Hi Fred,
This is an excellent skill for young people to work towards. For many years the school I taught at had teams of children involved in Olympics of the Mind, and Destination Imagination. These were creative thinking programs for youth – Kindergarten to College age. They worked in teams of five to seven students over a three to four month period to solve problems and display their results. It took determination to keep going over that period of time, it took determination to complete the project, it took determination to find a way to work together and find a solution. They could compete in competitions with their solutions if they wished – that was the end goal for most teams. All of the ideas, props, and solution parts had to be created and built by the team members. Adults could not participate in providing ideas, solutions or building anything for the students.
Team Managers (coaches) worked with the team on brainstorming ideas, team building, rides to places to purchase supplies, etc., the usual things parents do. What we could do was ask questions or initiate sharing of ideas, using phrases like, “tell me more about that”, “what solutions might other teams come with,” “can someone add to that idea,” “what would be an even better idea than those you expect to see from other teams,” “do you know anyone who could teach you to do that,” (we could teach the students to sew, (but not sew for them), we could teach them to use tools like electric drills and saws (but not do it for them). If they asked to learn something we could help find them a mentor or teacher who they could learn from. One team wanted to learn how to do “fencing” with swords as it was going to be part of a play they were using to demonstrate their final results. There was a teacher in our District who was involved in fencing. He came and brought his equipment and taught them the basic moves, how the swords were weighted, etc. Two of the boys constructed light weight foils and were able to put on a very realistic demonstration..
The teams could only spend $100 or less on the materials they used in their solution. It deveoped so many skills from creative thinking, to resourcefulness, to team work, to researching ideas and information. The children who participated in these programs often became the school leaders, many went on to have interesting careers. One parent resently told me that her daughter had become a drama therapist – when she asked her daughter why she chose this form of psychology the daughter replied, “OM” – the name of the creative thinking program. The young women said how much the program had helped her to learn to work through problems, especially when they added drama to displaying their solution results. We never know when we are going to touch a child’s life, a young person’s future, or perhaps even their career, when they learn the sills of creative thinking and determination.
Hi Maureen,
Thank you for sharing the wonderful example and stories about the success of this program that assisted with learning and practicing determination.
Greatly appreciate this excellent contribution, as always.
Hi Fred,
This is an excellent skill for young people to work towards. For many years the school I taught at had teams of children involved in Olympics of the Mind, and Destination Imagination. These were creative thinking programs for youth – Kindergarten to College age. They worked in teams of five to seven students over a three to four month period to solve problems and display their results. It took determination to keep going over that period of time, it took determination to complete the project, it took determination to find a way to work together and find a solution. They could compete in competitions with their solutions if they wished – that was the end goal for most teams. All of the ideas, props, and solution parts had to be created and built by the team members. Adults could not participate in providing ideas, solutions or building anything for the students.
Team Managers (coaches) worked with the team on brainstorming ideas, team building, rides to places to purchase supplies, etc., the usual things parents do. What we could do was ask questions or initiate sharing of ideas, using phrases like, “tell me more about that”, “what solutions might other teams come with,” “can someone add to that idea,” “what would be an even better idea than those you expect to see from other teams,” “do you know anyone who could teach you to do that,” (we could teach the students to sew, (but not sew for them), we could teach them to use tools like electric drills and saws (but not do it for them). If they asked to learn something we could help find them a mentor or teacher who they could learn from. One team wanted to learn how to do “fencing” with swords as it was going to be part of a play they were using to demonstrate their final results. There was a teacher in our District who was involved in fencing. He came and brought his equipment and taught them the basic moves, how the swords were weighted, etc. Two of the boys constructed light weight foils and were able to put on a very realistic demonstration..
The teams could only spend $100 or less on the materials they used in their solution. It deveoped so many skills from creative thinking, to resourcefulness, to team work, to researching ideas and information. The children who participated in these programs often became the school leaders, many went on to have interesting careers. One parent resently told me that her daughter had become a drama therapist – when she asked her daughter why she chose this form of psychology the daughter replied, “OM” – the name of the creative thinking program. The young women said how much the program had helped her to learn to work through problems, especially when they added drama to displaying their solution results. We never know when we are going to touch a child’s life, a young person’s future, or perhaps even their career, when they learn the sills of creative thinking and determination.
Hi Maureen,
Thank you for sharing the wonderful example and stories about the success of this program that assisted with learning and practicing determination.
Greatly appreciate this excellent contribution, as always.