At Bright Lights, we treat children as they are — gifts from God on journeys to become adults. What we do not do is treat anyone as if they were only as valuable as an arbitrary test score or percentile.

We don’t forget that every child is unique, that every child learns in their own way, that every child displays knowledge in their own way, and that every child will become their own adult self, capable of achieving their individual goals.

Although tests can capture important information about the individual that is tested, they ought to serve as supplementary data points, and they ought not to be the main concern of a system of education.

When a heavy emphasis is placed on test scores within an educational system, the natural tendency of such a system is to lose sight of the fact that our children are not numbers or standard deviations.

At Bright Lights, we remember what we are responsible for safeguarding and developing. That is why we make our decisions, develop our plans, and craft our responses in ways that encourage children enrolled in our program to develop their character, confidence, and competence. At Bright Lights, we remember that anyone enrolled in our program is a child, not a statistic.

Doctors are charged with important responsibilities. Their patients come to them, more often than not, with some sort of ailment, with something that is wrong. More often than not, the natural reaction of anyone who is attempting to fix something, like a sick patient, is to act immediately. If something is wrong, something must be done, acted upon, to fix the problem. Very often, a quick action is justified. But most doctors don’t rush to decisions. Most doctors take a different approach because they are governed by a principle that ensures they act in the best interest of their patients. The principle they are governed by is this: First, do no harm.

This principle serves as a guide for doctors to ensure they carefully consider every repercussion of their decisions and actions. This principle protects doctors from acting in ways that cause unforeseen side-effects, and it enables them to make the best decisions for their patients.

At Bright Lights, we believe this principle is equally as pertinent to the tutoring and development of a child as it is for the care of a patient. Under our program, our tutors make every decision, design every activity, organize every field trip, weigh every behavioral correction, and put forth every instance of praise with the intent of deliberately limiting the physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and psychological harm to the child. We limit physical harm by ensuring our program is conducted in safe environments; we limit psychological harm by treating every child with respect and compassion; and we limit intellectual harm by exposing children to concepts when they are developmentally ready to explore them, not before. By aiming to limit all forms of harm, both in acts of omission and commission, to every aspect of the child, our tutors are able to create a truly balanced, effective, and holistic system of learning for our children.

Learning at every level requires the learner to take risks. The severity of the risk varies depending on the particular skill or concept being learned, but, in the end, risks are taken in every instance of learning.

Consider a baby learning how to crawl. The baby transitions from living safely on its back, having all of its needs taken care of by someone else, to, one day, for reasons both known and unknown, attempting to crawl. The baby immediately puts itself at risk of bumping its head, of rolling onto something that can hurt it, of falling off a bed, etc. All of this is risky, but the baby calculates that the risk to reward ratio favors the reward. Transitioning from a dependent baby to one who can move on its own garnishes the praise of its parents, introduces the excitement of exploration, and satisfies some innate drive to move in a greater capacity. The risk, to the baby, is worth it.

Imagine if the parent were to step in and prevent this risky behavior from occurring. In all likelihood, the child would not only never learn the skill of crawling, but the child would then be harmed, developmentally, in a host of unintended ways. Parents inherently know this. But they also inherently know the dangers of the child’s pursuit of crawling. So, what do good parents do in such situations? Good parents encourage risk-taking behavior, but, simultaneously, mitigate and eliminate any unnecessary hazards. After all, whether parents explicitly express it or not, parents inherently understand the crucial difference between risk, which is invaluable, and hazard, which is unnecessary and dangerous.

When the child begins to crawl, the parent moves sharp objects, secures heavy furniture that might fall, and cautions everyone walking around the crawling baby to watch their step. Parents encourage calculated risks and create conditions low in hazards.

Parents do this as well when the child seeks to learn how to walk, except, since the act of walking is even riskier than crawling, the hazard mitigation process is proportionately more complex. Mitigating risks for the skill of walking requires parents to scaffold the skill in an effort to remove excess hazards. Parents hold the child’s hands, they sometimes catch the child when he or she falls, and they encourage the child when they get hurt in the risky attempt at learning how to walk, thus mitigating the psychological harm of fear and doubt.

All of this is done because parents inherently know this principle is true: Good learning requires moderate risk with low hazard. In many educational settings, however, this fact, this principle of learning, seems to be forgotten. Playgrounds are becoming smaller, time outdoors is becoming infrequent, and adventure is becoming a concept of days long past because many people consider risk and hazard as one and the same. This, in our opinion, is a mistake made with good but misguided intentions. Although it is difficult to watch a child struggle to learn something, it is essential to every aspect of their physical, social, intellectual, emotional, and psychological development.

We remember what it takes to learn at Bright Lights, and that’s why we create an atmosphere with conditions that encourage moderate risk while maintaining a safe environment. We encourage outdoor play, where a child learns how to use their body and develop their muscles. We encourage children to learn new skills and employ new concepts. We place a heavy emphasis on field trips in which students learn about the surrounding community. Throughout each activity, though, we are intentional in our efforts to keep hazards low.

For physical hazards, we ensure every environment is free from unnecessary dangers such as litter or broken equipment. We allow children to climb, but not to heights that would cause serious harm if they were to fall. For psychological hazards, we ensure that all children are treated with respect by both adults and children alike. Bullying and hostile demeanors are not tolerated in our program because they cause harm to the psychological well-being of both the bully and the bullied alike. As such, we treat bullying and disrespect as the psychological hazard that it is. For social and emotional hazards, we ensure that any concept that is discussed or taught is done so in a way that is appropriate for the developmental level of the child.

An environment that simultaneously appreciates risks for their merits and reduces hazards for their detrimental effects is one of the healthiest learning environments to develop. At Bright Lights, we know this, and we treat this fact with the respect it deserves. We treat it as the key to learning.

At Bright Lights, we believe a good relationship between parents and tutors is essential in the proper development of any child enrolled in our program. We believe we are building the foundational structure of our children’s lives, and, because of this, we believe the principles and values of both parties working to influence such a foundation must be aligned.

Consider building the foundation of a house with a partner. Assuming you both agree on what the house should look like at the conclusion of its construction, you set out at designing and calculating the necessary measurements to build that which the house will rest on — the foundation. Along the way, you discover that your partner whole-heartedly believes and insists that two plus two equals five, while you maintain that two plus two equals four. Imagine that you keep building this foundation together with one of you operating, measuring, and building using different standards of measurement. The agreed upon vision of the house would never be realized. The foundation would crumble due to your contradicting numerical values.

The same can be said for the foundation of a child’s development. Ideally, all parties that are involved in the construction of the child’s foundational years should hold the same major principles and values or the foundation that becomes the child’s psyche and world view will be out of balance and full of contradictions. This inherently creates unnecessary and unhealthy conflict within the mind of the child. Minor differences in how some things should be done are acceptable in the grand scope of things, but major values and principles must be aligned or the foundation that will become the child’s psyche will be unstable.

At Bright Lights, we believe that God is good, that life is good, that respect for others and those that have lived before us is good, that manners are important, and that teaching children to use “sir” and “ma’am” appropriately is a cultural convention that promotes a healthy society. We believe that behaviors that are traditionally labeled as admirable should be encouraged in our children, and that behaviors and ideas that are destructive should be discouraged. We believe every child is on a path to become his or her own hero, and that it is the responsibility of those guiding the child to do so in a manner that enables him or her to become someone of good character, of healthy confidence, and of great competence. To us, a foundation set with such qualities is worth striving for.