Stages Global

The 4 pillars of talent development

Maya Liberman — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 10:36:05 +0000

Throughout human history, we have considered talent a gift – something we blessed and born with. Multi-talented people, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, considered extra lucky – but today we know that luck had nothing (or at least, very little) to do with it.

The Stages Academy program proved that multi-disciplinary talent is something every child can develop, using the right exercises or “games” that work on each, and every one of the 4 pillars of talent development:

Imagination

The first pillar of talent development is imagination – the ability to simulate and form objects, experiences and ideas in the mind with no immediate sensory input. It is actually a re-creation of and memories, combined with imagined changes. Imagination is a fundamental part of the learning process as it helps to implement knowledge and apply it to solve problems. It also integrates with the second pillar of talent development, as I will explain next.

Engineering

Engineering is using scientific principles to design and build structures, machines, and items, so it touches every aspect of our lives. It is about problem-solving, but it also requires the ability to think “outside the box” and visualization techniques – which is where imagination comes into play.

Research

Research is working in a creative and systematic way to increase the stock of knowledge about a topic or an issue, including knowledge of humans as a society and individuals, and applying the new-acquired knowledge in new ways.

The process of research includes 3 steps to increase our understanding of a specific topic:

Collection of data to answer a question relevant to the topic.
Organization and sorting out the collected data.
Analysis of the organized data to establish an answer to the question.

Development

Every progress of creating growth, positive change or adding components can be described as development. The purpose of development is to raise the level and quality of something, in a visible and useful way, while creating the conditions for the continuation of that change.

The Stages Academy talent development program

Our method, based on these 4 pillars of talent development combined with polymath thinking, has proven to help students develop multi-disciplinary talent – which enables them to apply skills and techniques from every field to another.

Want to learn more about The Stages Academy program and develop your child’s multi-disciplinary talent?

Join the online course now.

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Transactions make the world go round

Maya Liberman — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 10:45:03 +0000

Understanding economics is essential for knowing how the world works, and to understand economics, one must understand transactions.

A transaction is basically an agreement between person A and person B, to exchange a certain amount of money for goods and services. But the economy includes more steps along the way, which we can explain with 3 foundations:

Tax – When a transaction occurs, the government gets tax out of it. The government then invest the tax money in building infrastructures, which help in the distribution of goods all over the world.
Loans – The bank loans money to businesses to get the money back with interest, businesses use loans for funding research and development of goods and services.
Investments – Investors take risks by giving money for businesses to use for research and development, in return for making a potential profit out of the goods and services they invested in.

Why your child must understand how economics work

Teaching children about economics is no easy task, but it is crucial for them to know these things to understand how the world works and how to face the financial challenges it will throw at them in the (very near) future.

There are many ways to teach your children about economics (except for the boring way of just explaining it to them). The most practical way is by paying them to do chores around the house and teach them how to make a budget and save up for big purchases.

Another highly effective and fun way for children to learn about economics is by playing transaction-related games, whether it’s by playing SimCity, Stardew Valley or some good old-school monopoly.

Either one of those ways, or best of all – a combination of both, will help your children grasp the meaning of economics and learn economic decision making well before they face the challenges of the real world.

Here is a great video from Ray Dalio about how the economic machine works.

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What is your role in your child’s journey to becoming an innovator?

Maya Liberman — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 10:59:17 +0000

Technology is developing at a dazzling pace and the job market is changing alongside it, yet the formal education system is barely crawling behind, and the gap is getting bigger every day. With a strong focus on standardized test results and a never-ending pile of homework, there is too much emphasis on getting the right answers and not enough emphasis on asking thoughtful questions and using their creativity. This creates a situation where developing an innovative mind within the limits of the formal education system becomes almost impossible

At this rate, today’s children will graduate into a world that is very different from what they prepared for. The world needs innovators, and our children need to survive the technological transformation of the future, yet every passing day they are being more discouraged from being innovative and taking risks – so how will they become the next Elon Musk or Steve Jobs? How will they survive in a world where innovation is more than “nice to have” – it is a necessity?

Raising the innovators of the future

Parents all over the world have already acknowledged this problem and took their children’s education into their own hands, in order to prepare them for a future where the best way to survive economically is by becoming innovators.

