Problem-solving in Youth Leadership

Abstract

In writing about TPSR and the leadership stages, we try to be cognizant that the humanness of working with kids flattens out on paper. We use these frameworks because they provide programmatic guidance in such vital areas as purpose and direction and have stood the test of time in our work. But situational and plain old human factors have forced us to face problems unaccounted for by our frameworks. In fact, problem-solving is inextricably intertwined with youth work, a point driven home by two books about teaching kids, Joe McDonald’s (1992) Teaching; Making Sense of an Uncertain Craft and Alan Tom’s (1984) Teaching as a Moral Craft. The titles (and contents) of these two books explain why the fashionable educational goal of “going to scale” (i.e., duplicating a successful program at other sites) often fails (Coburn, 2003; Lytle, 2002).

The road to success is always under construction.

—Lilly Tomlin