Tip Three: Help Create (and support) Realistic and Hopeful Pathways

Realistic, Hopeful Pathways

Youth do not attain reachable goals on their own.

Like any of us, youth are more likely to move ahead toward a vision when they know that there is a path to get there. Imagine how useless MapQuest would be if they allowed us to enter the starting point and the destination but did not give us a road map to travel from one to the other.

It is the same with our youth, at-risk or otherwise. Our youth need mature and intelligent adults to help them create realistic pathways, ideally with guardrails. They also need someone to reassure them that they will be given leeway, compassion and forgiveness -- that is, the knowledge that getting off the path does not destroy the dream nor the vision.

We would do well to recognize the difficulty of trying a new path and both prepare youth for obstacles and support them when they run into problems. This can be highly challenging, as some of the youths' erroneous actions will violate rules and guidelines or perhaps even legal boundaries. We must handle such cases individually, with discerning judgment and compassion rather than with the kind of formulaic justice that has led the United States to have the largest school dropout rates and, proportionately, the greatest prison population of any developed country, according to recent reports in the New York Times. This is how, more often than not, promising lives get discarded.


Education Activism IS self-defense. Peter Liciaga (www.peterliciaga.org), your Education Activist and Mount Laurel’s Martial Artist offering help to educators, parents and families with children ages 3 years old and older on safety and personal growth education –for the purpose of saving (and changing) lives. Peter may be reached at 856-278-5282 or on www.Skype.com at peterliciaga.

Peter Liciaga is a member of Tom Callos' The Ultimate Black Belt Test (http://www.ultimateblackbelttest.com/), an undertaking of The 100 (http://www.the100.us/), and a part of Dinoto Karate Center's master instructor staff (http://www.mountlaurelmartialarts.com/)

Peter Liciaga can be reached at:
Email: pliciaga@gmail.com
Skype: Peter Liciaga
Website: http://www.PeterLiciaga.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterliciaga
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/peterliciaga

Contributors:
Mary Liciaga can be reached at:
Email: marymazzucca@yahoo.com
Skype: liciaga.mary1
Facebook: Mary Liciaga http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1440812470