I have now been out of the teaching profession for almost 3 years, but I find it is never far from my mind. Interestingly enough, I still find myself scrounging for or, dare I say, stealing (gasp!) ideas that I think could have tremendous impact on our kids and how we teach them.
One of the failings of the school system in general is it spends an inordinate amount of time ramming stuff down kids throats about how the world works. The problem I always had was that we spent very little time helping them understand and comprehend how they worked.
Knowing how the world works means very little when we can’t can’t figure out how we work in relation to it. It’s like understanding all the nuances of car design yet never teaching people that it requires fuel to make it run.
Stealing ideas from the business world…
One of the things I have encountered over and over again is that outstanding businesses govern their “family” very differently than the average run of the mill business. These companies have carefully crafted missions that each of their employees is encouraged to follow for the simple fact it provides extraordinary richness in facets of their business and personal lives.
If I was to go back into the classroom today I would actually steal that idea. On day one I would give each and every student a carefully crafted manifesto with 13 golden rules that each was expected to live by in my care. It would govern all that they did in my classroom and would always be the focal point of all class discussions, subsequent assignments and personal conduct.
Further, they would be strongly encouraged to utilize the concepts within the context of their own lives as well.
The 13 golden rules…
- Take risks. Playing it safe is for those who strive to lead an average uneventful life. Adventure comes to those who wander out and dare to do what no one else is doing. Check out anything that Richard Branson has done.
- Make mistakes. Success is a process of elimination. It’s a mathematical equation where failures will (in fact they must) out number your successes. Embrace them, learn from them. Listen to Anita Roddick’s story (video) as she discusses the early pitfalls when she first launched The Body Shop.
- Take initiative. Don’t sit around and wait to be told what to do. There are billions of those kind of people. They are called employees. Don’t think like an employee. Instead, create your own instructions.
- Focus on solutions. Most people focus on the problem. Every great business (ie. Fed Ex) is born because some brave soul (Fred Smith) chose to find a solution to a problem the rest simply complained about.
- Produce quality. Few take the time to create amazing work. Many are content with producing something that is good, or worse, very good. Extraordinary achievement comes form those who focus on delivering quality.
- Ask provocative questions. Great ideas originate from great questions.
- Experiment. Test new ideas and see if they work or not. If they don’t, chuck em.
- Take responsibility. The easiest thing to do in life is blame others when things go wrong. Believe that everything is within your control and go about making things right.
- Be different. Fitting in means being like everyone else. Stand out! Do what others are not. Focus on what makes you you and exploit that unique trait.
- Have fun. Smile often. Laugh more.
- Protect others. Stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves.
- Do the right thing. Just because it is best for you doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do. The cashier who mistakenly gives you back an extra $10 will probably have to cover that lose himself. Sure an extra 10 bucks is nice to have, but it comes with a cost to someone else.
- Think win-win. Win-lose or lose-win benefits no one. Find ways to ensure all parties are happy with the outcome.
This of course would not be the end to my assignment. The last 7 would be completed by the kid. They need to be part of this process as well and encouraged to add their own ideas.
14. ?
15. ?
16. ?
17. ?
18. ?
19. ?
20. ?
Once complete, I would laminate each one and require that it be with them at all times. It would be reviewed daily and referred to whenever possible, whether it correlated to something from a novel like Huckleberry Finn, or it resonated with a current event that had been tabled for discussion.
So here is my question. If you are a parent, a babysitter, a teacher, a youth leader etc, how could you use this idea to provide more direction to the kids in your life? How would you implement this idea? What would you add to this list?
And take a moment here to just imagine how life might be changed if we quit failing to give our kids purposeful direction.
To an idea worth quitting,
Dean