Almost every innovator in history – Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, even Leonardo De Vinci – had parents, or some sort of parental figure, who encouraged them to think differently, nurtured their creativity and logic skills, and invested time in developing their talents.

As parents of future innovators, we have to take responsibility now for our children’s education and skill-building, to help them focus and accelerate their progress. In order to raise a generation of innovators, we need to evolve into a new kind of parents – the kind of parents who realize their kids’ potential and actually do something about it, not waiting for the school system to improve (by then, it would be too late).

Read here about the skills your child needs to acquire in order to develop an innovator’s mind

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Sim-plify: prepare your child for the real world with simulation games

Maya Liberman — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 11:12:29 +0000

Children learn best when they are playing, and role-playing as someone older, such as a parent, a teacher, or other adult characters helps them to make sense of the world. Simulations provide a playing field to deal with new situations, practice different outcomes, and learn new skills in a safe environment. While some simulation games can teach your child different skills, from managing a budget to flying an aircraft, almost all of them enable your child to practice decision making, strategic and tactical thinking – while having epic amounts of fun!

There are many different simulation games out there, so there really is something for everyone and everything: There are hospital simulators, flight simulators, army simulators such as Call of Duty, city-building simulators (our favorite is SimCity) that teach management and economics, and, of course, life simulators – featuring The Sims as the best franchise in that category. The current version of the game, The Sims 4, also imitates emotions and uses them to affect the whole gameplay experience.

Let’s take a deeper look into The Sims 4 and what, with the right guidance, it can teach your child (and you, too) about the real world:

Household management – your child will explore the abilities and understand the responsibilities of a parent, as they can play different family members simultaneously. They can also develop a sense of responsibility by taking care of their virtual children and pets.

Budget management – your child will have to send their Sims to work and learn how to make a budget in order to pay for their current expenses and save for big purchases – such as a family vacation.

Time management – the Sims, just like us, are mortal. They grow older, they have only 7 days a week and only 24 hours per day – and how they spend that time is up to your child (who also takes into consideration their Sims needs, aspirations, personality, and other factors).

Build relationships – the Sims are social creatures with very straightforward interactions. Your child can easily understand the emotionally-exaggerated reactions they get from other Sims and act accordingly to get their Sims relationships to where they want it to go.

Develop a career – your child will get their Sims promoted and earn more Simoleons as they fulfill their goals and make challenging decisions in their career.

Dealing with different emotions and life situations – every event in the Sims life triggers their emotions in some way, so during the game, they will have different moods that affect their behavior, what they can or can’t do, their reactions, etc. The way your child will work around those moods and emotions in order to accomplish their Sims goals will also teach them a lot about how to handle real-life emotional experiences and how to treat others with empathy and compassion.
Business management – with some expansion packs, your child will also be able to build and manage a business from scratch – including managing virtual employees, inventory, and customer service.

Turn a simulation game into a personal development tool for your child in 4 steps

Step 1: Learn

Learn the game by playing it yourself, explore the different aspects of it, and figure out what your child can learn out of it about the real world (and also make sure it is suitable for their age).

Step 2: Play

Have a gaming session with your child – introduce them to the game, let them play, and explain/demonstrate as needed, make analogies from the real world to help them understand the game.

Step 3: Connect

Talk about the game in your free time and help your child to make connections between the game and situations in the real world.

Step 4: Share

Your child can now continue playing every day as much as they want, with you or on their own (if the game is extremely fun they will want to play for hours – but 60 minutes a day is definitely enough). Talk to them after each gaming session and ask what they learned from the game about the real world – you can even make it a regular conversation topic during family dinners and let all family members share this experience.

Check out The Sims 4 here.

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The 4 pillars of entrepreneurship

Maya Liberman — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 16:58:18 +0000

In today’s reality, entrepreneurship is much more than a buzzword

In the (very) near future, it will also become a necessity

As our world moves rapidly towards artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, what the ATM did to the bank teller is going to happen to many existing jobs that will soon become irrelevant. The economic and moral problems that this AI genesis will create, require a generation of highly talented, technology-oriented young adults. These young adults of the future are today’s children, and their success in the future universal job market relies greatly on talent development and entrepreneurship.

