EXCERPTS FROM PETER BENSON'S BOOK

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Excerpts from Peter Benson's Book: Sparks � How Parents (and Communities) Can Help Ignite

the Hidden Strengths of TEENAGERS

by Peter Benson, Ph.D

"Sparks are akin to the human spirit".

�It takes a spark to ignite the flame, that burning desire to succeed.

Our challenge is to strike the flint that ignites the spark and then become the keepers of the flame.�

Serendipity West Foundation, Foundations That Make a Difference, and Central Oregon's Circle of Change are CATALYSTS that "energize our families, schools, and neighborhoods to see the potential in each young person."

�A lot of people don�t step out of the hidden corners of their lives.

They stay in the dark because they feel they aren�t good enough�.

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside of us there's something valuable,

worth listening to, worthy of our touch, sacred to our touch.

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit."

�To make matters worse, most teenagers tell us that there are few, if any, adults outside their families who affirm and nourish their sparks.

No advocates, no teachers, no neighbors, no coaches, no mentors who are on their team�.

�Social science research also is preoccupied with problems, focusing more on what prevents drug use, teen pregnancy, violence, and antisocial behavior than on what promotes becoming  caring, principled, engaged, and hopeful young people.

: �We could do far better in increasing the number of youth who take the third way, the journey of intention and purposefulness.

To do so depends less on �fixing� teenagers and more on �fixing� the environments in which we raise our young�.

�The idea is that we would do far better if we focused less on managing and controlling teenagers and more on seeing, nurturing, and unleashing their strengths�.

"One of my personal goals is to mobilize parents to help teenagers experience adolescence and enter adulthood on a thriving path

rather than making them wait thirty or forty years until they too scour a bookstore looking for insight about making a course correction in their lives."

�Sparks provide an anchor for the teen�s identity through the empowering discovery that

�There are things about me that are good, beautiful, and useful. This is part of me. It is who I am.��

�A theme that appears over and over in this book is that

sparks are only as deep and powerful as the engagement of other key adults who become spark champions

in the life of our teens.�

�It�s hard to imagine a more powerful human experience than to have adults who know a child so well that

they can hum back her song �on the days she can�t remember the melody.��

"Imagine the capacity to nourish sparks that are locked up and frozen in our schools, neighborhoods, youth organizations, and congregations."

�This work is rooted in an approach that looks first at young people�s strengths and possibilities. The approach names the Developmental Assets that put kids on a hopeful path, and identifies the natural capacity of all towns and cities to generate and nurture these assets if only we can awaken citizens and schools and neighborhoods and families and youth organizations to build sustained, caring relationships with young people.�

�Our nation is not organized to help our young people find and express their light. In fact, we are pretty clever in how we snuff out the light."

�The vision our nation needs begins with seeing each child as precious and filled with potential.

As more and more of us come to know and value the sparks within our children, we will find a shared voice, a shared vocabulary, a shared concern for how well our neighborhoods and schools and communities embrace the light within each of our young people.�

�There are two great days in a person�s life�the day we are born and the day we discover why.� William Barclay, Scottish theologian and author, 1907-1978

"You were just waiting for someone to encourage you to be the �more� that you are, weren't you?"

Ramtha - Create Your Day

Awakening Teens to Their Magnificence and Power,
Creating Bold New Futures