The complete set of 198 Hints are available in paperback from the CYC-Net Press store.
ListenOur kids have usually got trapped into situations and habits – theirs and those of other people in their families and communities. Many of the decisions we might have made when we were younger have not been available to them. There have not been the resources, the people, the ideas or the opportunities. We often say that our programs help by offering them more alternatives, better choices.
Funny then, isn’t it, that we the child and youth workers so often get stuck in habits of our own. We get set in our ways, we have preferred ways of doing things and we resist change. But have you noticed when you meet up with past clients that the things they remember as significant are the things that went wrong, things which were unexpected, things which weren’t planned. "Remember the day you overslept and didn’t wake anyone and we were all late for school?" "Remember the day we were all just about to leave for that picnic and Jakes simply refused to come along?" For kids and adults, most of our learning is done on the hoof – and our best learning when we face the unexpected.
Today in our practice we will offer alternatives and choices to the kids ... but we will also allow ourselves more alternatives and choices. We don’t have to write all the scripts; we are often at our best when we have to be spontaneous and inventive and decide in the moment.
