The complete set of 198 Hints are available in paperback from the CYC-Net Press store.
Listen
No self-respecting group of kids is going to offer us 100% co-operation and compliance today. Whatever group or activity we have planned, a number of the children or youth will be unsatisfied and will expect something more or something different. Some will withdraw their participation, others will interrupt or distract us. We may feel irritated or even angered by these challenges (after all, we came here with the best of intentions and the least they could do is ...) or we could feel outright failures.
But take heart. No program director, principal or supervisor would really be happy to see a report on your group which states blandly that "All enjoyed a successful period of reading (or discussion or crafts or soccer or math or first aid or woodwork or whatever)." They would far prefer a report which showed that individual kids were engaged where they were at their own skill level and emotional level and social level – and somehow led along through a period of their own day and their own development and left somewhere new, somewhere different.
Probably most of the group will participate, but this kid is going to be bored and is looking for stimulation; this one is angry at some rejection or wound and needs support (or maybe to be left alone for a while); this one is looking for group approval (at your expense) and will pick at your role and your authority; another’s mind is on an altogether different subject which is far more urgent than today’s group.
It is in the nature of our work that we are dealing with needy kids. Today in our practice we will be aware of the individual differences. We will know how to break the large group down into larger and smaller sub-groups and even pairs and individuals. We will know how to break down the allocated time into longer and shorter periods which we can devote to this or that activity – time just to play, time to teach some skill, time to attend to the attention-seeker. We will choose opportunities to lead – or to let others lead while we follow-up some other task-within-the-task of managing our group.
At the end of the period, hopefully, each participant will have had a different experience, something which they expected and wanted. Including us.
