Getting Creative With Pathways

One of the complaints I hear about the Toastmasters educational program, Pathways, is that there are projects and skills "missing" from the curriculum.  Before Pathways, Toastmasters provided a total of 85 different "projects" members could do tied to communication.  In Pathways, there are around 40 projects, so those who say we "lost" something may at the surface seem to be correct.  However, just comparing the numbers doesn't tell the whole story.

Though there are fewer "projects" available in Pathways, each project comes with more information and resources than the pre-Pathways projects.  The pre-Pathways projects were grouped into "manuals", most with five speeches per manual.  Some of those five-speech manuals have been combined into a single speaking project in Pathways.  For example, Pathways has a "Connect with Storytelling" project that covers many aspects of Storytelling.  The member completes this "project" by giving a single speech that incorporates some aspect of storytelling.  Pre-pathways, "Storytelling" was an entire manual with five separate speeches.  Now what if someone wants to practice each of those individual types of storytelling and not just give one speech?  They can!  Nothing stops you from repeating the "Connect with Storytelling" project multiple times.  You could certainly give five "Connect with Storytelling" speeches to cover the five facets from the old Storytelling manual, which were "The Folk Tale," "Let's Get Personal," "The Moral of the Story," "The Touching Story," and "Bringing History to Life."  However, you no longer have to give all five types of storytelling speeches.  Pathways lets you choose if you want to do one or many.

There are some "projects" that seem to be missing completely from Pathways.  One I have heard brought up in particular is the well-liked Interpretive Reading manual, which had the projects "Read a Story," "Interpreting Poetry," "The Monodrama," "The Play," and "The Oratorical Speech."  While it is true that projects specifically on reading the works of others do not exist in Pathways, there are other projects that grant the option to practice Interpretive Reading skills.  Perhaps the best Pathways project for this is the vocal variety project, which teaches how to leverage different aspects of your voice to deliver a more powerful message.  The skills taught in this project are at the heart of effective Interpretive Reading, and nothing in the "vocal variety" project says that you have to deliver an original speech - you can certainly do a reading to complete this project.  In fact, I did a reading of "The Lorax" not long ago for this project.  And guess what?  Years ago, I also read "The Lorax" for the "Read a Story" project in the Interpretive Reading manual.  I used the same content both pre- and post-Pathways.

Finally, Pathways offers many new projects that modernize the pre-Pathways content.  Pre-Pathways, we had a "Communicating on Television" manual.  In Pathways, we have projects in this same space, but adapted for the broader scope of media today, such as "Prepare for an Interview," "Create a Podcast," "Write a Compelling Blog," and "Building a Social Media Presence."  (Side note:  I started this blog for the "Write a Compelling Blog" project.)  Does Pathways cover all the ways we might communicate?  Perhaps not directly.  Some have asked me if there is a Pathways project on creating a YouTube channel.  Though there is not a project specifically on YouTube (at least not as of this writing), the "Create a Podcast" project provides content that can be adapted for creating a YouTube video, and I for one would certainly give someone "credit" for "Create a Podcast" if they created their "podcast" in the form of a YouTube channel.

Overall, I can't deny that some things from the old manuals did not carry over directly into Pathways.  I understand why people miss some of these projects.  Yet, I'm not aware of anything stopping us from using the "prompts" from these old projects within the Pathways program, as demonstrated above.  Part of the reason Pathways does not have some of these past projects is because the projects it does have tend to be more general and adaptable.  Yes, it may take some creative thinking, but I believe you can take your favorite pre-Pathways projects and make them work in the modern Pathways framework.  Plus, combining the old content with the new may give you new perspectives and ideas.  I'd be excited to hear about your experience!  Maybe you can even tell me about it through a Pathways project. :)