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... the last Nine Winning
Practices Column ... need help? ...
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Nine Winning Practices
Column for Educators 7.26.07 The convergence of events in recent weeks sheds special light on Winning Practice #3: Set priorities. Do the important stuff before the fun stuff. The events I allude to include the recent death of a family member, the retirement of an educator after 35 years of teaching and graduation ceremonies commencing the futures of many children of various educational levels. First, the recent death of a family friend... several years ago this person dodged a severe health crisis and took the opportunity to write, among other things, his own obituary. His obituary served largely as the one published announcing his death. It was an itemization of what he had considered to be important aspects of his life: his family, his work, his memberships, his faith and his military service. Each was a priority to him and to which he had devoted major portions of his time, his resources and his thoughts. His example reflected in the obituary serves as a wonderful model for building a life of quality. Second, the retirement of an educator after 35 years of teaching... she was given and took the opportunity to speak to many students attending a special event near the end of the school year. In a few short minutes she tried with great emphasis and urgency to convey to her current and former students what her many years of living and teaching had taught her were important. She spoke about dreams, talents and perseverance. Her struggle to impart what a lifetime had taught her in the limited time afforded her was heartfelt. Third, graduation and end of the year events... I am always struck that no matter the diversity of talks and topics discussed at such events, invariably it amounts to the speaker trying to impart to young people what should be prioritized, what is important. I find that increasingly I spend time impressing upon children that there are important things, that there is a difference between excellence and mediocrity. It matters, I maintain, if a person develops and utilizes his or her talents, or squanders them. Quality of life is significantly different and more desirable than an absence of quality. After completing a research project in which she explored her career dream, a student identified and reported on the career of waitressing. As I responded to her report, I realized that I was about to walk through a minefield. It is not unusual for children to identify career paths similar to family members. Challenging a student to consider other career opportunities can be interpreted by that child as a put down to the family member who is actively pursuing that particular career field. Not wanting to do this, but at the same time wanting to encourage a child to aspire to heights beyond where a family member has previously aspired, is a delicate task. I asked the student how she was doing in school. She reported what I already knew; she is a consistently strong student. I then posed a question: the career field that she had researched requires certain talents. The fact that she is such a strong student indicates to me that she has a number of talents that she would not be using in her waitressing pursuit. What will happen to those talents that will go unused, I asked. She replied that they would be wasted. I then asked her if wasting those talents was desirable or was it something she would like to avoid. She answered that she would prefer to utilize and develop her talents. It was important to her that she utilizes and develops her talents. I asked her to think over the summer break of a career path she could pursue that would allow her to more fully utilize her special and unique talents. I hear from colleagues that children are changing today. That may be true, but I also find that children today are like children yesterday. They love to learn about what is important and most often will mindfully pursue what is important. What I observe is that as time marches on, fewer people take the time to teach them about what is important. We have to wait for events such as a death, a retirement or a once a year graduation ceremony to hear from people that important things matter and take the time to teach about what they are. Perhaps a topic we educators may ponder over this summer break is how to, in addition to helping children master our academic disciplines, more fully, more consistently and certainly more often teach children that there are matters that are more important than others and what those matters are. When we do this more often, we will be helping children learn about and master Winning Practice #3: Set priorities. Do the important stuff before the fun stuff. We will also be helping children move beyond setting goals to attaining those goals. ---------------------------------- FEATURED PRODUCT: iPractice
iPractice helps children to develop the
internal resources necessary to become resilient, lifelong achievers
through goal setting and goal attainment.
Children who set goals and work to accomplish them on a regular basis achieve more in and out of the classroom than children who do not. iPractice teaches children that their future is a matter of choice and intent, that effort and guidance determine their outcomes, and that diligence, perseverance and delayed gratification are ingredients for success! Successfully helping a child attain goals involves impacting his or her worldview. iPractice is not only a goal setting program, it's a goal attainment program. © 2007 ReBrilliance. All rights reserved. |
