Just a quick update – my mind has been elsewhere recently but I thought i would let people know that there is hope.
A few days ago i filled in at a school doing some mock interviews for some of the sixth form, 16 and 17 year olds. The idea was to give them experience in a more realistic setting than if one of their teachers had done the interview for them. I went in my suit in an attempt to look professional and businesslike – i probably didnt make it completely but you never know. The interviews were part of a whole day of activities for the young students organised by their teachers.
Anyway, back to the point. I was IMPRESSED… Those young people that I interviewed were brilliant. They had all sorts of personalities, some much more confident than others but they all had something about them. The pretend job that the teacher had prepared for them would not have suited them all but given the right job for them, i am sure I would have given every one of them a job.
It turns out that I was lucky. Through circumstances it turned out that I had got some of the best students in the school but even so, i was still impressed. One of them, i would have been happy to give a job to in the company i work for or at the very least found out a lot more about them with a view to a real job.
So, there is hope. There are young people out there with some very bright ideas, great passion for what they want to do and be, and a bright future. I came out of that school feeling how great it must be to be a teacher to be able to help those young people emerge into the world better prepared than otherwise – a real team effort.
The other side of the story is that a lot of the young students had forgotten about the day or not bothered to turn up – very frustrating for the teachers that had put a lot of hard work into organising it. Being a teacher is not all good news!
And I would have sworn that one of those students was already clearly showing signs of a second stage of awareness in Spiral Dynamics terms. It would be fascinating to get to know them a bit more.
So, how do we as a society nurture the best without losing those who are not so self motivated or gifted? Can we afford a system that caters for all? Can we afford not to have one?
We certainly live in interesting times…
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