Okay...I just can't seem to get this out of my head :).
I cannot stress enough how essential parent-training is for Vanguard to be effective. Parents need to be on-board, in the know, and, if not participating weekly, then at least doing Weekly Accountability meetings or coming the monthly parent mentor training meetings to make their youths overall experience in Vanguard a valuable training/learning experience and not just another social opportunity.
Over the years, I have seen good families show interest in Vanguard and then just drop off the youth, without using it the way it was designed. It is set up in such a way as to allow the youth to develop their unique strengths, unique voice, and unique mission while meeting with like-minded youth and adults. It is not a conveyor-belt class by any stretch of the imagination.
For instance, my son, Kel is now 15 years old. He is mentored by his dad. They sit down, look at the classes that are coming up in Vanguard and make commitments that will help Kel fulfill his personal mission and interests in those areas we are discussing. For example, Kel is passionate about medicine right now. We were studying Asia this last month and so we talked to him about presenting something about Asian medical advances or practices for the geography presentation.
The individual mentoring/guiding process doesn't need to be from the parents. However, the parents have to know how to use Vanguard or how their youth can use Vanguard as an environment for their youth to practice sharing their unique gifts, as an environment to be supported in their pursuit of worthy projects, and as an environment for them to develop leadership skills. Another instance from our family, my daughter, Tova, writes all our book marks. The two kids take turns with me leading the devotional, activities and our weekly leadership discussion from our current chapter from 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens or TJEd for Teens. They decided we needed a game chief and a movie night supervisor, so they nominated and elected each other for that. My daughter decided that she loves history so much (or wants to learn it better) so she has taken on teaching the more basic version of what we learn in our Vanguard History Class each week to my other kids. My daughter has also designed a new blog for our family's personal use in Vanguard here in Europe.
The youth want to excel. The parent mentor training and monthly meetings are ideal times to bring up the interests and needs of the youth, especially as they get older. As groups allow themselves to be guided by the spirit, they will know how to incorporate/address these needs.
Accountability through these weekly mentor meetings complements the need for a youth to be prepared. To be accountable in the home coupled with the feeling of wanting to be prepared to share make it a more successful experience for the youth as they make unique commitments, meet them, and have the satisfaction of sharing what they learned with like-minded youth.
I know that there are youth programs that require their parents to pay for and attend training programs. These are effective in helping the parents get on board with the mission, vision, and tools used by their youth. I do not feel that these programs need to cost something to make them effective. If the parents could only see the value in getting together, refreshing themselves in an annual summer training and then monthly mini-trainings and discussions, they would be able to see such wonderful results. There are benefits in not only reviewing the core principles of a group as ambitious as Vanguard, but benefits to be had by discussing and reviewing the tools and methods used in the class and how it can best meet the needs of the youth in that particular group.
Hope this helps someone :)! Here's a link to a PDF example of a training that we had on a Saturday. I think it should have been a two-day event, as we really rushed through everything and didn't have as much time as I would have liked for discussion and simulation. I think that the more we can get our parents together, discussing concerns and successes, the easier it is to have everyone on board.
(Here is a different link just in case it works better for you.)
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