Occasionally we have too many kids for the available keyboards.  When this happens, the kids draw lots to see who will share a keyboard.  We want everybody to be involved.  The first time we did this, the story goes like this...

Little Johnny Suburb, age 13, weight 105, blonde hair, blue eyes, burst into the room, quickly claiming his own computer.  He sat down, eyes sparkling, and eagerly awaited the first instructions.

Ice Downtown, age 17, weight 225, slacked down pants, hair net, tattoos, eyes flat and menacing ambled into the room, looked at the lot he'd drawn and slid over to take a seat next to Johnny.

We expected not too much from this collaboration.

When teens are sharing a computer, we always encourage both students to be actively involved at the keyboard and we were dismayed after quite a while to see Johnny constantly keying and Ice sitting with hands still.  Feeling the need for balance, we went over and suggested that the boys might take turns keying.

Ice looked up matter-of-factly and said, "It's cool.  He puttin' in my stuff."

After half an hour Johnny and Ice were acting like life-long friends as they jointly dealt with the issues presented the Teen Think Tank that day.

The moral:  Given respect and high expectations, kids will work out a comfortable solution to most problems.

Everybody's involved

Local organizing committees work hard to balance the participants demographically, but they couldn't anticipate what would happen when 5 of the expected kids didn't show up.

That Teen Think Tank was held on a Saturday.  The principal of the host school was there.  When he learned that we had 5 empty seats, he went down the hall to Saturday School, their version of detention hall, and picked five lucky students to be part of Teen Think Tank.

The remarkable thing is that there was nothing remarkable about this Teen Think Tank.  The five d-hall kids blended right in, participated fully, and presumably enjoyed the experience because there were no negative comments on the feedback survey.

The moral:  Everybody, regardless of their background or motivation, enjoys a Teen Think Tank.

Keep these kids under control

The local sponsor of one Teen Think Tank is a teacher at the host school.  A few days before the session, she indicated that she was making a list of the students and the computer to which they were assigned.  Knowing the students as she did, she felt the need to know who was keying what ideas because she had grown to expect trouble from this group.

Since this violated one of the fundamental principles of Teen Think Tank, anonymity, we would not agree to her request.  With her dire warnings ringing in our ears, we began.

Not a single incident occurred that caused any problem that day.

The teacher commented afterwards that she had never seen these kids work with that level of intensity.  "They were too involved to make trouble."

The moral:  Busy, involved teenagers don't make trouble.  Teen Think Tanks engage teenagers.

It's About Time

The very first kid who responded to our invitation for the original Teen Think Tank was 15-year-old Mark from Mt. Olive, Alabama.  He and I spent a good deal of time on the phone talking about the project.  His excitement grew.

He closed the call saying, "I'm glad somebody finally decided to ask the kids!"

The moral:  Teenagers have things they want to say if someone will give the the respect and opportunity.  Teen Think Tanks does just that.

Not everybody loves Teen Think Tank

A local organizing committee person was interviewed by a local paper regarding the just completed Teen Think Tank.  The person shared the five findings of the teenagers:

1. We must deal with the causes of violence rather than building bigger, stronger walls to protect ourselves from violence.
2. Morality and values must be taught to children at home, in school, and in the community.
3. Students must be treated with respect, fairness, courtesy, and acceptance by teachers and administrators.
4. Violence must be dealt with quickly, fairly, and with significant consequences for the offender.
5. This Think Tank project should be continued with other groups.

The superintendent for the school district reportedly flipped when he saw the article and chewed out the principal of the students' school at a system-wide principal's meeting.  The students were called into the principal's office and ordered to write letters of apology to the principal for causing embarrassment to the school and school board.

Only one student from that school has agreed to be part of another Teen Think Tank since that incident.

Moral #1:  These students apparently knew whereof they spoke regarding respect from the teachers and administrators, at least in that system.  Teen Think Tanks give students the freedom to reach insightful conclusions which may not please local teachers and admistrators.

Moral #2:  If you agree to host a Teen Think Tank, be prepared to face facts the way students see them.