Awaken the Sleeping Student
A Few More of Our Best Interventions to Motivate the Motionless
Read
the Mail: Challenge students to manage
the mail-- especially the misleading ads, contests and official-looking
documents you receive. Ask students to determine how to respond to each
item. When they flounder, remind them that school can give them the skills
they need.
Are
You Ready for Life in the Adult Lane? Ask
the students to manage a really bad day in an adult's life including reading
a map to navigate a detour, balancing a checkbook, finding emergency child
care, losing a wallet, and coping with a car breakdown on the way to work.
When students struggle, remind them: education can help.
Poster #7 (shown here, click for details) offers another compelling intervention.
Messages
on the Door: Ask students to manage the
messages they could find on their apartment door. Include items such as
this note from the property manager: "I can't fix the toilet until
you give me $500." Let students know education can help.
Fate
Strikes:Show students
that their plans to always work at a certain factory or be taken care of
by the gang or family, may not go predictably. Have students write slips
of papers with their life path choices on them, then place the slips in
a hat. To experience how these choices can change unexpectedly, students
draw slips then trade their slips for new ones. Follow-up with visits from
people who planned one path but ended up on another.
Can
You Reach Your Dreams? Ask the students
to list all their dreams and goals, then review the list to see how many
of the items require education.
Can
You Make It Through the Weekend? Ask
students to manage a "bad weekend" when the refrigerator breaks,
and taxes and bills must be paid. Have students read actual refrigerator
warranties, write simulated checks or use play money to pay household bills,
and tackle complex IRS tax forms.
Ready
for the Worst? Ask
students to detail how to manage minor to major disasters from finding
low/no cost health care for a burn, to coping with an earthquake or hurricane
that cuts off all accustomed family, gang and community support and resources
Compare
Results: Have students identify the benefits
and drawbacks of finishing school vs. the benefits and drawbacks of quitting.
Poster #4 (shown here, click for details) powerfully hammers home the
point.
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This article is excerpted from the full print newsletter.
Copyright 1993, 2006 by Youth Change. All rights reserved.
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