Problem is, the current formal education system is trailing behind technology innovations for various reasons, and will probably not be able to prepare today’s children to be the entrepreneurs of the future. We can already see the gap between what we learned at school as kids and the life skills we actually needed in order to tackle the real world as adults, so it’s quite terrifying to imagine how big this gap would get by 2040.

The solution will not come from the formal education system as it currently is, so how can your child develop the mindset and innovation skills of an entrepreneur? Something clearly needs to be changed, either by remodeling the formal education system or providing them with an external frame of learning. Both require unconventional learning methods that will accelerate the development of skills leading up to the 4 pillars of entrepreneurship:

1. Arts – Using creativity and imagination is the first, easiest and fastest way to learn just about anything – that is why small children start exploring the world around them through play. Arts not only enable children to develop their imagination and creativity but (when used correctly) can also help them learn complicated topics in a fun, non-boring way.
2. Sciences – Understanding “how things work” – which is basically what sciences are all about – is also relevant, and necessary, for the development of technologies. Many entrepreneurial ventures are actually an integration between technology and sciences, such as Bio-tech.
3. Technology – As technology evolves rapidly, more and more businesses start to realize the great, undeniable benefits of replacing human employees with technology, and going through the progress of digital transformation. That is why having a deep understanding of AI, robotics, and automation is crucial to surviving in 2040’s job market.
4. Economics – Finally, a successful entrepreneur must have a deep understanding of economics, since the cost-benefit ratio of every product depends essentially on economical factors.

Developing the entrepreneurs of 2040

The Stages Academy program provides a tested and proven solution for today’s children: by using techniques of Polymath thinking, pattern analysis, and real-time composition, the students apply their knowledge and experiences from one field to the other, which enable them to learn sciences, technology, and economics through arts and games.

That’s right, this means that from a very young age, your child can acquire and develop talents in all four pillars of entrepreneurship, and be ready for the future just in time for 2040. Are you ready to help your child become a successful entrepreneur, and ensure his/her economic future? Sign up for The Stages Academy online program

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Smart human, good human: why smart is not enough

Maya Liberman — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 14:36:40 +0000

Being smart and being a good person have always been considered as great traits to have, and indeed they are – but in order to bring positive change into the world, a person should definitely be both.

Today we will explore why and how do we combine both of these learnable traits, and why it’s so important to do so. But first, let’s dive into what each of them actually means:

What makes a person smart?

The ones we know as smart people are those with great intelligence that allows them to retain information, plan, innovate and solve problems easily and relatively faster than others. Intelligence is what makes humans cognitively able to learn, form concept, understand and apply logic and reason. After thorough research, we broke the concept of intelligence down to 4 main skills that smart people across history all seem to have in common:

Pattern Recognition – The ability to recognize emotional, intellectual or physical patterns, and how they are built and connected.
Pattern Design – The ability to re-design different pattern elements in a systematic order to generate a product, service, or behavior.
Analogy – making the connection between one experience in people’s lives to another.
Real-Time Composition – A fusion of recognizing and designing patterns in order to find a common denominator.

What makes a person good?

Philosophers minds have been occupied by this complicated question for ages, and while there may be many answers to it, we have found these elements of kindness are the most relevant to our daily lives:

Empathy – Having the capacity to understand or feel what others are experiencing from their point of view, the ability to match another’s emotions and being tenderhearted toward another person.
Compassion – Having a desire for taking care of other people and actively help the physical, mental, or emotional pains of another and themselves using kindness, warmth, and care.

Smart is not enough

History had already taught us what can happen when high intelligence does not meet kindness. Without empathy and compassion, a person can be smart, charismatic, even attractive – and yet, also a world-class criminal who’s responsible for a tremendous amount of suffering and pain. Sure, intelligence is an amazing and important thing to have, but intelligence without kindness can be a dangerous weapon.

On the other hand, being non-intelligent can leave a good person feeling frustrated and helpless in front of others’ pain. Always wanting to bring positive change to the world and having no idea how to do it, can be very depressing.

