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Empowering Digital Citizens

We have partnered with The Social Institute to implement their #WinAtSocial curriculum, a forward-thinking program that equips students to navigate the complex intersection of wellbeing, social media, and technology, empowering them to make positive, healthy, and high-character choices that fuel their health, happiness, and future success.

“The discussions and learning facilitated by The Social Institute will help our students develop the skills and awareness to thrive in a digital world,” says Associate Head of School Don Gibbs.

Using engaging and interactive techniques such as gamification, students will learn the skills they need to navigate their social worlds, both online and offline. The curriculum was introduced to students during orientation, where they completed an initial assessment to give the School a baseline of what social media platforms they are using, what they are seeing on social media channels, and how social media makes them feel.

This baseline data will guide the School as it tailors lessons from The Social Institute’s playbook specifically for freshmen and sophomores. Gibbs and Science Teacher and Form Dean Stephen VanHoesen will lead the underclassmen pilot program. They plan to partner with some of our academic departments and the Sexual Health and Wellness program to incorporate The Social Institute's topical lessons into their offerings.

This comprehensive approach aims to ensure that all students can benefit from this instruction.

“The Social Institute has lessons on a variety of topics — including the upcoming election and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — that we wish to share with relevant school leaders and faculty so they can integrate these essential lessons about social media into their planning,” says VanHoesen.

Co-created by students across the nation, then vetted by hundreds of educators, counselors, and researchers, the more than 100 lessons offered by The Social Institute align with their seven social standards:

  • Play to Your Core: Reflect your values, character, and interests in your online actions 
  • Protect Your Privacy Like You’re Famous: Stay in control of your personal information 
  • Strike a Balance: Balance your time and attention on tech with the people around you 
  • Cyberback: Support each other online and have each other's backs 
  • Find Your Influencers: Surround yourself with positive and credible influences 
  • Use Your Mic for Good: Use social media to create meaningful change 
  • Be Respectful: Respect, celebrate, and embrace others' differences

Our partnership with The Social Institute was initiated by the Social Media and Technology Task Force, chaired by VanHoesen, which was established in response to the national teenage mental health crisis. Experts say that teens are feeling more depressed and anxious than previous generations because they grew up with social media.

“Gen Z was the first generation to get social media in middle school, a time when their brains were still being wired up,” says Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at the NYU Stern School of Business and a leading expert in the field. “This makes their experience very different from millennials, who didn’t start using social media until college, and almost nothing like the childhood Gen X remembers.”

This summer, some members of the faculty read Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. In addition, Haidt’s research and The Social Institute’s Faculty Toolkit have provided valuable resources to support our faculty as they help students navigate their wellbeing, social media, and technology in ways that will fuel their health, happiness, and future success. Parents will also have access to The Social Institute resources, fostering open family conversations about responsible and healthy digital habits.

“I am very pleased that Pomfret has decided to implement The Social Institute curriculum,” says Head of School Tim Richards. “It’s critical that our students learn how to harness the power of social media.”
 

 

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