Thursday, May 30, 2013

better not worse

interesting day... talked to kids today that weren't making the best choices... not horrible kick you out of school choices... just decisions they were better than... I always ask them "what could they have chosen differently?" ...usually they go on a blame rant... and then I say "ok, pretend you are right and they did all that, what could you have done differently that would have made the situation better?" ...eventually... eventually... remember I work with non-self-reflective pre-teens... eventually... they think of something they could have done differently... a moment they made a choice that made it worse not better.

in one of those conversations today, a kid finally said "I could have not yelled at them" ... I affirmed that yelling probably made it worse instead of better... victory is ours. progress.

one of the biggest marks of character... whether it is a kid or grown folk... is the ability to take ownership of your own contribution to the problem.

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