The Global Natives Blog

Your teenager is doing really bad in school?

19/5/2022

Lowering your expectations is not the answer.
Do your child a favour. Think bigger and bolder.

This is the time of the year, right between Mother's Day and International Children's Day
on June 1st, when panic truly sets in. Will my kid pass? Do we need a rescue operation?
Until late April there was this idea "We still have time." But now we don't.

Here's what parents often get wrong:
They end up thinking their kid just can't do any better.
Fact is: 95% can do much better.
It may be a perfectly normal motivation crisis. Puberty's a bitch.
Others are under challenged or on the wrong track.

So, if things aren't working out for your kids, don't narrow your choices!
Consider peer mentoring. Gary's story below shows how much that can achieve.

Consider a new start, giving your kid the chance to find its own strengths.
Statistically, the chance to earn a grant for one of the most prestigious universities is five times higher for a young individual who had to find his/her calling first than for any of the youngsters who always had a smooth ride.

Here's more on that!

Peer mentoring. Never hopeless!

10/5/2022

So you're a 15-year-old, clever young lad who hates school. You think your parents are alright but clearly from the last century, your teachers can't relate to your sense of humour, and nobody understands that you're just not interested.

Your little sisters get on your nerves.
Fact is, you'd rather be on the football pitch anyway. Learning is dull. Life is dull.

Now, your dad tells you that if you don't pass class, you'll be in real trouble.
Apart from that you have no idea what you really want to do or be. Life sucks.

The offer of an Eye-Opener? Very weird. Not interested.

But then there is Gary. You haven't met him yet and probably won't soon either, he lives in Alaska. He's just turned 20 and knows how you feel. At 16, he ran away from home to work on a fishing boat. His folks had no idea where he was until he broke his leg three months later and was sent home. But he didn't want to go back to school. Ever.

However, Gary also has two younger sisters. They really do want to go to school.
In fact, they're dedicated students and keen to see the world.
Which is why the family joined Global Natives.

Gary's sisters - annoying little busybodies in his opinion at the time - came up with what they considered just the thing for him: They had befriended another girl on the coast whose dad, Brandon, ran a cattle farm and worked as a certified sports coach.
Brandon had just read about the Eye-Opener concept and found it thrilling, he decided straight away to see what he could do for Gary. So Gary's family went on a weekend trip and ended up at Brandon's place where Gary was offered a job on the farm.

Soon Gary was hooked.
Work on the farm was hard but enjoyable and being allowed to assist Brandon in his work as a coach was great. He loved the way Brandon interacted with kids from all age groups. Within a year, he had developed a clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life, and Brandon encouraged him. He wanted to become a sports teacher and coach himself. He had found a goal and developed a passion.
At 19, he thanked his sisters for giving so much thought to his future and appreciated that they had done him a great service. The girls felt he could best show his appreciation by becoming an "ex-hopeless peer", which at first he found hilariously funny and then brilliant.

Now Gary has dropped you a couple of lines, you've spoken via FaceTime for a few hours.
He convinced you that trying to play it cool is not always the best way to handle things. Sometimes it makes sense to accept the hand that's offered.
So, after giving it quite a bit of thought, you've just told your parents that you will give the Eye-Opener a serious go. Because Gary is probably right: It can only get better.

More options, new faces and perhaps even a new start ... the idea seems more and more appealing. In fact, you might even consider going abroad and see what schools are like elsewhere; after all - your French lessons were about the only classes you actually liked.
Possibly because of Madame Lucienne. Anyway: Let fate take its course!

The Eye-Opener programme has helped teenagers to see wider horizons for over a decade.

Teenagers who struggle - in school, in the family, with themselves - can now run through the Eye-Opener process together with one of our ex-hopeless peers as mentor. The programme has been tested and evaluated over the last three years, and there are thousands of young people willing to give a youngster a hand.
That usually means advice that can be accepted without losing face.

Teenagers are usually reluctant to talk about their troubles.
All too easily they feel misunderstood, patronized and judged.
Not so with a peer who has been there himself/herself.

Here's to the never hopeless!

Find out all about it here!

Our talented failures are off to university!

22/4/2022

It is a milestone!
For the first time, we've cracked the 100 benchmark.

