Fantastic Resource for Mentors

Hello everyone!

I hope your year is off to a great start!  I am excited for my own home environment of Vanguard this year and am looking forward to the Vanguard RENEW retreat in June 2017 in New York. (Check out details here!)  I would also like to organize a Vanguard training in the Davis County area in Spring of next year if anyone wants to help with that event. (Please reply below or contact me directly.)

Questions about mentor training?   I recently posted something on our main Vanguard blog that might help you out. (Check it out here, or click on the link on the side.)

You can do it!  Remember the vision of why you are doing what you are doing, trust God and carry on.

Warning Against False Educational Ideas

A friend shared the following quote:

http://scriptures.byu.edu/gettalk.php?ID=1788

 

Strengthening the Family

Elder Ezra Taft Benson

Of the Council of the Twelve

http://scriptures.byu.edu/gettalk.php?ID=1788

Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, October 1970, pp. 21-25

False educational ideas

"As a watchman on the tower, I feel to warn you that one of the chief means of misleading our youth and destroying the family unit is our educational institutions. President Joseph F. Smith referred to false educational ideas as one of the three threatening dangers among our Church members. There is more than one reason why the Church is advising our youth to attend colleges close to their homes where institutes of religion are available. It gives the parents the opportunity to stay close to their children; and if they have become alert and informed as President McKay admonished us last year, these parents can help expose some of the deceptions of men like Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, John Dewey, Karl Marx, John Keynes, and others."

**************

Whatever your faith, the truth is that there are all sorts of deceptions from God's truths out there in the world.  It is important to not hide from these deceptions but to identify them and why they are fallacies!  Our children will be introduced to them.  It would be much better to discuss the relevant issues in our day in the safety of our home and with a healthy, truth-centered context!

The seminaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are introducing this kind of teaching into the seminary program, where our youth will be facing and discussing the tough issues of our day in a gospel-centered environment to give these controversial issues their proper context.  It is so important to teach our youth to identify fallacies, if not challenge them.

Keep learning.  Keep following the Spirit and God's vision for you and like Joan of Arc and so many others who have listened to their "voices," God will lead you aright. 

Vanguard RENEW Retreat 2017!

So excited for this new event!

Check it out!

Vanguard RENEW Retreat

Peace. Vision. Perspective. Renewal.

Come and join me for a week of renewal as we explore, discuss and increase our understanding of true principles of education and how to apply them.

When: June 7-14, 2017
Location: New York

Come and spend a week pondering, discussing and learning how to:
-find and embrace your own God-given mission
-create context and connections in your learning and the learning of those in your stewardship
-embrace a service-oriented mentality in your learning and leadership
-create a healthy environment for becoming

Cost: $550*, which includes airfare, transportation, activity entrance fees and room and board for a week (non-profit)

Event includes:
--time in Palmyra, NY, Susquehanna, NY, Gettysburg, PA along with other beautiful places of reflection
--renewing morning activities and meaningful evening firesides
--presentations
--discussions and simulations
--introduction to powerful learning tools like journalling and word studies

Course is limited to 20 attendees due to accommodation restriction. 
Applications will be soon available at the link above.

Application deadline: January 1 (so that tickets can be arranged and purchased) 
*If you can provide your own airfare or transportation, the event will be $200

Service-Oriented Leadership part 3: adding a scientific look!

Great video to set the stage!  (The visual of a tree and the roots are a very effective symbol of good leadership, similar to the "brain/nervous system" analogy below, in case you would like to study botany, plant seeds,...all sorts of viable connections using the Eureka lens!)

Then we followed up with this tender application of true leadership, reminding me of Marni's quote about leadership:

"Leadership is communicating to another person their worth and potential so clearly they are inspired to see it in themselves." -- Stephen R. Covey

 We are then watching the movie "Molokai" and have been reading "Heidi" aloud as examples of good leaders.

We also studied the Brain and Nervous system this week as part of our ongoing study of Anatomy this year as a family.  We made the connection to our theme this month as we recognized that the brain, without a network of information running to and from the "greatest" to the "least" of a body's parts would be unable to do it's work.  The brain, as any good leader, needs to be "in touch" with all under their stewardship.  Each part is valued.  Each part should be recognized and understood, with efforts of the whole directed to meet the needs of the one.  A good leader creates synergy and collaboration throughout the system, just as the brain does with the nervous system.

The connections are there!  We just need to help our youth and children see them to make it all more real, more relevant :).

More thoughts on Service-Oriented Leadership

Just to clarify...

Every group can do their own order of the months. I have tried different orders but have tended to drift back to the original one as the most logical sequence in progressive understanding for the youth to these deep concepts.

So as I go forward with ideas for monthly themes, I will just stick to the original order and put in ideas and videos to deepen understanding of them that you can use either specifically or as a spring board for other ideas.

Our family is focusing on a particular principle of service-oriented leadership:

A service-oriented leader is responsible and kind and encourages those they teach to be responsible and kind.

We took a funny look at responsibility:

I shared how if parents had an emotion board for their kids, they would want them all to be on "happiness."  Any good leader wants what is best for those he is over, to help them be happy ultimately.  Aristotle in Book 1 of Nichomachean Ethics states that happiness is the underlying goal for every action.

Most parents recognize that happiness comes from being kind and responsible and most rules stem from that recognition, from make your room to be nice to your siblings.  Laws in society could be looked at the same way (possible topic for "Society").  However, first you need leaders that are responsible and kind themselves.

First we looked at what it means to be responsible using the following video:

Then we looked at an example of not only an individual being responsible, but what happens when they lead the way. 

Then we looked at kindness:

And we saw how it comes back to bless us and can change the world:

If you have any insights or ideas, feel free to comment below!

We also played games, trying to show responsibility and kindness and watched "Follow Me, Boys" about a devoted scout leader and how he changes the lives of so many through his service-oriented mentality.  

Back in Business and this Month's focus: A look at Service-Oriented Leadership

Hello!

It has been a while, but I have felt some divine pushings to get going on Vanguard business once again.  The world needs this approach to education and I must do my part!

I will be looking at the current Vanguard resources and blogs and try and reconfigure it based upon feedback I have been getting over the years.  If anyone has more suggestions or is willing to try and help me set up a more user-friendly system, I would love to have your suggestions and help!

For now, I would like to start a monthly dialogue on this website on a particular theme from our seven that we focus on in Vanguard.  I will also be extending this to an official Vanguard Facebook Group.

This month is Service-Oriented Leadership and I am excited to explore what it is, what it has looked like historically (as well as it's counterparts), scientific and mathematical evidence and symbolism that supports it, and then bring in artistic examples to help transform us into service-oriented leaders in our hearts.

Let us first do a compare and contrast between two men of the bible: Samson and Joseph of Egypt.  Consider what made them great, what were their characteristics, what were their failings, what were their decisions?

We need to be morally strong and not selfish in our desires for power in order to be effective and world-changing leaders:

If we diligently seek to do what is right, even in small ways, we shall have great influence!

So often, our acts of service consist of simple encouragement or of giving mundane help with mundane tasks, but what glorious consequences can flow from mundane acts and from small but deliberate deeds! (video link)

Drew Dudley captures this concept of the power of small and simple service and ties it to the definition of leadership:

What makes a good leader?  Question of the month.

Question of our lives: how will we be a good leader?