School as a Society Builder
The school is an arena for all kinds of youth, which is why it is an important arena for building youth for the future.
Objective: Collective responsibility to develop youth’s robustness and mastery of life
Exclusion can have massive consequences for local communities and for the world. School as a Society Builder reinforces the school’s role as society builder. MOT wants to strengthen a common understanding and foundation of values among adults working closely with youth.
Far too many young people in today’s society are unable to find a place for themselves in the school system and/or feel useless. Adults hold a great responsibility to create schools and local communities where youth are winners rather than losers. Adults should feel responsible for identifying youth’s talents. Adults can make a great difference in youth’s lives by being conscious about their own behaviour and way of communicating.
About 60–70% of a school’s psychosocial environment is shaped by the leader. Principals and teachers are leaders and role models. Their role and influential power as culture builders is crucial to making sure everyone feels included.
Schools can prevent crime, violence and other critical social issues by making sure the staff is predictable, clear, consistent, views the students in a positive light and has a unitary policy. Many young people end up on the wrong path in life as a result of adults being either too liberal/lenient or excessively strict.
MOT has its roots in athletics and has identified many values in the athletic community that can be transferred to other arenas. Sports, and other spare time activities, play important roles in preventing critical social issues, and one of the underlying reasons is sportsmanship. It is of vital importance to have coaches and leaders with positive attitudes if sports is going to have any preventive effect. If positive norms and attitudes are not put into practice, sports can have the opposite effect.
Prerequisite before start-up of School as a Society Builder:
- MOT's programme Robust Youth 12–16 and/or Robust Youth 16–25
- Partnership agreement between the school and MOT
Frame structure
- The principal/school leader as society builder
- The school staff as society builders
- The MOT philosophy to youth's parents and responsible adults on youth's leisure time activities