This autumn, 102 former bad students - once real academic failures in their own right! - will start student life in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford. Even their budgets are secured: All of them have been awarded grants.

Every year, thousands of teenagers find their element in the Bad Students Society. Not all of them head for university. Quite a few decide in favour of a non-academic career, a fair percentage doesn't opt for the direction their parents had intended for them.
But all are on their way to be their personal best.
And some decide that they want to aim high, very high.
Year after year we've had a growing number of youngsters who aimed for the best universities; we support their goals and encourage them - together with practical help and advice - to apply for grants to support them there.
This year, we've cracked the 100 benchmark!

37 young ladies, 65 young men. All set to compete with the best. They would have never guessed, a few years back, that this would be their destination. We're awfully proud of them!

"I know someone who can"

16/4/2022

Easter 2022: How we multiply opportunities
and what we learned from it

We're constantly experimenting: How can the community multiply opportunities better?
So, from April 01 to April 15, 2022, we tried something new. Here's how it turned out:

We set up a list for special wishes for the entire community, from schoolkid to granny.
Very personal wishes, some that may have been harboured for years, and others that occurred at the spur of the moment. They didn't have to meet any criteria, and they didn't need a deeper meaning or an impact on others - no need to justify or explain. They merely needed to make someone really happy.

Everyone in the community was invited to express a wish.
Everyone was invited to browse through the wishes on the list.
Everyone was welcome to react.

If you react, what can happen? One of two things:

1.) "Our wishes match or complement each other. Maybe we should talk."

2.) "I can help". or: "I know someone who can help."

The idea was to multiply the community's options by the individual members' networks.
The timeframe was tight, just a fortnight. The results were mind-blowing.

Thousands of wishes, thousands of new contacts, thousands of solutions!

Here are just a few:

One of the most immediate needs was this: A small regional hospital in Greenland had run out of blood type O- for an urgently needed transfusion. So the patient's daughter tried her luck. Within 90 minutes (!) a donor was found, because a grandma in Copenhagen, who browsed the list just as it came in, knew that her neighbour had this particular blood type and was currently on a visit there. Since she always minds his cats, she knew where he was!

Francois, a construction worker in the Pyrenees, had been searching for a spare part for his beloved vintage Mercedes from the late 50ies for the last two years. Reading about the wish list, he placed his search there. Aysun, a hairdresser in Istanbul, noticed the wish and passed it on to her uncle in Stuttgart. He had the part.

Giovanni, an Italian producer of Mozzarella cheese, was heartbroken: His second son, Antonio, had emigrated to Australia. Giovanni was told by a friend that Antonio lived somewhere in Queensland, but he had not heard from him in fifteen years. So he placed his grief as a wish on the list, and by chance Tim, Antonio's physiotherapist, noticed it.
Antonio decided to call his dad and found out that a terrible misunderstanding had left him in the belief that Giovanni had disowned him. That's what can happen when someone tells someone what she's heard from the next door neighbour's milkman's cousin ...
Now he's truly grateful to Tim for his help to reconnect.

Sharon had left her abusive husband many years ago, she raised her four kids on her own.
A trained and talented chef, she always found work, but life never gave her the chance to do what had been her secret ambition all her life. Now that her youngest had left home, she spontaneously decided to place her wish on the list.
Even as a little girl, she wanted to be a car mechanic. Her parents wouldn't hear of it.
But the dream stayed with her all these years. Now Sven, an engineer with one of the world's leading Formula 3 teams, has persuaded his boss to offer Sharon a job. She'll be in the cafeteria - already famous for its excellent food! - for three days a week, and can try her hand as an assistant in the mechanics' team on the other two. They'll take it from there.

The Wish List Experiment was a genuine eye-opener for everyone.
It will certainly be repeated. The potential of extended networks is unbelievable!

Care to know what people wish for most? Soulmates.

The most ardent wish of all is for human connection. We all need soulmates.
Regardless of age, gender, faith, profession etc. - human connection is needed.
Without it, we stand little chance to be happy.

It is secondary - the pandemic has trained our perception and given us opportunities galore to put this to the test - whether the connection is on- or offline. What goes for kids and teenagers is just as valid as it is for adults: We want to understand and to be understood.

