Yesterday BELTRAIDE and the Small Business Development Centre launched a workshop focused on women entrepreneurs. Last week and almost every week there are many opportunities for women to advance themselves with sponsored trainings. That is great. That is excellent. I whole heartedly support these worthy initiatives. But I fear that not enough is being done to groom young men for success in the same way. And when there are the occasional outreach to young men- do we know how to teach and inspire them effectively?
At the center of a person’s education, especially a young boy’s, should be a sense of purpose, says Frank Lazarek. Without it, future generations will emerge directionless.
Frank Lazarek works in the only all-boys school in the state of Washington. Four hundred and seventy boys weave themselves through the halls in the quest for a promising future.
Much of the talk in educational circles of late has concerned the financial, the political and, for the most part, the theoretical. Yet, there is no better way to define education than with the word “purpose.”
As a professional educator, Frank says it has always been about purpose for him. We can talk about educational reforms all we want, but what has been lost, particularly with the young men, is a clearly defined sense of purpose. We need to invite purpose back into the classroom and into their lives for young men to reclaim. And for young men who have dropped from the school system we must reach them through trainings, through sports, through whatever medium we can and assist them in defining their sense of purpose.
According to Frank, he has assisted in the development of a four-pronged model to aid male students: the spiritual, the academic, the physical and the social. These areas comprise the necessities in developing a sense of purpose.
In dealing with young men, educators and mentors must understand how the development of their brains factors into decisions they make.
Think about it: Many years back, the role of the male in the family was to go out, kill something, bring it back and provide for his family. Older, more-experienced hunters taught the young.
Nowadays this is not the case. Apprenticeship, mentoring and positive role modeling have eroded for one reason or another.
Our young males are crying out for direction. Sadly, they are not receiving the direction they so desperately need. Teachers, coaches and others that play a significant role in the development of the male culture cannot dismiss this notion and blame it on lack of resources.
Male students are the future of families in our country. Without a clear sense of purpose now, future generations will be even more directionless. True education is not always about test results and attendance; it is more about the journey, and the development of a young man as he approaches the life ahead of him.
A simple way to begin defining “purpose” is by using a “box” analogy. Without clear parameters, boys are lost. When you place “a boy in a box,” you create boundaries that are freeing, not constrictive. These boundaries making up the sides of the box can include support systems, academics, spiritual well-being, discipline, goals, desires and aspirations.
Boys, regardless of how much they might whine about it, do desire a box for themselves. The educational system cannot lose sight of this.
Isn’t our responsibility as mentors to make sure young people know we have support, guidance, and boundaries especially for them?
Purpose is defined simply as “an intention, an aim, a determination, by design, to put before oneself something to be done or accomplished.” A fulfilling educational experience is one that places this definition at the center of all that it does.
