Teens: Leaders of the New World, part 2 of an interview with Dr. Shanon Brooks

In part 1 of our interview with Dr. Shanon Brooks, which posted Wednesday, February 17, 2010, he explained what he felt were the most important elements of a Leadership Education model.  Referencing this information and choosing to implement his suggestions can only further enhance your family’s Leadership Education experience.  Dr. Brooks is also the owner of the seminar series Face to Face with Greatness, which teaches in depth seminars on Leadership Education and incorporating its methodologies into your life.  One of the great things about them, is that they are geared towards all walks of life; and are dedicated to building a responsible American citizenry.  If you click on the link above, you will be taken to his website where you can find a seminar near you.  If there isn’t one near you, you can always contact Dr. Brooks at shanon@facetofacewithgreatness.com to host !  For those living in the Southern California area, if you click here, you will be able to see the details of the upcoming Face to Face With Greatness seminar series #1, that is being hosted in Temecula, CA on April 9-10, 2010.

Welcome back, Dr. Brooks.  You know as much as I love to tease you, I can honestly say that I love to be mentored by you as well….well, most of the time!  Your consistent, hard work over the years has certainly paid off.    When you begin to talk about history, it is interesting, engaging and thought provoking.  I know that many people ask, “Where do I begin?”

I also happen to know that the feeling of “overwhelm” is pretty daunting.  You are offering classes right now  that  are geared to busy people that would like to begin “somewhere.”  Would you mind telling us about them?

It used to be commonplace for a large portion of American households to own a set of Great Books.  This way, people could read and at least comprehend the great works of history; based on segments that were found in this wonderful set of literature.  Today, it is not at all uncommon, when you are fortunate to come upon a set, to be the first to actually crack the pages open.  It has been proven over and over again, that when people know history they are very difficult to enslave.

What we do in the Great Books Courses, is take a three week period of time, where the students read and then we discuss what we’ve read.  It really is beneficial because you have the opportunity to write a bit as well; but there isn’t the pressure of a full blown college commitment.  I invite you to research the Great Books a bit, as they are amazing.  They represent 3,000 years of continuous thought, took 8 years to produce and represent 400,000 man hours of research on each topic!

The idea is to take them volume by volume and study them together so that we all benefit from their wealth.

I know that for the $75.00 investment in each class, you simply can’t parallel the value.  My family has benefitted tremendously from this opportunity and continues to do so.  The non-threatening environment, group discussion and accessibility of you as the mentor, make them, in my personal opinion worth four or five times as much.

And you really don’t have the chance to get overwhelmed!  They’re three weeks in duration.  You can simply take the little break and move on to the next one!  Also, the intimate class size of 15 people is really rare.  You have a winner, that’s for sure.

Well, I appreciate that.  I love what I do and enjoy walking this path and process with the students.  It’s always beneficial to glean again and again from these works.

We so appreciate your willingness to do it.  Liberty and Freedom are depending on it.

Will you talk for a minute about why you feel community is so vitally important?

I would love to.  Right now, I’m covering the country on this very issue.  Sadly, our nation is in a decline.  No government agency or hall of government can fix this.  The people residing there no longer have the capacity and the world knowledge that is needed to solve our problems.  In fact, the only way to solve this problem, is to work on yourself, your marriage, your family, your community.  When community, which is a vital microcosm can work and be strengthened, it becomes the saving grace of a nation.  We, as a people, have got to stop looking to someone else to save us. From community, flow the qualified individuals to run our governments.  Until we start stepping up, it’s unrealistic to expect something better than the people to represent them!  After all, it’s from communities that these people come!

You simply can’t blame the people in government today for poor performance.  They are nothing more than a reflection of us. We need to take the responsibility on ourselves and hold ourselves accountable for putting them in office.

Our communities have to to with everything.  We think of our society as disconnected from the state and federal governments.  When we feel that we are no longer responsible for keeping them from getting out of control, then that is ludicrous!  If every man or woman, in later life , would prepare themselves to be qualified to run or prepare to run for office; we would, at the very least, have a responsible electorate.

That is certainly a lot to think about.  Thank you.

Your keynote address at the Southern California Thomas Jefferson Education Forum, on April 24, 2010, is entitled Teens: Leaders of the New World.

Would you care to expound on this a bit?  I mean, we always hear that “everyone is going to grow up and take their place in society.”

And that statement, Teri, is a bunch of bunk!   Over the next 30 years, I believe that we’re going to be facing a world that none of us understand. It will be a world experiencing both a 4th and a 1st turning. That world has new rules, new requirements, and it will require completely different strategies.

I really firmly believe that the young people of today are the only ones that can lead in this new world.

The world that both we and our parents grew up in is fairly similar.  The world that our kids are growing up in, is completely different.

Subsequently, kids today are very different. I am seeing 20-somethings getting married, shirking concerns for designer labels, money, and material possessions.  They are embracing grounded value systems, family and quality relationships.

This new world to which I am referring, will be led by very specific young people that know who they are, and what they do as human beings.

Their focus is already geared that way rather than towards being some corporate robot.

I firmly believe that my job, for the rest of my life is to help these young people know how to lead into a 1st turning. In doing this, they will be able to give us what the Founders gave us during their first turning.  It will be a unique opportunity within the next 30 years, to establish the liberty and abundance that the founders gave us over 200 years ago.

That opportunity only comes along every 10-15 generations….and here we are.

Thank you for taking the time to be here with us for the past two “days.”  We are really looking forward to having you here again in Southern California.

I’m really looking forward to coming.  And Teri?

Yes, Dr. Brooks?

About the alien picture…

I’m really grateful for your influence, Shanon, but don’t press me…

Good bye for now, then.

Dr. Brooks?  I really don’t say this often enough…YOU HONESTLY “ROCK SOCKS”, my friend!  Thank you for your time!