On top of our math classes Brad and
I are also teaching another class on MWF with the 10th graders. On
Mondays we have what’s called Crew and Wednesdays/Fridays we have a Devotions
class. The idea behind Crew is that we
are all members of the Crew-we are not passengers. We work as a team, we are
active participants in our work and in our lives, and we don’t just sit back
and let things slide by.
Today, our theme for Crew was
dreams. Last week we asked them to think about what they would do with their
lives if neither money nor other people’s expectations were a factor. This week
they all went around and shared their dreams. It was a beautiful thing. How
often do we let kids dream? How often do we ask them to do that? How often do
we ourselves dream? Often times we find that we’ve forgotten how. These
students have beautiful dreams-maybe it was just the delay in the caffeine
reaching my bloodstream but I started to tear up a little bit as I heard them.
They want to be forensic scientists and doctors and NBA players and PE teachers
and business owners and mountain climbers. It’s beautiful. These are big dreams
for these kids. Some of them grew up knowing what it was like to dream but many
of them never even dreamed of making it to college. Even now, many of them are
going to have to really fight to make it. They have to work hard, be really
good at something that they can get a scholarship for and fund-raise their way
there. Many of them do make it there. Some stay here.
Since we know that asking them to
dare to dream may be a dangerous thing, we help them come up with a plan. Once
they spoke their dreams aloud, we said “Great! Now let’s make a plan for when
and how you’re going to achieve this goal.” They wrote out three things they
would have to do during college to reach their goal. Then three things they
would have to do during high school to reach their goal. Then three things to
do this year at Doulos to reach their goal. And finally, three things to do this
semester to help them work towards their goal. This seemed like such a crucial
part to me. Being capable of imagining a dream is half the battle but it does
nothing as a coin thrown in the fountain.
Many of us have already achieved
the dreams of these students. We are doctors and scientists and business owners
and teachers and now what? What’s our next dream? Why did we want to be that in
the first place? Is it still our dream? Are we accomplishing what we wanted to
do? Can we do it better?
Ahora te pregunto, now I ask you…if
neither money nor the expectations of anyone else were a factor, what would you
do?
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