networking companies to create universal standards for all age groups of users, since cyberbullying is a global issue. Governmental agencies should collaborate with social networking companies to prepare educational flyers and posters regarding how users can modify their privacy policies, along with cyberbullying prevention techniques, and send them to homes and schools to be posted on bulletin boards and lobbies, along with a list of the most famous applications used among students. 

References

1. Raskauskas, J. & Stoltz, A. D. (2007). Involvement in traditional and electronic bullying among adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 43, 564-575.
2. Nosworthy, N., & Rinaldi, C. (2012). A Review of School Board Cyberbullying Policies in Alberta. Alberta Journal Of Educational Research, 58(4), 509-525.
3. Samara, M., & Smith, P. K. (2008). How Schools Tackle Bullying, and the Use of Whole School Policies: Changes over the Last Decade. Educational Psychology, 28(6), 663 -676.
4. Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2009). Bullying beyond the schoolyard: Preventing and responding to cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

5. Simmons, K. D., & Bynum, Y. P. (2014). Cyberbullying: Six Things Administrators Can Do. Education, 134(4), 452-456.
6. Werner, N. E., Bumpus, M. F., & Rock, D. (2010). Involvement in internet aggression during early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(6), 607-619. doi:10.1007/s10964-009-9419-7
7. Shariff, S. & Churchill, A. H. (2010). Truths and myths about cyberbullying: International perspectives on stakeholder responsibility and children’s safety. New York: Peter Lang.
8. Patchin,J.W & Hinduja, S. (2012). Cyberbullying: An update and synthesis of the research.In J.W.Patchin & s. Hinduja (Eds.) Cyberbullying Prevention and response: Expert Perspectives (pp.13-35). New York:Routledge.
9. Patchin,J.W & Hinduja, S. (2012). Cyberbullying: An update and synthesis of the research.In J.W.Patchin & s. Hinduja (Eds.) Cyberbullying Prevention and response: Expert Perspectives (pp.13-35). New York:Routledge.
10. Simmons, K. D., & Bynum, Y. P. (2014). Cyberbullying: Six Things Administrators Can Do. Education, 134(4), 452-456.
11. Representative for Children and Youth (2015). Cyberbullying: Empowering children and youth to be safe online and responsible digital citizenship. https://www.rcybc.ca/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/reports_publications/rcy_cyberbullying-web.pdf

In her book titled Limitless Mind, Professor Jo Boaler discusses six keys of learning to create opportunities for students, adults, and workers to excel in areas they want to. This article will summarize one of the points in the first key: The Problems of Giftedness. She has conducted sixty-two interviews in six different countries with people from different walks of life. Dr. Boaler developed her “The Limitless Approach” to learning and education. The core principle of this approach is that anybody can learn any subject as long as they think positively about their talents and abilities, and put in a lot of effort and practice.

In her interviews, Dr. Boaler met people that had a wide array of myths and psychological pitfalls that prevented them from accomplishing their goals. The interviewees came from all walks of life and indicated that they gave up studying subjects that they loved including math, science, and English. They believed that they lacked the right mind for these fields, or that they were incapable of learning them, because they struggled in learning them. They also gave up on all math related subjects, such as engineering, science, and technology.

To address these problems, Dr. Boaler had collaborated with brain scientists to learn more about the brain and how we learn in order to help teachers, students, and parents in their subject learning. There is a common misconception among subject fields, especially math, where many children grow up believing that they either are a math person or are not. This is partially due to math anxiety that is widespread in the US and the world. This has become a major hinderance in millions’ mathematics learning. For example, according to one of Dr. Boaler’s studies 48% of young adults working in a work-apprentice program and 50% of students taking introductory math courses (cited in Boaler 2019) have math anxiety. Boaler claims that this might be affecting half of the population.

The idea that people are born with fixed learning abilities is a false misconception and is similar to the misconception that some of society’s highest achievers are successful simply because of their genetics. The idea that our brains are “fixed”, and that we are naturally predisposed to be good or bad at different subjects or activities, is a myth. Research in the last decade has revealed that our brains are incredibly adaptable. Our brains change and reorganize each time we learn something new. These discoveries are all thanks to the research on brain plasticity—neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticitiy was first discovered in the early 20^th century by Anders Ericsson, a Swedish-born psychologist, and is one of the pioneers who became aware of the brain’s amazing ability to grow and change.

He designed a study to investigate the limits of people’s ability to memorize a random string of digits. He showed that people could improve their ability to memorize with a study that he published in 1929. He chose an average person—Steve—who happened to be an athlete. He started working with the researchers to memorize digits. His performance was average and he memorized seven numbers in the first day. Steve spent four more days to memorize only nine numbers. Although Ericsson and his research team thought he reached his limit, something remarkable happened: Steve continued to improve and then memorized ten numbers. He did not stop and regularly improved until he had successfully memorized eighty-two random digits. He was just an average college student that had unlocked his learning potential to accomplish a very unique challenge.

Later, Ericsson tried the same study with another average college student, Renee. She started better and learned twenty digits without any trainings. Then, she received fifty hours of training but did not improve at all. She eventually quit the study. This intrigued Ericsson and inspired him to find out what caused Steve to succeed and Renee to fail. Ericsson realized that Steve’s love for running had made him more competitive and motivated to succeed. Steve also developed a new strategy each time he struggled memorizing new digits such as grouping numbers into four four-digit strings.

One of the main takeaways from Steve’s example is that it is smart to develop a new strategy or approach when you encounter a roadblock. Dr. Boaler does not say this is easy and explains it by reminding us why so many people fail to make changes in the time of struggles or running into barriers.

