I’ll interrupt my regularly scheduled bragfest about my kids to mention another young person I wrote an article about several years ago.
As a high school guidance counselor I advised a SPARK Peer Tutoring club. During one of our monthly meetings to discuss service projects, one sophomore, Josh, suggested we start a SPARK program at the middle school.
Although this seemed like a great idea, there were many reasons I did not want to get involved. There was little communication between the staff at the middle school and high school, so I did not have a reliable contact there. And I had no way of personally advising a program in another building. I felt that our high school group was already going out of its way to help as tutors at the middle school and I really did not feel like taking on any more responsibility.
But Josh was not expecting me to deal with any of those issues. He was suggesting a project to the group and several members seemed quite interested. So rather than communicate all the roadblocks, I just removed myself from the lead. Instead, I empowered them to find the answers to their own questions. That’s really all they needed or wanted from me anyway.
Within months, Josh led the group to identify and connect with interested middle school staff. He wrote and received a grant to fund the project, facilitated a training for eighth grade tutors and handed over a well-organized peer tutoring program to the new middle school advisor.
And I never lifted a finger.
How often we assume that the ideas generated by kids are just going to add to our plate. I wonder how many times I’ve shot down suggestions from my own children because I just don’t want more responsibility?
Have a garage sale. Wash the car. Plant a garden. Stain the deck.
All my kids really need is a little rein, and for their mother to not worry so much about the fact it might not work out exactly “right.”
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Tags: *Empowerment, Pass the Torch, Pass the Torch Tuesday, responsibility, SPARK, tutor, tutoring
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