I know what I'd think: those students are pretty darn cool!
On Tuesday, that's exactly what we did. Actually--auto correct--that's part of what we did. We
1) ADMITTED THAT WE DIDN'T FEEL CHALLENGED, 2) ADMITTED THAT THIS WAS BECAUSE WE WEREN'T CHALLENGING OURSELVES ENOUGH, AND 3) WE FOUND A SOLUTION.
Now here's a complicated one: initiative. Many people would say that taking initiative means asking where you can help, or what you can do, but to me, taking initiative is LOOKING AROUND, SEEING WHAT HAS TO GET DONE, AND DOING IT. If you're not sure how to do it, that's where I believe asking for help comes in. But this business belongs as much to me--as it does to all thirteen of us--therefore, we should have all have an equal sense of responsibility, investment, and empowerment when it comes to knowing what to do, doing it, and holding each other accountable.
But as I look back to the conversation, we didn't mention that OUR LACK OF INITIATIVE WAS INDEPENDENT OF ALL THESE POINTS. Yes, having less time in class may push us to work a little harder, but OUR INITIATIVE SHOULDN'T DEPEND ON THE AMOUNT OF TIME WE'RE GIVEN TO WORK IN SCHOOL. If we have four, six, ten hours to work on Blendz, lets work hard during those ten hours, and even harder when we get home. If we feel that we are done with our roles, why aren't we thinking of ways in which we can continue to stimulate the growth of our business: finding a way to finance our trailer, for instance.
I mentioned that initiative is complicated because it really is. It's such an intrinsic trait that it's not something that can be fixed or changed from one day to the next. And in complete honesty, I sometimes wonder whether it can be changed at all. Is it a trait that's innate? Is it culturally based? I really don't know, and as frustrating as that may be to me, there's always that moment when someone takes the initiative to do something thats really cool that I think to myself: it can be taught, it just takes some time. So that's what I'm holding on to for now.
This conversation itself was a pretty brave initiative from our part. Mr. Topf always tells us that if we have a problem, we should take the time to think about it, talk to someone about it, but always, suggest a solution to it. Here we stood, the thirteen of us, explaining to Mr. Topf why we didn't feel challenged and what we wanted to do about it. In all sincerity, that was one of the coolest moments I've experienced in the IA because it showed me that WE TRULY ARE INTRINSICALLY MOTIVATED TO CHALLENGE OURSELVES AND OUR LEARNING.