I attend various high school assemblies during any school year as a part of my mentoring and in years past when I was a faculty member of high schools in 3 different independent school districts. The assembly “success” stories to put before our teens seem disproportionally to be reformed thugs, teen tragedies, or people in recovery from a myriad of things from low self-esteem to drugs.  It seems we are telling teens we expect you to GO BAD so here is what you need to know when you do, plants the wrong idea for the route to success.

Success is conditional based on what spirit to which a teen surrenders, not to circumstances. I am wondering; however; can teens not get positive direction from someone who succeeds without first being a thug? addicted to something?  The answer is yes.   There is value in being inspired to look at your own life with greater “eyes of potential” because you see another’s struggle to succeed against supposedly greater odds than you have, but I am not sure it is all that valuable year after year as I am growing up and figuring out my direction as a teen to have those examples put before me as the more laudable than what I might offer from my life.  Remember, what you put on a stage in front of the high school student body become laudable positively or negatively.  All that attention is not lost on kids.

High school students tend to get numbed to being manipulated by “how awful it is for someone else.” In a teen’s eye, his or her obstacle is greater or different or more hopeless or tough than the “superhero” story from the assembly stage. Teens, often think they are limited by something but not something dramatic enough to mention in light of these super struggles paraded before them. Regular teen frustrations – am I  cute enough, smart enough, cool enough, rich enough, popular enough, etc. pale by comparison; but those regular struggles are more real to the teen and have the potential to encourage the teen to get “aberrant” fixes for any lack. Hey, you were a teen!  Remember what you did cause the other kids thought it was cool!

Is it possible that a frustrated teen mind might come away from a “reformed now good” assembly presentation to think that if one is an addict or thug it is not so bad; it turns out ok in the long run.  To GO BAD, is not so bad because one can always GO GOOD and be heralded even more highly than if never GONE BAD first.  A false premise the naive logic does not understand is that there is not always an opportunity on this earth to GO GOOD after GONE BAD; the healthier idea (opposite what we just saw on the stage) is to not be a thug, addict, etc. in the first place.

Where are the high school assemblies lauding the choice of not GOING BAD in the first place? Yeah, there are some sprinkled in here and there but the “emotion packed,” “see how I have recovered,” or “I am still in jail but now I see the error of my ways” ones are far too prevalent.  Are the reformed person assemblies working?  Are we seeing less teen violence? less teen pregnancies?  less gang membership?  Answer: No.  Google for any aberrant behavior to which you are inclined to verify statistics; they are all up and down given a particular year; historically, mostly up. If a one-shot, emotional wrenching to a “superhero” standard presented at an assembly could do it, that is, fix the problem of failure, teen violence and other aberrant behaviors, the statistics on such behaviors would be going down, not up  Quick fixes are not germane to the high character, personal leadership developmental process.

Instead of an assembly to get the kids emotional or scare them into to GOING GOOD, why not a continual mentoring that says to each student that there is a positive plan for your life and you have been perfectly equipped for it regardless of current circumstances.  Get the drift?

Think, Adult!  Think, company community involvement officer!
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Imagine the learning that might go on 45 minutes, 2 times a month mentoring toward positive futures rather than an assembly that offers one-shot emotionalism and one or two class discussions – usually to be sure the “shock” set in.  When not in emotional throes, kids can think just like adults can think in the same circumstances. (Granted, some adults never get there … that is another story.)

America’s youth tuned to positive pursuits that in turn keep the freedom bell ringing take time and effort, the two things adults say they don’t have in abundance. The truth of the need does not change simply because you cannot manifest time or energy for it in your life or your work day. Do you hear that company leader who seeks greater Corporate Social Responsibility strategies? Let your people go; let your people volunteer on company time and watch the pay off and pay back in the community(ies) you serve!

Succeeding is not “all bout me”; it is all about following the positive plan and purpose for my life that in turn encourages others to do the same; then, helping others see their innate, designed worth in order that they, too, can follow individual success paths.

Leadership to positive futures is personal before it can ever be positional to serve the greater good. (Note the wording of the previous sentence.  Thugs become leaders of gangs, too.  Leadership can GO GOOD or GO BAD.  It is about the unseen motivation embedded in each heart related to each heart’s surrender to one spirit or the other.)

Do kids appreciate or “receive” a positive rather than dramatically “GONE BAD-then- reformed” message and act on it? Yes,  Do not take my word for it; hear them tell you at: www.talkgroups-mentors.org.