Fortunately, and on the contrary to many people’s belief, intelligence and kindness are not something we are born with – these are actually skills we learn and can teach to others.

This revelation will become very significant in the near future, as the world moves towards artificial intelligence (AI) and when robots are taking over many existing jobs. This technological revolution creates economic, personal, and moral problems that only a generation of highly talented, sensitive and empathic technology-oriented people can handle.

This is the generation of our children, and in order to make sure our children will grow up to be both smart and good humans – we need to evolve the way we educate them. The sooner, the better.

Stages: developing the "smart human, good human" generation

The Stages Academy is an education center with a powerful Research & Development department. focused on raising the next generation: highly talented, smart, innovative and empathic social contributors and techies. Here we combine the necessary knowledge in technology, sciences, and arts, with skills in research and development, and with the essential empathic tools and a work environment that is creative, cool, supportive and fun.

Raise your child to be a smart human, good human with Stages online program

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The best time to homeschool is NOW

Maya Liberman — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 09:47:16 +0000

As they are being forced into 24/7 isolation with their children, getting the hang of what it’s like to be a teacher for the Z Generation – parents all around the world become increasingly aware of the fact that today’s education system does not work for today’s children.

The writing has been on the wall since the beginning of the millennium, but the Corona crisis definitely speeded things up. Now parents and educators are finally realizing what the experts have been saying all along: while the current education system is not very different than what it was like 20 years, even 50 years ago – but today’s children are VASTLY different then what their parents were.

Who are today’s children?

The Generation Z children are fast-thinkers with restless minds and restless thumbs, as they are living and breathing technology and visual stimulators. The low-tech, memorization-based education system just doesn’t cut it for them anymore. The world around them is changing at an alarming pace, there’s so much for them to learn, to do, to experience – they want it all, and they want it NOW, no time to waste!

In a year from now, the world will become more tech-dependent than ever before. Many people will find themselves unemployed and un-needed as technology is being enhanced and extended to meet all of our needs in every area of our lives during the Corona Crisis. We are on the verge of an accelerated global change, and today’s children are already in urgent need for a different approach to their education, so a good question to ask, especially now, would obviously be…

“How am I going to prepare my child for the future?”

Let’s take a look at those who already ahead of this technological revolution. This new successful generation, mostly associated with places like Silicon Valley, is an extraordinary example of adaptation. These bright and brilliant young entrepreneurs are changing the world we live in, using their constantly-increasing knowledge of computer sciences, math and philosophy integrated with high curiosity, ethics, values, and leadership. These are, indeed, talented people – and their cooperation of talents is their secret to success.

The world seeks and richly rewards these talented people – people who can be fast learners in any field, who can be exceptionally creative, innovative, and productive.

You might think that the gift of talent is a matter of “whether you were born with it, or you weren’t” – but the truth is that talent is actually acquired, and we proved it. By researching “geniuses” throughout history, we found there are 4 essential fundamentals at the root of what we call “talent” – All of them are as learnable as the ABC’s.

These are the 4 fundamentals of talent:

Pattern recognition is the ability to recognize emotional, intellectual, or physical patterns and how they are being built and connected. This is the intelligence element of talent. This is what an infant does naturally to mimic a language and behavior.
Pattern design is when the elements of the patterns are taken and connected in a set order to do or create something – whether a behavior, an insight, a product, a service, or behavior. This is the creative part of talent – the breaking of patterns into parts and making new combinations by duplication and change
Analogy means techniques that help people to see the relationship between one pattern and another in their lives. The learner links the new experience to a previous one by saying “this is like…” This technique produces fast learners. Basically, this is what enables us to understand something in one area and apply it to another – such as when a concept in a computer game is adapted to learning.
Real-time composition (RTC) fuses the recognized and designed patterns and finds the common denominator. This is when miracles are happening inside our mind and we produce new ideas.

Training the new generation for the future

When Opher Brayer initiated The Stages Academy program in 2007, more than 2,000 children from various socio-economic groups in the Czech Republic were introduced to the process of acquiring multi-disciplinary talent as well as the Innovators mind.

