Search Institute

I was in Dallas last week speaking at a statewide Safe and Drug-free Schools conference. I had two days of work: on Thursday I worked with about 100 youth and then on Friday I helped the youth present to the adults at the conference and delivered the keynote. They were two very full days but utterly pleasurable as well.

Working with the students was the highlight. We spent the day working on some critical questions. We focused on how they wanted to work in their schools to provide a wider definition of "safety" than just violence or other issues of school-readiness. They instead focused on issues such as equality, personal boundaries, justice, and the ability to "just be me" at school. It was an awesome discussion.

We opened our time together by working on this question:

Their answers were fantastic. They portrayed a school where people, adults and students alike, were respectful to each other and engaged in learning. They wanted schools where popularity wasn't so important and religious and socio-economic issues weren't so pervasive. Their image of a perfect school was both inspiring and also readily available by heightening the experience of adults and youth working together towards a common vision.

The session ended with them presenting to the adults their own visions and actions towards creating this reality. The adults were completely engaged in their presentation and we were all reminded of the power of asking young people good questions instead of always focusing on giving them the right answers.