“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
MEMO / GAME PLAN
SUB: THE FORMATION OF DREAM TEAMS made up of those students leaders, who are currently leading in the wrong direction — but whom, when they discover their dreams, will, we do believe, become an all but unimaginable force for good in their schools and communities.
TO: Whom it May Concern: Students, Parents, Faculty, Advisors, Administrators
FR: Stuart Sinclair Weeks, Founder, Director, The Center for American Studies (Concord, MA) and Initiator, Democracy in Practice (Concord, NH)
NOTE:
This game plan is the only document we intend to write. While we and our teammates, the “Concordium”*, are committed to supporting the formation of DREAM TEAMS in schools across our district, state, and nation, anything else that asks to be written or done toward the creation of a DREAM TEAM in your schoolis in your hands, at your initiative.
This point is made because such ideas, which can often make a difference, routinely end up on the bottom of the pile of a busy teacher or held up in administrators’ committees. You will not receive further queries, e-mails, or voice-mail messages.
Our only suggestion is that the students take the lead and the advisors/(teachers) and administrators do just that: duly advise and administrate — lend their heartfelt interest and support.
For this dream to awaken, it asks to be born on the fresh “breeze” of free individual initiative. The team is made up of those students, who, often the least manageable, bear a great potential — if/as we can lend them our trust and due consideration.
[* The “Concordium” is a circle of colleagues — national and international, who are engaged, along with their dreams, in many professions and walks of life — individuals for whom Concord and its history is a vital touch-stone for their worldly labors.]
GOAL:
To establish, initially via word of mouth, DREAM TEAMS: seedbeds, catalysts, models, teams which — beginning in your school and depending upon your dream — would spread out to schools throughout the region, state, nation, and, perchance, even beyond our shores. The DREAM TEAMS would help bring healing and renewal back again into our ailing communities.
STEPS (suggested):
Step 1) The principal or individual in a school, who receives this game plan, “torch” passes it on, as it is, to a student, whom you feel is: a) Is a natural and powerful leader; b) Is or may be leading in the wrong direction; c) Has a dream, a true dream inside him or her that can make a significant difference in the school, if they can be supported/encouraged/challenged to find and kindle that dream.
Step 2) Upon receiving the “torch,” game plan, the first question that you, the student, are encouraged to ask yourself is: “What is my dream?” (If, we trust, you have one? Indeed, why else are you on earth: simply to hang out, play hooky, go through the motions, . . . get in trouble?) If you have a dream, or are willing to dig it up, the second question is: “Am I serious about my dream, serious enough to both recognize and overcome what is keeping me from achieving that dream?”
Step 3) If you are serious, the next step we suggest is EITHER to consider whom you would like to have as your first teammate (strength lies in numbers, two or more), OR consider whom you want as your “coach.” It’s important to have an older person at your side, someone you trust, who has experience, is dedicated to supporting you in taking up your dream/torch, and who understands the rules of the “game.” Give yourself time to think over this step: Do I reach out first to a teammate or to the coach? The decision is yours. It is an important one.
Step 4) Once you’ve decided who to contact first, do it. Share the vision of the dream team, game plan with either your potential teammate or with your potential coach.
Step 5) Discuss with that person the best way to take the next step: to contact the third individual: either, as noted, your teammate or coach.
Step 6) Once you’ve got the nucleus of the team, two players (co-captains) and one coach, proceed to select together the rest of your DREAM TEAM. The key thing, as expressed, is that each member has a dream, is serious about it, serious enough to overcome the obstacles that are in the way of the realization of the dream, AND is committed to working together on a team where each person helps the other realize both their individual dream and what may be arising as their shared dream. Don’t waste your time unless you intend the DREAM TEAM to also be a WINNING TEAM. Pick your starting line-up carefully.
Step 7) If it’s a true DREAM TEAM and you work together, you will be a model and inspiration for your fellow students, school community and — who knows — your state, nation, and (can you imagine?) world. Since there are plenty of programs out there for students, who are already “making it”, select your team well.
If you’ve taken algebra, you might recall that a (seeming) minus times a minus equals not only a plus (— 2 x — 2 = + 4). But, might it be, a radically different plus than one gets by multiplying a plus times a plus. Is that clear?
If the preceding steps are clear, and we can help along the way, follow up with us: <info@concord-ium.us>. As long as you are committed to your dream and are serious about making a difference, we are committed to you, at your service.
That service includes:
1) Connecting you, as noted, with adults, successful individuals and professionals, who share your dream and are ready to help you realize it. These adults and professionals include participants in the Hard Nut to Crack Fellowship.
2) Hosting an annual conference, for and with other rising DREAM TEAMS, in Concord, MA, America’s first non-native, in-land community, the site from whence was fired the “shot heard ‘round the world” that began our revolution, War of Independence, the home of some of America’s greatest thinkers, writers, and most prophetic voices: Emerson, Thoreau, the Alcotts, Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller, and more . . . , including, in our time, the crucible for “DREAMS TEAMS” to help make the difference that will ensure a future worth envisioning and working toward.
3) Your own best thoughts . . . . .
There is work to be done, vital work. It begins, in our experience,
with having a dream AND awakening to it.
~ ~ ~
The Dream Teams build on the Iroquois Peace Maker’s understanding that, at the heart of the “calling” of our land, our ever “New World”, is the reality that the last are called to become the first — those seemingly most lost and degenerate are called to stand within the ranks of the “fire-keepers” or leaders in our time. If they are prepared to make the required effort and sacrifice.
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For more information, contact: Manuel Veloz at info@concord-ium.us