Feature Article by Lyn Fiscus

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Seizing the Teachable Moment

There are two types of student activity advisors: those who look at themselves as sponsors of activities and those who view themselves as teachers of leadership development. The former view their job as working with student leaders to sponsor events and programs. This type of advisor generally considers it his or her responsibility to make sure that all the events and activities on the group’s schedule go smoothly and successfully, often spending more time doing than advising.

Activity advisors who view themselves as teachers of leadership look at the larger picture: the cocurricular nature of student activities. These advisors consider it their responsibility to teach student leaders how to plan and carry out events, not do the planning themselves. Rather than a goal-oriented philosophy of activities—the important thing is to have the event or program—they have a process-oriented philosophy—the planning process and the carrying out of the program are the important elements, not just having it. For these advisors, the fact that you held a dance or a pep rally isn’t the most important thing. The process of having student leaders plan the event, pull together the elements needed to make it a success, communicate with everyone involved, resolve conflicts, conduct the event, and evaluate its success—that’s where the learning occurs.

Skills for Life

Teaching goal setting, project planning, communication skills, conflict resolution, time management, and the host of other skills needed to pull an event or program together isn’t an easy task, but it is one that will benefit students for the rest of their lives. Students who participate in this type of learning experience gain confidence and leadership skills that will affect their future every bit as much as what they learn in a classroom. Educators who see things like pep rallies as an intrusion on the education process, or as an extra element that is nice but not absolutely necessary, are not seeing the bigger picture. These types of activities are an integral part of the education process.

And just like other parts of the education process, students won’t always get it right. Because planning student activities is a learning experience, inevitably something will be done incorrectly, slip through the cracks, or fail in some way. Goal-oriented advisers usually step in at this point and fix it—the show must go on! Process-oriented advisors usually seize the teachable moment and work with the student leaders to help them fix it. As Kadi Judd Pojeta, coordinator of student leadership services for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals puts it, “It’s not my job to clean up their mistakes—it’s my job to get them to think of plan B on the spot and be creative. I let them figure out—sometimes with some heavy guidance or hints—how they can fix their mistake/error/omission or whatever it is.”

Every leader needs to learn the consequences of his or her actions, or lack of action, and to accept responsibility when things go wrong. Sometimes students learn more from an activity that doesn’t go well than from one that succeeds, and learning how to deal with failure can be a valuable lesson.

Knowing When to Step in

There are times, however, when you as a professional educator can’t stand back and let an activity fail just so the students involved will learn from the experience. There are several factors to take into consideration when deciding whether or not to step in.

How will this affect the school? If the event is a major production that many students beyond your group are involved in, chances are you won’t want to let it fail. You don’t want hordes of angry students demanding where the DJ is for the Homecoming dance, or angry crowds waiting for a parade that never comes, for example. If it’s a smaller activity that won’t be much noticed if it doesn’t happen, you might want to let it go if student leaders drop the ball.

How will this affect the students involved? Some students will be devastated by any failure on their part, while others will shrug it off and move on to the next challenge. Take the emotional impact the failure will have on the students involved into consideration when deciding how much to step in to save a project that has gone wrong.

How will this affect your own professional evaluation? After all, advisors are also evaluated on the success or failure of the activities their groups sponsor. Most people view student activities more from the product-oriented philosophy and don’t realize that planning the activities is as much about the process as the product; they judge on what they see as the end result. If your professional evaluation includes your work as an advisor, be sure to discuss with your evaluator your philosophy about student leadership development, so he or she knows that failures are sometimes part of the plan.

Processing the Experience

The valuable lessons learned through failure will be lost unless you take the time to evaluate what went wrong and draw from the experience tips that can be applied to the next endeavor. Be sure to sit down with your student leaders and process the experience--what went wrong, why, and what would you do differently if you had it to do over again are good questions to ask. Also consider the elements that went well, if there are any.
Finally, help the student learn from the mistakes made by asking, “what can you learn from this experience that you will apply to future situations?” Processing the experience in this way will build self-assurance from defeat and enable your student leader to face the next challenge with confidence.

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Lyn Fiscus is a former leadership teacher, student activities advisor, and editor of Leadership for Student Activities magazine. She currently manages Leadership Logistics, a company she founded in 2004, which provides writing, editing, training, and consulting services to support positive youth development.You can e-mail her at lyn@alliance4studentactivities.org.