The Problem Usually Starts From
Teaching Methods Used In Schools
Back in school, many of us learned sciences.
We drew pictures of the butterfly’s life cycle as it
occurs during metamorphosis. But how many actually got to
see the entire cycle take place IN REAL LIFE? I'm not sure
about you, but I never got to see a real-life butterfly's
metamorphosis(i.e. from the eggs to the larva - or caterpillar
- to the pupa, and then into the adult butterfly) take place,
till I left school!
And when I did learn it, it was by accident.
Briefly, I took a caterpillar into my bedroom one day, and
placed it on a leafy branch(broken off the adult orange tree
from which I picked the caterpillar), which was set in a bottle
of water. Over time, the caterpillar ate the leaves, and I
replaced the branch until one day it disappeared! Upon noticing
this, I searched all over the table on which the bottle was
placed thinking it had fallen off, until I discovered, under
the table top, in a corner joining the table top to the frame,
the butterfly pupa covered in its cotton like cocoon! I promptly
put a mosquito net around the table, so that when the adult
butterfly hatched/emerged from the pupa, it did not fly off
before I was able to see it.
My apologies to the reader if you did
not do much biology or Integrated Science in school, where
the reproductive cycles of some lower animals might have been
covered. The point I made in the first paragraph is that sometimes,
in our conventional schools, learners are forced to memorise
photos, diagrams and sketches of the animals or organisms
they are taught about in class - without being shown real
life examples.
Experience-Based Learning Makes
Cramming Unnecessary
Is it not funny that this learning should
have happened for me the other way round, considering that
parents send their kids to school to acquire knowledge that
they can then come to apply in the real world? I honestly
believe that is why Robert Kiyosaki's ideas for educational
reform are so worthy of consideration by any serious parents
or educational practitioners. Question is how many of us will
take action to use those ideas to make a difference in the
lives of the kids we raise, teach or coach?
The children in many conventional schools
are seldom taken outdoors into the real word (nor are they
encouraged or challenged to go out of their way after class)
to see the real thing. Instead they are made to read about
the activity, and learn to say it as they read it, instead
of describing it as they felt while they DOING it. Now, the
irony of this poor teaching method is that when one DOES make
effort to get a “real” life experience, recalling
all the important aspects of that particular process becomes
considerably easier. Thus the need for “cramming”
is more or less removed.
I sometimes ask people this question:
“If you were told to describe
the process of making a cup of coffee, would you need to look
up the steps from a book to do it?”
The answer I always get every time is
“No”. The reason: “You’ve
done it many times before”. And there lies my point.
Once we get into the habit of gaining real-life experiences
relevant to any new area of knowledge we wish to explore,
we will find that our resultant understanding would be comprehensive
- and we would no longer need to do so much “cramming”!
Those Who Procrastinate Become
Professional Students
Back to goals achievement. Some people
attend seminars or workshops, and read books on starting up
their businesses but never really start anything worthwhile.
Such people in effect become professional students. They keep
attending seminars, reading books, “start” to
make the plans, then stop. They never really begin.
Then there are those who do start, but
learn from a book/seminar that they need to make some changes
in order for their business to move to the next level. However,
instead of doing it, they keep procrastinating - and end up
never achieving their full potential. Examples of people who
are caught in this kind of “trap’ surround us.
It is the same thing for people in paid employment who desire
career advancement, but fail to take the needed actions to
improve themselves. Ditto for the one who wants to lose weight
but cannot find the will power to deny THAT urge to eat between
meals or "miss" exercising regularly etc.
For those able to take action towards
achieving the desired end, they ultimately “grow up”
to reach higher levels. And go on to achieve authentic success.
That’s why some entrepreneurs always seem to be growing
in their ability to take their businesses to a higher level,
while some others always appear stagnant.
“There
is a great deal of difference between having knowledge and
applying it. The teacher asked. “What is Agriculture?”
The pupil replied, “Agriculture is just like farming,
but farming is doing it.” - W.F. Weiherman
You Must Continue Learning, IF
You Want To Keep MOVING FORWARD!
In a separate article, I
wrote about people who record a measure of achievement, and
promptly assume they have arrived at the pinnacle of success
in their chosen area of endeavour. Not only is this a faulty
notion to have, but it is also potentially damaging, because
it leads directly to mediocrity - a state of mind whereby
ability and performance that can STILL be significantly improved
upon, is continually celebrated as if nothing else is left
to be done.
Any one who wishes to achieve
goals that are worth celebrating, and that others will acknowledge
as worthwhile, needs to rid him/herself of mediocre thinking.
The mediocre is the one who does
a little, and thinks there is nothing left to be done.
Those who are serious students of success know that success
has been correctly described as a journey - NOT a destination.
Also, a person who desires success needs to perpetually HUNGER
for knowledge that will better equip him/her to achieve that
success. In other words, s/he cannot be averse to LEARNING
new things.
“Once
at a public gathering, Einstein found himself sitting next
to a teenager who failed to recognize the world-renowned theorist
at his side. Delightedly Einstein engaged the boy in conversation,
and after a while, the boy naively asked: “What do you
do for a living?” With typical modesty, Einstein replied,
“I study physics.” “What, at your age!”
the boy responded incredulously, “I finished that two
years ago!” - Edward Hoffman, Editor, The Book
of Fathers’ Wisdom Birch Lane Press
Some people - like the boy in the above
quote - learn a little bit about something, and immediately
assume there’s nothing left to learn. In our society,
we have people who finish from university and conclude that
they’ve done all the studying they need to do. One amusing
thing they do to show this is to throw away their university
notes!
I have never regretted keeping my university
notes for instance, because most of the stuff I wrote in the
management research paper (Statistical Process Control and
Target Setting) that got me to the National Finals of the
Nigerian Institute of Management’s Young Managers’
Competition in 1997, (5 full years after I left the university)
came from studying some of the concepts in those books.
Summary
If you want to achieve the goals you
set for yourself at work or in life, procrastination must
become your number ONE enemy. You need to decide to stick
with the target dates you set for achievement of each objective.
Use a checklist if necessary, and tick off each item as you
achieve it. You will get a good feeling just from seeing a
growing number of ticks on it! That feeling, over time, will
encourage you to do more. And before you know it, you will
have a string of successes behind you, that can be a source
of inspiration to others around you, who procrastinate, to
break the habit once and for all :-)
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