With such great experiences from school, I'm sharing (just one), from today whilst still in today, instead of holding on and waiting for a better time, or "maybe I'll do a video," or whatever. Time to let go of all these stories, and share them. :) Enjoy ~ In school today and feeling much better, being more coherent myself, led to greater coherency in the classroom. Working with 13-14yr olds this week, and today was really a step up. My homeroom class is wonderful for the most part, though there are a few guys that just don't seem to care about anything. Sat in a circle, talking about a game we just played, I was going around asking everyone questions, (just played Survivor in teams, where they had to strategize how they would get off the island alive. When asked questions like "what would you do differently?, would you still take the same supplies from the downed aircraft," etc, when I reached these particular guys, they either repeated what someone else had said, or shrugged their shoulders. A pretty good flow with the rest of the group, when these guys got too loud, I gave them all my attention, rather than kicking them out, getting cross, and/or telling them off. I started to ask questions.
I already knew that these guys weren't interested in school, (asked the question on Monday), and rode with that. I asked them if they actually wanted to learn English, a couple said yes, and the other two said no. Yet curious, of those that said no, I asked them if they have any intention of leaving Austria (let alone the village they live in). Again, they answered no. "So if you didn't have to be in school, what would you do?" I asked. They both said they would work. "Doing what?" I asked. One wanted to work in mechatronics, whilst the other in farming (as per his family tradition). Neither wanted nor felt that they needed school (in a traditional sense), and both said they would apprentice with somebody. In a heartbeat I knew they know themselves, and that this was actually it for them. With that understanding, I felt such a relief. I knew they weren't goofballs, and I as I told them on day one, I knew that they were amazing, they ARE amazing. They also heard the words "You are better than you even know," which I also repeated again today, to all of them.
This repeated itself in my culture workshop with another couple of boys. I asked them the same questions, and got the same answer: they would apprentice (for carpentry and fixing farm equipment). The really neat thing was, that one of the kids from my homeroom class, was also in my culture workshop, and I did smile to myself when he overheard the conversation and came over to translate from English to German, which he wouldn't have the previous two days. From not caring about learning English, the act of paying attention to him changed his demeanor. I didn't even know his English was that good, because he came off as not understanding. ~
So, you know what happened? We finally started speaking the same language, not German, nor English, rather, the language of the heart. Their language. Because I am knowing of everyones' greatness, I just had to dig a little and pull it out of them. True, perhaps they'd want change after a few years, in that they would like to move to an English speaking country to continue their life/skills. It would be then that they would want to study English and they would learn it in a heartbeat, because the intention is there. Or perhaps they'd want a complete change, which in my vision wouldn't be difficult to do, naturally gravitating from one thing to the next, because they were led to that next thing, being supported and having followed their hearts. As I also said to them on Monday morning, they already have English inside of them, (we all do, every language I mean), and so the potential exists to speak it beautifully- all they have to do is want it. ~ On an aside , this is after all, how I learned Slovak (with intention), which is said to be one of the hardest languages to learn. I had already started to learn funny one-liners even before I moved here, which I had a knack of using at the right time and place. And yes, though I did have a couple weeks worth of private 1hour lessons, which were just more fun than anything due a beautiful teacher, they were just that- fun. All I wanted was vocab, no grammar, and sure, though I picked up some things, the rest, over these last ten years, has been out of sheer curiosity and/or desire, teaching myself. I chose to live in this beautiful country, learning the language was important for me - I simply wanted to. And no, I'm not fluent, but I'm happy with what I do know, and when I need to learn more, I simply do, with great thanks to technology. ~ Back to the kids, I did tell those wise guys (literally!), that if I was their parents (mum), I'd pull them out of school to follow their passions. That is me, living in my future, seeing a world where all kids live out their passions from day one, never having to go through the struggle of "who am I?, why am I here?", just surviving like so many of us have, or do, and rather really truly thriving...
Anyhow, that's it for now. Please, pay (more) attention to your kids. We cannot call them the future if we keep giving them the same tools that were given to us. If we keep doing the same thing whilst expecting or hoping for different results, well, we've lost. Just listening can be your greatest tool/gift to them, when truly done from and with all your heart.
Lots of love, xxM