Ericsson repeated his experiment one more time to support his claims from the previous studies. He chose another runner named Dario. Dario was more successful than Steve in memorizing numbers. He remembered more than one hundred numbers. This was not because of Dario’s genetics, but instead because he put in lots of effort and hard work. The idea of genetic ability is both incorrect and damaging as we see today in our education systems where fixed-ability thinking controls and designs our children’s education.

Growth and fixed mindsets

Carol Dweck is a professor at Stanford and her research revealed that how we think about our talents has a huge impact on our potential (Dweck 2006). To Dweck, there are two groups of mindsets. The first one is called “growth mindset.” People with this mindset believe that they can learn anything as long as they put in enough effort. The second group has a fixed mindset. People with this mindset believe that their intelligence is more or less fixed and they cannot learn everything. For example, they might believe that they are not a math person so they cannot learn math.

In one of the studies conducted at Columbia University, Dr. Dweck and her colleagues found that stereotyping is still alive and affecting student’s lives. Young female students were given the message that they did not belong in math discipline. Later, they found that this message stuck only with those with a fixed mindset. These people heard the message that math was not for women and they dropped out. However, students with a growth mindset, who believed that anyone can learn anything, remained firm and completed their programs.

We learn a lot of crucial information about the importance of self-beliefs and the role of teachers and parents in influencing students’ lives. But we still receive widespread message containing fixed mindsets and giftedness.

Dr. Boaler underlines the damage of incorrect usage of praises such as “you are smart” or “you are a genius,” coming from parents or others who regularly praise their children by telling them how smart they are in order to build up their self-confidence. Children that only rely on their genius and are not truly taught the value of hard work may face severe obstacles in life later on if they start struggling. Instead, Boaler recommends us to use some alternatives such as, “You can divide fractions? That is great that you have learned how to do that, you must have worked really hard.”

The downside of gifted & talented program in schools

Fixed-brain mindsets have consequences on the vast majority of the population but can also negatively harm society’s most intelligent children, most of which are often labeled as “gifted”. Dr. Boaler explored its negative effects with a film she produced with her youcubed.org team including Sophie Constantinou from Citizen Film. She recruited twelve Stanford students who had the experiences of being labeled as “gifted.” The students were asked to reflect upon their experiences of the labeling. They all gave the same message—they received some advantages but at some costs. They felt the pressure of the label all the time such that they could not ask any questions when they struggled understanding a topic. The students indicated that they had to hide any challenges in order people not to think they do not have a gift. One of the students summarized the burden that came with their gifted labeling as, “If I grew up in a world where no one was labeled as gifted then I would have asked a lot more questions.”

The purpose of classifying some students as gifted is to ensure that high-ability kids are challenged with rigorous and accelerated programs in regular classroom settings. But the problem with this idea is that believing some students are worthy of this program because they have a fixed gift-like present that they had been given as Dr. Boaler points out. Although these students might need special challenging programs, ignoring the rest is not a solution as Dr. Boaler puts it, “the message is that some people are born with something that others cannot achieve” (p. 40).

Another downside of this labeling for the students in Dr. Boaler’s study is that they are not expected to struggle, and when they do it becomes devastating for them. Dr. Boaler shares one of her student’s experiences when she was teaching about research on brain growth and the damage of fixed labels. Her student, Susannah, started talking about her experience of being a gifted student. She had been told frequently that she had a math brain and was very smart. This led her to enroll a math program at UCLA, but things did not go as they were expected to. Susannah took a challenging course in the second year of the program and struggled. She felt that she was not a math person or did not have a math brain after all and ended up dropping out of the program. Unfortunately, Susannah did not know that struggle is a very basic and necessary process for brain growth which could grow the neural pathways she needed to learn more mathematics. If she had known that, Susannah might not had quit and could have graduated with a math major. This is a very real “fixed-ability” scenario that happens every day.

Dr. Boaler does not claim that everyone is born the same. Although everyone has a unique brain at birth, and there are differences between people’s brains, people can change their brain in many ways in terms of achieving things. The proportion of people born with brains so exceptional is literally tiny—less than 0.001 percent of the population. To the contrary of the common belief, Dr. Boaler says, “there is not such thing as a math brain, writing brain, artistic brain, or musical brain” (p 42). That is, we all have to develop the brain pathways to be successful because we all have the potential to learn and achieve at the highest levels as long as we believe that we can succeed and that we are willing to work hard.

Anders Ericsson has studied IQ and hard work for decades and found that people like Einstein, Mozart, Newton and many others are made to be, not born, genius, and their achievements come from extraordinary hard work. This reflects a reality of human condition that “human has only that for which he or she labors” (Qur’an 53:39). Therefore, we need to communicate to all students that they are in a world where growing or evolving is part of everyday life and nothing is fixed about them including gift and/or disability.

In conclusion, the first step towards having a limitless and unlocked life is to know that our brains are given the capacity to constantly reorganize, grow, and change. We need to remember that we are waking up with a changed brain every morning. Our brains are created to make new connections all the time and strengthen older pathways. Once we understand the adaptability of our brains we will start to open our minds and live differently. Then we will not worry about any categorizations we go through at school or work because we know that we have a great growth mindset with which we are enabled to achieve anything we put our minds toward.

References

• Boaler, J. (2019). Limitless mind: Learn, lead, and live without barriers. Harper Collings Publishers.
• Dweck, D. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Penguin Random House LLC, New York.