Two Sundays ago we talked about the rising generations, the youth, the visionaries and revolutionaries of tomorrow. The challenge for parents, teachers and all well-meaning adults in this world can be seen in the story of a boy and a man.

Just now I finished watching Al Pacino in Scent of A Woman. What a classic.

A young boy alone in the world, trying to rise up, to create a path for himself.

He struggles to follow his conscience, to find his voice and speak up for himself. He's self-conscious, quiet, hesitant.

Al Pacino is the bitter and blind Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, who, by his own admission, took the easy path in life... a path of convenience and compromise. He tells how he stood up to people every chance he got, but it was for recognition.

He sees something different in Charlie, the 17-year-old prep school student.

At every turn, Charlie, while lacking confidence, takes a stand again and again throughout the movie. His courage and integrity saves the colonel from killing himself and inspires him to pick himself up and live again.

Then, of course, there's the speech. (If you've seen the movie once, you remember "the speech.") Let me set the scene...

Charlie's been cornered. He can turn in his friends, go onto a guaranteed scholarship to Harvard, be honored by the Head Taskmaster and avoid being expelled.

Charlie won't be bribed, and he won't be manipulated by shame or fear. He is willing to risk and even give up his reputation and his promised Harvard future for one thing. His honor. Not the honor code as interpreted by the head taskmaster demanding obedience. No his own honor.

To Charlie what is most important is how he views himself, his relationship with himself, who he sees when he looks in the mirror. He's not your typical Hollywood hero (his timidity urks me to no end... you want this guy to take a powerful stand, and he does his best but it's weak), but he's his own hero.

The blind retired officer takes a stand for Charlie. In the face of all who sit reverently in the hallowed halls of a school who's tradition lays claim to very definition of honor and leadership, retirel Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade stands up. And speaks up. He can't see the people he's addressing, but he can see how backwards the values are that the Head Taskmaster is effectively instilling in the minds of the future generation of leaders.

The young man witnesses a man standing for him, for his spirit, for his greatness.

And of course, there's the Hollywood ending...

(and while so many knock Hollywood for the happy Hollywood endings, at least we're still making some movies that honor true heroes and the human spirit, movies which inspire a positive sense of life, the idea of possibility, the expectation that it does all work out and it's worth trying.)

But imagine a different scenario... the school advisory board votes against Charlie, he gets expelled and all hopes for a Harvard education are lost. Will his spirit be killed? Will he lose hope that the man of integrity can win in today's world? Will he sink into the resignation, the perpetual "gray area" that so many of us live inside of today? Will he become another lost soul? Will he "learn his lesson," learn to follow and obey in order to become successful?

I can tell you this...

Charlie had one man, one person, one adult in his life, take a stand for him. One person saw his greatness, believed in him, and honored him for his choice to follow his conscience. That one man had a lasting impact on his life... and showed him that no matter what society says to you, no matter what the authority or majority are saying... the highest road is to follow your own heart and mind... to be true to yourself.

Now, one great challenge facing parents and teachers these days is that of the Head Taskmaster. Here is a man charged with turning these young men and fertile minds into great leaders. What shall he do when they disobey? The easy solution is enforce obedience. Train them to obey. Obey a certain code, obey the rules, obey authority, obey the law.

Not even a century ago the code was Naziism, Hitler made the rules and the laws, Hitler was the authority. Hitler gained control and total obedience of a nation of civilized people, and had them committing unspeakable atrocities. And how? Fear and shame, like the Head Taskmaster, but also the powerful emotions of pride and honor, like the Head Taskmaster... He gave them a code to follow, he gave them an identity to be proud of.

Whether your child will be faced with the decision or not to stand up to another Hitler is not the point, although consider that most all of our political leaders inspire us to war with the same tactics. (A topic for another blog!) Your child faces challenges every day of his life...

Your child can live as a sell-out, and do what Thoreau says most of us do... "lead lives of quiet desperation." It was these kinds of compromises that killed Frank Slade's will to live... he couldn't live with himself.

Every day, and every moment of every day, your child faces choices... to sell out on his values, his principles, his dreams... or not. Every day there are people, peers and authorities alike, who aim to subtly (or not so subtly) manipulate your child to conform to their wishes.

And who will your child be in the matter?

Who will YOU be in the matter?

This is a second great challenge facing teachers and parents today... to live an uncompromised life ourselves. To be true to ourselves, our values, our heart, our dreams.

And a third great challenge... will YOU stand for your child as Frank Slade stood for Charlie? Or will you conform to the pressures of society? Who will YOU be in the matter?

All of these challenges, of course, directly affect YOUR happiness, not just your child's.

Of course you want to raise powerful, confident children who stand for themselves and their values. Of course you want them to be free, courageous, happy, fulfilled.

Well growing up in today's world, that won't happen naturally. You've got to do something about it.

I invite you to consider... will training our children to follow and obey, to guide themselves by someone else's standards, to memorize the "right" or "true" answers... will this make them the be heroes like Charlie? Or will it leave them powerless, confused, resigned and silently suffering?

To raise the visionaries of tomorrow, we must become the visionaries of tomorrow. We must dare to walk our own path, to look inward and learn to trust and follow our own hearts and minds. No one can do it for us, no one can give us the answers. No one can save us. We must save ourselves.

Join us on Sundays... take a look at the Vision Revolution. It is already under way. There is nothing you need to join. It is happening. It will affect your future and your children's futures.