Thursday, May 17, 2012

We All Need A Boost Up Now And Then

I have a challenge for you. Go ahead, try and go a week, three days or even a day without giving or getting a boost up! I am willing to bet you cannot do it. Why would you want to?


I spend a lot of time in front of this computer, reading, writing, calling, learning and listening to talk radio. The other day, I heard an ad for boostup.org. They were giving statistics from The Alliance for Excellent Education about young people dropping out of school. There is a map on the boostup website broken down by state. Fascinating information! I suggest you check out to see how your state is doing. Folks, as a nation, you probably already know, we are not doing very well with graduating our young people from high school.


They give you a list of facts about why students are dropping out. They tell you a few student stories. They tell you how you can take action to do your part by mentoring a single student to volunteering at a school to getting involved in a parent teacher group. And more ...


One suggestion they give which I really like is they suggest the schools bring in a guest speaker or performer! Well, sign me up! I have so many stories of the reactions, administrators, teachers and students have given me after a day in his or her school. I discuss many of them in my book, I Still Believe in Tomorrow


Often times, the reaction is something like, "Your program was much more than I expected." "You give me a new sense of hope." "This was much different than the last person we had." "This was the best program we've ever had." "I didn't want you to stop." 


Then, there are the emails I receive! You would not believe some of them. I receive notes from young people, and adults, who tell me things they have never told anyone! They trust me. They trust me because I speak the truth in my presentations. Do people trust you?


If you are an adult dealing with young people and want to help, give them a boost up however you can. If you are a young person, do the same with your peers.


As always, I look forward to your comments.


Later,


Mike

3 comments:

Earl said...

This post IS a boost up for me! Thanks.

Unknown said...

Thanks, Earl. Then, I'm glad I posted it!

Tammy said...

I don't know why you wouldn't want to either. It happens to bring as much or more of the needed chemical reaction that we all strive to attain however it can be attained.

I believe that young people in our world, right now, have been beaten down by words so often that if you don't give them a boost up, they will stay where they are and be one of the many statistics.