Youth must be given the opportunities to succeed and fail because those experiences build the confidence and vision to demand and enforce more of themselves and their environment.
Engaging the many young men with cooking club sessions, I find we sometimes reach a point of stagnation where their behavior reflects their poor understanding of the possibilities available. And so I've tied to emphasize their own capacity for producing healthy meals, whether through creating Nutritious cooking homework, providing flash cooking opportunities, or cafeteria tastings, with all this students have the opportunity to put their skills to the test and really enforce the kind of group culture they want to see. The issue that has come up in the last few sessions and will certainly continue to come up, is with the opportunities to succeed have also come opportunities to fail--too much side-talking and misbehavior. Failure being part of the learning process, I want to move beyond it but also recognize the evolution of the group mentality. These young guys are no longer testing me but instead are confused as to the long term goals of the program I am implementing. What the group needs is a strong message of clarity about the purpose of the group and what it can achieve. Therefore, I believe it most productive and enlightening for them to outline the numerous projects they could take away from this experiment into cooking.
These young men need to keep in mind that the opportunities available to them now ought be pushed and not just accepted at face value. With some urging on my part, they need to begin using the freedom of working with me as a chance for doing more of what they are passionate about. Collaborating their interests into the work of the group should be the goal for me and them.
They have come a long way. From the disturbed energy of misbehavior to implementing productive exchanges of food and fun. I can see their vision, but can they?
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