Level Two. Sammy Said.

Level Two. Sammy Said.

By Michelle Lloyd.

When Sammy looked at his parents, he longed for what they could do.  That ability to tell him when and how things should be done… it was a really appealing thought.

Sammy felt that being able to lead, to tell and to instruct was where he needed to be and that was something he could well be good at doing.  He felt he was a good listener but an EVEN better teller of what to do… at home, he could not display his quality of leadership but at school, now that was a different story.

At school Sammy took to emulating how his parents showed him new skills and explained the what, why and wherefore of every situation.  He decided to give his classmates a demonstration of just how he good he could be at taking the lead.

The end of the class brought with them a drawing close of the morning and with it came quite a few sad expressions, amongst which was one that belonged to Sammy himself.  Things had not quite gone according to plan for Sammy.

Sammy could not understand how easily his parents had made all this telling of what to do business and how difficult it actually was to do.  The theory had definitely not been replicated in the practical side of it.  It had all started out with Sammy deciding to take the lead and sort out a dispute between two of his friends.  It had seemed the perfect opportunity to show everyone how skilled he was at telling people what they should do.  Sammy felt well placed to tell one of his friends that he was in fact quite in the wrong about his side of the debate and that actually he should be the one to apologise.  The only problem with his plan was that, said friend, was not too keen in agreeing with him about the apology scenario.  Far from settle the dispute, it in fact it grew into a larger fight between him and his other two friends, who both felt put out about his involvement.

Sammy had been slightly crestfallen about his setback but he had not taken it to heart and had moved on to test out his ability to organise some of the others in his class.  He felt sure that he could help them out by instructing on what games should be played at breaktime.  He moved over to where a discussion was being had about their break and as the teacher prepared to give the first of their morning classes, Sammy prepared to tell everybody that he should be the one to decide their playtime pursuits.  His suggestion of a favourite playground game did not however go down as well as he thought it would and far from bring about a unity in the class, several pupils split off from the rest and started to protest that they were bored of that particular game.  This then caused a bit of a rift between those in favour and those against, accusations about ability, scores and winners or losers were made and nobody was the better for it.

Sammy sneaked off at the end of class and felt a bit ashamed of all the fighting that he felt a little responsible for and he could not understand what had happened.  When his parents told him what time his homework should be done, when he should stop playing or even where they were going to go, it all seemed to make sense and even when he disagreed it all seemed to work out well in the end.  Sammy could not figure out where he had gone wrong but he could see several angry glances shot in his direction.

By the end of the day Sammy had decided that he did not like taking the lead at all.  All it had brought him was being put into difficult situations and sadness when everybody seemed to blame the result on him.  He had not had any good outcomes out of it.  On getting home Sammy told his parents that while he had believed himself capable he did not think that he could progress to being an adult at all.  This statement brought two responses from his parents, one was laughter and the other incredulity.  Both wanted to know why he felt this way.

Sammy went to school the next day with a new resolve.  His parents had given him more than a few tips of what to do in tricky situations and how to perhaps solve his leadership dilemma.  Sammy went back into the class with a courageous heart and two very alert ears.  He approached his two friends who had fought and listened to both of them equally and then he suggested… a compromise.  Sammy later went to his classmates and instead of telling them which game he thought they should all play, asked them for ideas on what they would like to do.  He then put this to a vote and while some still did disagree with the final outcome, he was not the one to blame and it gave him a chance to go and talk to the disgruntled few into giving the game another go.  In doing this Sammy could practice his telling technique because he felt he did have good ideas and of course his outstanding listening ability, it was when he put these together that he learnt much more success could be achieved.