As it stands, we have had this on our agenda since 2018. Given the wealth of new insights we gained during the pandemic, this will be our guiding theme for the next years - how to balance these two ...

The wish to understand and the longing to feel understood.

The families of the Global Natives Community stand with the people of Ukraine.

27/2/2022

February 27, 2022

The Post-Putin-Project

Since the declaration of war by president Putin on February 24, the question
is omnipresent: "How can we show solidarity, how can we help?"

A group of young people currently at university in Melbourne, Australia, came up with a smart and encouraging idea. They're of Ukrainian descent, and they believe the time to start preparing for a time after Vladimir Putin's rule is now.

"The invasion of Ukraine is the beginning of the end of Vladimir Putin's
time in power. Let's make sure we're ready then.

Approach Ukrainian individuals and communities in your region,
find common ground and establish a dialogue, many dialogues even.
Connect as humans, parents, teachers, builders, scientists, doctors,
entrepreneurs, craftsmen, ... as experts in all kinds of fields.
When we rebuild our nation, we shall need all the help we can get."

Men and women from Ukrainian communities in all parts of the world have taken up the idea. Their numbers are astounding: The Ukrainian World Congress represents the interests of 20 million Ukrainians. Support also comes from the Russian and Belarusian diaspora.

The Post-Putin-Project does this:
1 - It coordinates efforts
2 - It gives leverage to the Ukrainian diaspora
3 - It shows Ukrainians how much hands-on solidarity they can expect and
that they are not alone - not now and not when better times come

You may also want to check out some of these links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_diaspora
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_World_Congress
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/country-resource/ukraine
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ukrainian-people

And here is one of many other ways to help and contribute:
https://how-to-help-ukraine-now.super.site

Thank you!

Click the flag above to see our invitation to young Ukrainians!

Feb 28: The EU announces it will welcome Ukraine as a member (EuroNews / Politico).

They wanted to invest their money.

7/2/2022

Now they invest their expertise.

The Bad Students Society holds a powerful fascination for people
who once were bad students themselves. Including investors.

The number of investors who want to get involved ever since we started The Bad
Students Society has amazed and surprised us. Twenty-seven so far and as it turns
out, they all were bad students themselves!

Against the odds, they prevailed, built successful lives and now have the funds
to support ideas that make sense to them. So far, they never found a venture
tackling the dilemma that was once theirs too.

That's why the Bad Studenty Society project had their attention straight away!
But: Our community has always been independent and is not looking for investors. 😉

However, three of these would-be financial backers have now come on board -
they accepted our invitation to work on the advisory panel and joined as members.

Gerd from Basel, Edith from the Isle of Man and Jonathan from Toronto now invest their
money in other innovative education start-ups. With us, they invest their experience.

All three of them failed in school, had their Eureka! moments with the help of
mentors and eventually managed to catch up with the education they realized
they wanted. Now they are parents (Edith is a grandma of six) and dedicated
to our vision.

We all agree: Complaining about the school system isn't getting us anywhere.
Instead, we believe in chances, perspectives and eye-openers from family to family.

Being a failure can leave scars on a soul for life.
And it is by no means a minority issue.

The Bad Students Society is a milestone project.
It touches people all over the world.

100,000 school reports

19/1/2022

The report port

We're building the world's largest collection of school reports. Every report and certificate, coming from all continents and many decades, has its individual story.

Here's why we do it.

But before we start, have a look at Josef's record:
This is the oldest school report we have received so far, it is one of almost 30,000 by now.
It was handed over to a young man in 1897 when he left school for good at the age of thirteen. His name was Josef, he was quite an athlete and in academic terms a total failure.

This leaving certificate travelled quite a distance over the years.
Josef, having had not much interest in what school was trying to teach him, fell out of favour with his family. They were disappointed. Josef didn't seem to show any talent to manage the family joinery one day, nor did he want to work there. He had other ideas and was fascinated by the inventions of one man in Mannheim, Germany, a Mr. Benz.

In the summer of 1906, Josef decided to emigrate to Canada. In Ontario, he got married and started a family. At the age of 23, he started working for Canada's first car company, Gordon McGregor & Wallace Campbell (April 1907). When he eventually retired in the mid-fifties, Josef had a house, four healthy sons and a presentable amount of money in the bank.

