Ron Rowe
School's back … and with that I continue to be reminded of the end of year prizegiving ceremonies and what they mean to proud parents, grandparents and friends of students who attend to show their support and acknowledge achievements.
One that I attended at the end of last year was brilliantly staged with significant innovation and variation on the often staid prizegiving that some have suffered through.
While each of the addresses and the structure of the evening were first class there was one single and important factor that stood out for me. Rather than only the dux, or top students in any year or any subject, sport, culture, or other important factor being recognised, as they should be, there were more awards given for "endeavour" than anything else.
The byline or caption for the awards for "endeavour" read: Serious determined effort. An attempt, effort, or undertaking. It went on .. The brain is like a muscle, so we celebrate "endeavour" because it exercises the brain through effort, generating successful learning.
At question time of a recent talk I was asked what is the single "stand out" matter, issue, thing that you feel needs to be first in all our thinking and action for our young people.
My answer: Without any doubt whatever, it is "realising potential". Or perhaps "awakening potential", would be more apt. And once awakened to then nurture that.
Why so strong in my unequivocal reply? For like many reading this you and I have seen people whose potential has been able to be fulfilled. And we've see what that can bring to them and to others. We've also seen those with clear and obvious potential whose talents and opportunity is or has been lost to them and to their communities.
From personal experience both in the military and in tertiary teaching I have worked alongside people who have an innate the ability to see awareness of "that something" which a person has that can be brought to the surface and nurtured… People who are capable of so much more… met by those who come along at just the right moment.
What is it that those have who can see and then draw out the latent potentials ..? They provide opportunity and choice…
Very few things worth doing are easy… drawing out potential can be a frustrating yet fulfilling thing to do .. The primary need? Significant tenacity and understanding…
In the book New Zealand's gift to the world, co-authored by Judge Carolyn Henwood and Cambridge writer and editor Stephen Stratford and published by the Henwood Trust, there is celebrated 25 years of the youth justice family group conference as New Zealand's innovative way of resolving youth crime.
Listening to Judge Henwood interviewed on Radio New Zealand on the Sunday programme (at the time of the launch of the book) the comment was made; "if you don't fix the family you don't fix the child".
Clearly that is patently true! Yet, I would respectfully add … "If you don't fix the child, you don't fix the families of the future". Of course, it all begins with the family!
"There is poverty of hope..." Dr Russell Wills, paediatrician and former NZ Children's Commissioner... when speaking of the often seen "hopeless" situation that many young people describe themselves in due mainly to lack of sound nurturing, and societal factors that impinge on those youth getting a break, "to be all that they can be".
"Poverty does not destroy virtue, nor does wealth bestow it." Spanish Proverb
In a recent talk I proposed that however poverty is seen or described it does not of itself need to destroy virtue …... Virtue is always found in the true character of the person ... day to day ... Yet to fully enable a young person's character to be strong and resilient in the face of pressure from peers, family and society their potential to achieve must be nurtured and brought to fruition.
The young people who received "endeavour" awards, and there were quite a few from all years and classes, were not the top, second or third academically.
Through their "endeavour" award I strongly believe that their potential would be awakened such as to enable them to go on to better realise what they have available to them, now, and in their future, and their contribution to our communities.'
When a flower doesn't bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
- Alexander Den Heijer
Ron Rowe is a life fellow of the NZ Institute of Management, a former JP and has more than 50 years of active leadership in community-based and volunteer organisations. He is a governance and strategic adviser and is based in Hawke's Bay. Opinions expressed here are those of the writer and not Hawke's Bay Today