KNOW THE GOOD, CARE ABOUT THE GOOD, AND DO THE GOOD: WFWP NJ HOSTS YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING TO RAISE LEADERS OF PEACE AND GOODNESS
On March 10, 2018, to commemorate International Women's Day, WFWP NJ hosted a Leadership Training and Character Education Workshop, in the spirit of mothers raising children to be leaders of peace and goodness. Dr. Alan Saunders, who has given character education and leadership training all over the world, conducted the training.
Dr. Saunders gave a very informative and interactive presentation on the character education curriculum he has been teaching for several years. Much of this education focuses on helping young people, in Kindergarten through 12th grade, develop life skills such as active listening or conflict resolution. While traditional character education has been less successful in high school than in lower grades, the initiative he and his colleagues have been focusing on has achieved success in the high school and middle school levels, due to a focus on skills such as: communication; leading with heart; service learning; and building lasting and valuable relationships; it also includes components on character based sex education. This method comes from a recognition that too much of the formal education in school is focused on developing intellectual knowledge, while very little focuses on developing young people’s hearts and characters. Thus, it is no wonder that 95 percent of American families are dysfunctional.
Young people need to grow socially and emotionally in order to function well in their families, schools, and future careers. Recognizing that most young people these days prefer experiential learning, Dr. Saunders had the training attendees take an active role in exploring the content through discussions and opportunities to speak in front of the group. It was wonderful to hear from the young people in the room who want to be a role model for other youth in their communities.
Some of the topics that were presented and discussed were on intrapersonal relationships, interpersonal relationships, and challenges facing youth. While it is nice in theory to talk about being good people, it’s also important to know what to do and how to respond in situations of difficulty, conflict, or peer pressure. This, Dr. Saunders explained, is the foundation for building healthy marriages, healthy families, and a healthy society. Intrapersonal relationship skills focuses on nurturing a positive feeling of self, goal setting, taking personal responsibility, self-confidence, and self-discipline. Interpersonal relationship skills then focuses on relationships with other people, such as knowing and respecting the differences between men and women, good communication skills, and how to positively resolve conflicts. With better character education in topics such as these, we can better tackle the issues youth face every day. To build happy, peaceful, and healthy families, we have to start young, with a firm foundation based on good character education. The goal of this kind of education is to teach young people to “know the good, care about the good, and do the good.”
Youth from New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut attended the March 10th training. The feedback from the young adults was very positive; they expressed that they had not heard such information before and found that it was highly relatable. This group of young leaders were then invited to an event to become trainers to international students during the upcoming International Day of the Youth events in August 2019. Unfortunately, more than half the respondents did not attend. Hopefully the participants will find other opportunities to apply the leadership skills they gained at the training!