His grand-grandson Timothy, then a teenager of 15, wanted to earn some extra cash in the summer of 2000. His parents suggested he could take care of the attic. And that is how Josef's school report was discovered. The entire family was stunned.

Josef had always maintained that he was an excellent scholar to motivate his sons to try harder and show more ambition. The certificate was framed and given a place of honour above the mantelpiece.

Of course, the intention was not to diminish the memory of a grandfather who had been a smart, cheerful and industrious man with a head full of original ideas. Quite the opposite, the family understood his intentions and there was unanimous consent that in future, nobody should ever have to feel ashamed of their grades and reports.

Timothy had also found something else: A journal. Reading Josef's notes, he realized that he must have suffered from homesickness a great deal. But he never let on. Clearly, had he been a better student in his time, he would never have left Europe.

Josef's legacy.
Today, over three dozen of descendants live in all parts of the world. Eight of them are Global Natives, identify as global citizens and feel strongly connected to their European roots.
Timothy, now 37 and father of three little girls, is a dyslexic and remembers only too well how he struggled in school because of it. When he heard of the Bad Students Society, he went to take a photograph of the school certificate on the wall and mailed it to London.

He wrote:
"I am so thrilled with the idea of solidarity with and amongst bad students! Grades are needed, no doubt, and so are specified goals and benchmarks. But they must judge the performance and never the person. Our extended family has its fair share of troublesome teenagers too, and I don't want to think for a moment that a crisis should lead any one of them to leave home forever!"

An invitation to everyone who cares about the future
of learning and the all too often wasted potential of
underachievers and other presumptive failures:

Please send in your school reports
and leaving certificates!

Visit The Collection to upload your reports to the report port and invite family, friends and colleagues to do the same.

We're building this collection to create
a comprehensive anonymized databank.

It will give us meaningful and insightful information so that we, in collaboration with an international group of scientists, including some of our own members, can work on solutions on how to change learning in the 21st century.
The collection will give us knowledge and sound arguments. What we learn from it will initially be offered to member families as part of the community's opportunities. Workable and tried solutions will then be made public as best practice models for all.

Reports from family and ancestors (as you saw above!) are very welcome too 😊
Please do take the time to provide details to help us put it in context. We appreciate all background on what became of you or of the family member. Did you succeed because of or despite your grades? Did you achieve your goals? Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
.

If you want to dig into the subject further, please check
out the ideas of the young Global Superpowers here:

Young thinking!

Good students traditionally get lots of support. The Bad Students Society takes care of the others. Their potential is more than worth it.

31/12/2021

Superman's facepalm speaks to many young people!

We have twelve years of experience with kids who struggle - in school, with life,
with themselves - and with changing their mindsets from losers to explorers.
Now, our strategy has a name and an identity: The Bad Students Society.

Most underperformers have astonishing potential.
But regular school systems and established thinking patterns won't let
them discover and develop this potential. So, all too often, it is wasted.

The Eye-Opener Strategy has led legions of teenagers to their personal epiphany.
The open-doors-and-open-minds approach appeals to others too, who may not seem
in desperate need for help, but who long for more choice and more opportunities too.

The Bad Students Society is driven by the eagerness of young people to put their
newly discovered talents to good use and by the amazing solidarity shown by all
those who used to struggle too. They know the pain and they see the potential!

All kids in need of wider horizons are welcome to join.
They don't have to have bad grades to qualify! 😁

Jamie's story is quite exemplary ...

"I never thought about questioning the system. 🤔
Even though the system always encouraged us to question everything!
It didn't occur to me to think of my future in a global arena.
Because everything seemed so well planned and mapped out anyway.
And now my underperforming sister gets the chance to experiment with her talents.
Hey, I want that too!
Before I go to university, I now want to spend a gap year working in different jobs,
just to be sure I'm on the right track. Now that I know just how easily that can be
arranged, I'd be mad not to take all my chances!"