A research we conducted with hundreds of children between the age of 6-12 have shown that 5-7 minutes of our thoughtfully-designed, talent-building games per day helps children not only to use analogy from one field to the other, but also to enhance their creative thinking, improve their grades at school and even make it easier for them to cope with attention deficit disorders.

All that, alongside developing self-confidence and multidisciplinary talent, will definitely aid them and your children in the future, when machines and AI technologies will take up every job that doesn’t require talent.

Don’t wait for the future – prepare for it!

Stay home, stay healthy, stay safe – but don’t wait for the future to catch your children unprepared for it. Enable them to develop their talent now, while you still have the time to affect the way they learn, think and create, before they go back to school… By then, it might be too late.

Wishing you all best regards,

Opher Brayer, Maya Liberman, and the Stages Team

www.stages.global

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Stages Winter Newsletter 11/2018

Maya Liberman — Sun, 25 Nov 2018 09:00:34 +0000

Dear friends of STAGES,

As the school year already started, we would like to update you with our organization activities

Last summer of 2018, we qualified 20 teachers for their second year teaching, enable more than 500 children to continues exploring their creativity and innovation abilities.

We have also qualified 7 Master Teachers, that will enable to qualify hundreds of teachers in the Czech Republic every year.

Which means that more than 2500 children in the Czech Republic will learn the Stages methodology all over the country. Having so many children participating in our program makes us one of the most dominant and influencing organizations in the Czech Republic!

We had the privilege to have our Prime Minister Mr. Andrej Babiš, visiting one of our schools in Ústí nad Labem, Molekula school, being impressed by the enthusiasm of our teachers Mrs. Ivana Kopřivoví and Mrs. Hana Kořenská (with her class from ZŠ E.Krásnohorské) and their excited students. Prime Minister fully participated with the students, playing musical instruments, drawing and playing Stages game like every student in the class, he was smiling all the time.

We also accepted the invitation of Mr. Plaga, the minister of education, and visited him and his team who were amazed by our results and decided warmly to support the STAGES.

We were also on the economic newspaper Hospodářské Noviny this month. Please press here to read about our activities.

In December 5th, 2018, we will have an event with two of our Master Teachers, Mr. Martin Lana, and Mrs. Zuzana Hladikova, who will give a lecture and workshop for potential teachers in Liberec. If you are planning to implement Stages methodology in your school this year, please contact our project manager, Mrs. Hana Shatner, hana@stages.global, to get a reservation. As this event is dedicated to Liberec teachers only relevant reservations will be accepted.

In the following month, we will open a new Stages class for teachers in Chomutov starting in December 2018. It will contain 80 academic hours divided between one week of an intensive seminar and 6 one-day meetings over the year. The course if limited only for Czech teachers in the public sector.

If you are a principal or a teacher who would like to implement Stages methodology, please contact our project manager Mr. Hana Shatner, hana@stages.global. There are few limited places for this course.

As a nonprofit organization, we are always looking for a financial help. If you are a company CSR representative or you have connections to a company that has the deep understanding the importance of education for creativity and innovation, and by that preparing the young generation for the working world, please contact our organization Chairman, Mrs. Maya Liberman maya@stages.global.

Wishing you all best regards,

Opher Brayer, Maya Liberman, and the Stages Team

www.stages.global

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Certification of first seminar in Usti Region, June 2018

Maya Liberman — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 21:15:55 +0000

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Asia Leadership Conference 2018

Maya Liberman — Thu, 17 May 2018 07:35:07 +0000

Asia Leadership Conference 2018

May 17, 2018
, 7:35 am
, Events

Opher Brayer is participating in the Asia Leadership Conference 2018, presenting Stages project to the Korean and International audience. We would like to thank Mr. Derik Kim CEO & Chairman of Global Entrepreneurs Foundation (GEF) and Mr. Hyunwoo Lee from ELYSE CONSULTING KOREA for giving us this great opportunity.

At the conference Opher is giving few lectures about Stages concepts and methodologis: Building Innovative Ecosystem, 1% Innovative Ecosystem Leader Training Workshop, The Development of Talent in the Forth Industrial Revolution and Stages Workshop with Children. Visit Asia Leadership Website speakers and the timetable.

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