Inequality in society has greatly increased the need for supplemental education opportunities. Children who grow up in certain areas often don’t have the materials they need to thrive in school. Worse, many adults or older generations may dismiss children as not having an opinion that matters. Big Thought aims to change this.
Big Thought is a nonprofit that specializes in providing youth with the resources they need in order to catch up with other children their age. It was created in 1987 by two people and slowly grew into what it is today. During a time when school boards considered removing the arts from schools, they embraced the arts and vowed to give every child the all-around education they needed. BigThought does more than just teach school subjects, though. They also pride themselves in helping kids improve their social and behavior skills to better interact with the world around them. In addition, helpers tend to the children’s emotional needs and make the child feel like they are being understood.
In many schools, the teacher cannot focus on every student individually. Therefore they must resort to teaching the class as a whole. At Big Thought, the helpers strive to get every child the specific help they need. Big Thought is also able to aid in the juvenile justice system. They can rehabilitate children who need a bit more attention and prevent them from ending up in worse situations. Big Thought also encourages children to question everything in the world around them. By giving kids this creative outlet, Big Thought wishes to create unique individuals that are set up to thrive in life.
This nonprofit creates and runs all of their own programs. Through experimental trial and error, they have found a system that works. They use a hands-on approach so that children can get the full experience. Instruction is constantly evolving and uses the most modern and up to date technology. In 2019, Big Thought reported their statistics involving the children. Among participants, 48% improved their math grades, and an impressive 87% of students had a better behavioral report. In addition, 49% upped their reading and writing skills, while 48% reported a positive change in social and emotional skills.
Big Thought has found through their studies that several children who need their program have previously experienced some form of trauma. They also found that the average child or teen has an overall average of about fourteen different traumatic events happen throughout their life, and 93% of children and teens have at least one traumatic event in their memory.
Big Thought aims to pave the way to success through their curriculum tailored to children who have had a rough start. This program provides unique insight into the mind of a traumatized child and shows what helps to change their life for the better.