Until recently, Jamie from Melbourne, Australia, was sure he would be a lawyer, just like his dad and his granddad. He is an average student and handles school on a "that's good enough basis". Jamie lives out his real ambitions on the sports grounds.
However, since his sister Shirley, whose grades in school had been deteriorating for quite some time, decided to turn to the community for options, he found out something that flipped his world upside down:
His dad and his granddad were never happy being lawyers!

Shirley's plans had sparked conversations the family never had before, and both men decided to offer moral support and admitted they would not make the same choice again.
That changed everything!
Jamie doesn't want to become a lawyer just because that seems the obvious path to take.

"Surely I'm not going to do something that will bore me to pieces just because
I never bothered to try out what's in me and discover the world's possibilities!"

Who knows, perhaps he will come back to it at some point. But if he does, it will
be a well considered decision, not out of thoughtlessness and lack of inspiration.

.

Xmas 2021

26/12/2021

The Mum & Dad Grant 2021

420 mothers and fathers received a truly unexpected present this Xmas.
Their adolescent kids had a special gift for them, the "Mum & Dad Grant".

The Mum & Dad Grant is unique.
It is a scholarship for parents who once put their own education on hold for
their children's sake. It lets them pick up where they left off when their kids
were born. Mum & Dad Grants are awarded once a year at Christmas and
presented by the recipient's children.

Teenage children apply for this grant for a parent, it is their chance to give back.
Together with their application, they need to make a commitment to support
their mum (82%) or dad (18%) throughout the entire programme:
Help with household chores (taking the initiative, not waiting to be asked!),
give moral support and assist with know-how whenever it is needed.
In other words, they commit to do what parents always do.

The grant was first awarded to 24 parents in 2018.
Young people clearly long to show their appreciation for their parent's love and personal
sacrifice: This year over 4,000 applications for the Mum & Dad Grant were filed.
.

One of last year's grantees: Judith

Even as a little girl, Judith had always wanted to design and build houses.
Not just neat condos or a villa for the wealthy, no: She wanted to build schools and hospitals. And she wanted to build them better, so that people would look forward to entering them, learning in them, working in them. She loved architecture and university.
Judith only had three semesters to go when her daughter Ella was born.

Her relationship with Ella's dad did not last. So Judith started a job managing the office of a thriving building company and took every opportunity to continue learning. A new partner and two more sons kept her busy until her husband fell in love with someone else, and she found herself a single mom of three children, struggling to keep up with everything.
Yet, she had never given up on her ambitions.
Ella, as she grew older, realized that these hopes gave her mum strength and drive, even though the daily grind would often bring her down again. In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Ella, then 17, decided to apply for the grant.
In September 2021 Judith started her new life as a student. Her employer is keen to support her and will introduce her to his best clients, knowing that her profound work expertise will enable her to do an excellent job right from the start.
Ella and her brothers have worked out a plan for all household chores. Things work out well.

One of the criteria for the Mum & Dad Grant is the mindset behind a parent's ambition.
Judith's dreams of building better schools and hospitals are a perfect match for that.

Mum & Dad Grant

Grants at the Club

Life changers, one of many

29/11/2021

Focus on the good bits

Dave Trott has one of the coolest minds in the advertising business.
His blog is excellent reading material throughout, and an eye-opener in its own right.
In this short post from 2011 he recounts his early failures in school and how our tendency for tunnel vision - focussed on problems, not options - keeps us from recognizing our own strengths. A must read.

Click to read!

The key quote is this:

"Because the good bits don’t need fixing,
we put our concentration only on what’s wrong."

davetrott.co.uk/2011/11/living-in-the-bad-bits

.

<<Previous

Your teenager is doing really bad in school?

Lowering your expectations is not the answer.
Do your child a favour. Think bigger and bolder.

Peer mentoring. Never hopeless!

Teenagers are usually reluctant to talk about their troubles.
All too easily they feel misunderstood, patronized and judged.
Not so with a peer who has been there himself/herself.

Our talented failures are off to university!

It is a milestone!
For the first time, we've cracked the 100 benchmark.

This autumn, 102 former bad students - once real academic failures in their own right! - will start student life in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford. Even their budgets are secured: All of them have been awarded grants.

"I know someone who can"

Easter 2022: How we multiply opportunities
and what we learned from it

Thousands of wishes, thousands of new contacts, thousands of solutions!

