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Business Is Driven To Motivate Youngsters

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By RONNIE BLAIR

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 21, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - A few years ago, Janine Caffrey started noticing trends with students at Renaissance Academy, the private school she heads, that struck her as odd.

Teens old enough to start driving showed little interest in obtaining a license. Mom and Dad took them where they needed to go, they said.

Renaissance Academy held its first prom, and students were blase about going. They also didn't seem overly excited about field trips.

"At first we just thought it was just our kids," Caffrey said. "But we found these are trends across the country."

Caffrey's conclusion: Today's young people - even those who are smart and well-behaved - often lack drive. She started speaking to groups on the subject, passing along strategies she learned working with the Renaissance Academy students and raising her own children.

Now Caffrey has turned those motivational speeches into a business. She established the Drive Institute and speaks to schools, parents, companies and organizations about how to motivate students and young workers.

Caffrey also wrote a book, "Drive," published by Da Capo Press, scheduled to be released in August.

Drive Institute operates separately from Renaissance Academy.

Caffrey said several societal changes in the past couple of decades helped create a generation of young people who seem to lack the desire to achieve.

Overprotective parents and affluence are two of the culprits, she said. Parents began doing too much for their children. They drove them short distances to school because they feared abductions - even though stranger abductions are fairly rare - and they stayed in regular contact with them by cell phone.

Some colleges, concerned by what they refer to as "helicopter parents," who constantly hover, have created programs to help parents break those ties, Caffrey said.

Children today, even many who aren't particularly wealthy, have computers, televisions in their bedrooms, and more clothing and toys than previous generations could have imagined, Caffrey said.

"Parents can't change their behaviors with rewards because they already have everything they want," Caffrey said.

The self-esteem movement that began around the late 1970s or early 1980s contributed to the problem, she said. Studies showed successful young people had high self-esteem, so efforts began to make children feel good about themselves.

That was a backward approach, Caffrey said. Self-esteem isn't what created success. Success led to high self-esteem.

"You need to create opportunities for success," Caffrey said. "You can't do it the other way around."

She points to preschool graduation ceremonies and what she calls the "everyone-gets-a-trophy syndrome" as more evidence of efforts to reward children when they really haven't accomplished anything.

When her children played youth sports, Caffrey and her husband quit taking them to the end-of-season parties, where every player received a trophy. They also moved around a lot, so money was tight at times.

"We stumbled on doing some things that were countercultural, but not on purpose," Caffrey said.

Her children, now in their 20s, grew up to be driven individuals.

Caffrey said the Drive Institute also is working with athletic organizations to take on the subject of steroid use among young athletes. Young people turn to steroids in an effort to achieve their goals without putting in the time and work those goals take, she said.

"It's the whole instant gratification we see," she said.

Caffrey said she's working on a second book, "Nurturing Brilliance."

Meanwhile, her other enterprise, Renaissance Academy, is about to start a preschool.

It won't have a graduation ceremony, she said.

For information, go to www .driveinstitute.com.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib .com.

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