“TEACH YOUR SON TO TAKE HIS EDUCTION SERIOUSLY”
When your son is serious about his education it pays numerous rewards. One who is serious about his education is engaged in the constant process of the cultivation of the mind. Your uncompromising commitment to education will result in increased intelligence, self-respect, a sound mind, the ability to communicate confidently and the capacity to comprehend the simple as well as the complex. A failure to be serious about your education is self-destructive and it is a demonstration of a lack of self-respect because one who does not take education seriously must look education in the face and turn one’s back on its promises. If you are not serious about your education, then you do not respect yourself and you are slowly deteriorating because of your lack of self-maintenance and growth.
You must teach your son that the person most responsible for his education is not his teachers or you as his parent, but it is HIM! Your failure to succeed in school cannot be blamed on anyone or any system because education is not about what someone gives you, education is about what you reach out and take! Don’t get upset when a teacher or parent tells you to straighten up, or to get to work, or to pay attention in class, paying attention to your studies and being on task is going to benefit you. Being serious about your education requires diligence, the quality of rendering constant, rigorous, undying effort in the pursuit of knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
Daily “To Do” List for those who are serious about their education!
- Your primary purposes for reading must be to understand and to make effective use of the material you’re reading. Read books that provide strategies for achievement in school, in your future career, in relationships and other areas of life.
- THINK CRITICALLY: Thinking critically involves questioning the information that comes into your mind whether you read it, hear it, or observe it. A critical thinker, you interrogate information just as a police officer would interrogate a suspect. Critical thinkers search for cause and effect relationships, critical thinkers seek solutions to problems and critical thinkers find ways to link old knowledge with new knowledge in order to bring about perfect understanding.
- TAKE NOTES: Note taking enables you to retain more because the act of organizing and writing down the information you take in makes a greater impression on your brain than the casual act of following information to simply pass through. Well-organized notes separate the most important information from the least important information.
- LISTEN: Active listening is much like focused reading. You should listen to those who impart information so that you can both derive understanding from what is being said and use the information you acquire in future pursuits. Listening required discipline.
- EACH ONE TEACH ONE: There was a time in America when it was illegal for Black slaves to learn how to read and write. Nevertheless, some slaves became literate and cautiously taught other slaves to read and write. The adopted a system of “each one teach one”. As a result of this practice of passing knowledge on to those less knowledgeable, the number of slaves who were able to read and write increased. Keep this practice alive young men by sharing, explaining, and discussing your knowledge of various subjects with others. Research shows that you retain 90 percent of what you learn when you teach others!