Care to know what people wish for most? Soulmates.

The wish to understand and the longing to feel understood.

The families of the Global Natives Community stand with the people of Ukraine.

The Post-Putin-Project

"The invasion of Ukraine is the beginning of the end of Vladimir Putin's
time in power. Let's make sure we're ready then.

The Post-Putin-Project does this:
1 - It coordinates efforts
2 - It gives leverage to the Ukrainian diaspora
3 - It shows Ukrainians how much hands-on solidarity they can expect and
that they are not alone - not now and not when better times come

They wanted to invest their money.

Now they invest their expertise.

The Bad Students Society holds a powerful fascination for people
who once were bad students themselves. Including investors.

100,000 school reports

The report port

We're building the world's largest collection of school reports. Every report and certificate, coming from all continents and many decades, has its individual story.

Here's why we do it.

An invitation to everyone who cares about the future
of learning and the all too often wasted potential of
underachievers and other presumptive failures:

Good students traditionally get lots of support. The Bad Students Society takes care of the others. Their potential is more than worth it.

Jamie's story is quite exemplary ...

Xmas 2021

The Mum & Dad Grant 2021

One of last year's grantees: Judith

Life changers, one of many

Focus on the good bits

To go further, you'll want wider horizons.

International family partnerships at the Global Natives Club.

Terms & Conditions

CONTACT

Privacy Policy

Lowering your expectations is not the answer.Do your child a favour. Think bigger and bolder.

​Teenagers are usually reluctant to talk about their troubles.All too easily they feel misunderstood, patronized and judged.Not so with a peer who has been there himself/herself.​

It is a milestone!For the first time, we've cracked the 100 benchmark.

This autumn, 102 former bad students - once real academic failures in their own right! - will start student life in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford. Even their budgets are secured: All of them have been awarded grants.

​Easter 2022: How we multiply opportunities ​and what we learned from it

Thousands of wishes, thousands of new contacts, thousands of solutions!

Care to know what people wish for most? Soulmates.

The wish to understand and the longing to feel understood.​

The Post-Putin-Project

"The invasion of Ukraine is the beginning of the end of Vladimir Putin's time in power. Let's make sure we're ready then.

The Post-Putin-Project does this:1 - It coordinates efforts 2 - It gives leverage to the Ukrainian diaspora3 - It shows Ukrainians how much hands-on solidarity they can expect and​ that they are not alone - not now and not when better times come

Now they invest their expertise.

​The Bad Students Society holds a powerful fascination for peoplewho once were bad students themselves. Including investors.

The report port

We're building the world's largest collection of school reports. Every report and certificate, coming from all continents and many decades, has its individual story.​Here's why we do it.

An invitation to everyone who cares about the futureof learning and the all too often wasted potential ofunderachievers and other presumptive failures:

Jamie's story is quite exemplary ...

The Mum & Dad Grant 2021

One of last year's grantees: Judith

Focus on the good bits

To go further, ​you'll want wider horizons.

International family partnerships at the Global Natives Club.

Lowering your expectations is not the answer.
Do your child a favour. Think bigger and bolder.

Teenagers are usually reluctant to talk about their troubles.
All too easily they feel misunderstood, patronized and judged.
Not so with a peer who has been there himself/herself.

It is a milestone!
For the first time, we've cracked the 100 benchmark.

Easter 2022: How we multiply opportunities
and what we learned from it

The wish to understand and the longing to feel understood.

"The invasion of Ukraine is the beginning of the end of Vladimir Putin's
time in power. Let's make sure we're ready then.

The Post-Putin-Project does this:
1 - It coordinates efforts
2 - It gives leverage to the Ukrainian diaspora
3 - It shows Ukrainians how much hands-on solidarity they can expect and
that they are not alone - not now and not when better times come

The Bad Students Society holds a powerful fascination for people
who once were bad students themselves. Including investors.

We're building the world's largest collection of school reports. Every report and certificate, coming from all continents and many decades, has its individual story.

Here's why we do it.

An invitation to everyone who cares about the future
of learning and the all too often wasted potential of
underachievers and other presumptive failures:

To go further, you'll want wider horizons.