You Can Lead a Teen to Knowledge

-Your familiar with the old adage “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”, right? Try this one “You can lead a teen to knowledge but you cannot make him/her think”!

After reading up a bit on horses, I now know why you can’t make a horse drink. If you were to watch a watering hole where wild animals hydrate, it would be revealing what you would find. Because animals like horses/zebra’s are the quintessential “flight animal”, in order for them to take a drink, they must lower their head towards the water. Lowering their head towards the water limits the vision of their world so unless they feel safe & secure with their surroundings, they will not fully drink.

So what is it about teens that we can’t make them think? Is it also about assuring there is a safe, secure and trusted environment before they will begin to drink/think from the fountain of knowledge? We believe so.

When we work with groups of young people, the very first thing we do is establish an environment of trust. A safe place where they can be open and honest with us and each other. This isn’t done in an hour, it takes time but it can and must be accomplished before any real learning can occur.