The best way to educate your at risk student the need for student leadership and character development by telling them the history of Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison's short stay in the classroom was a disaster. His mother pulled him out and gave him a workshop that focused on character development and student leadership so he could develop his natural talent at his own pace, she was not concerned aboutacademics at the moment. You know the rest of the story. What if he lived in today’s type of government subsidize housing unit? Being a frustrated young at risk student chances are he would turn to crime and drugs, then spend his life in prison, all because he did not have the needed character development and student leadership skills to find his true talent and/or an outlet to formulateit, if found.



• How many Thomas Edisons' are in jail because theywere in conflict with classroom environments and lack opportunity without havingany character development skills to help develop their natural talent?

• People are in prison today because society says all teenagers specially theones that don’t show many studentsleadership must be intellectuals before they can develop their natural talent. They were labeled failures in the classroom and self-fulfilling prophecy proves everyone right.



A highpercent of today's professional blue-collar workers walked from the education system, was not able to qualify for apprentice programs or technical schools, started their career as a helper, advanced until many now make $70,000 per year. Blue-collar employers are not interested in applicants' education level, they want work ethic skills, the ability to get the job done, good character development skill and student leadership. With healthy self-esteem, employers can teach necessary skills, even at the helper level. A person with negative self-esteem has no value to anyone, even with education achievement certificates. Standardized test builds positive self-esteem in the winners and negative self-esteem in the losers and does nothing to add mass toself-discovery or natural talent.



Thomas Edison was lucky, his mother quickly recognized what the academics-first policy was doing to Thomas and removed him from that environment. Many of today's teenagers are not so lucky, they are taken out ofthe education environment and sent to jail.