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Greg was a good looking kid, modestly good at sport, solidly academic, quiet and largely kept to himself. In general, not the sort of person you really remember from school days, and to my mind likely to become an accountant, get married and have 2.4 kids etc etc
A few years after school I got a job parking cars at the local casino to help pay my way through Uni, and it turned out Greg was doing the same. By now he was tall, good looking, loved by women, and full of confidence. He was studying a combined degree in ancient history and international law.
After some time he opened up to me about his dreams. He didn't want to be a lawyer, nor did he want to be a historian. Since a child he had always dreamt of being an international black market dealer in antiquities. And was studying to get there. And you know what? Six months after he finished his studies he disappeared completely, and I can only assume he is living the dream somewhere exotic
Not sure how the school contributed of course... but there must have been something!
"The ugly chicks wont always be ugly"
"The tough kids wont always be tough"
"Teachers should not be a sexual fantasy"
4a. Sometimes loners will go postal so make friends with everyone
Great list
You will waste too much time worrying about things that you can't change or don't really matter. Stuff like whether someone else thinks your hair is OK or if your Science and Nature title page kicks ass. As lots of people like to say youth is wasted on the young.
Nice list, good luck with the school.
In my perspective school should all be the place where people should see the fun and joy of learning and get the right tools to master any subject they are into. Also they should give the topic they are interested in!
The teacher should support and guide the kids in discovering and developing their personal strengths! It is not necessary to put everybody in the same pattern.
The kids should get the tools to become successful. Not in the way everybody has to be like this and that, but to reach their own dreams based on their passions.
Why not integrate the findings of success psychology and also stuff like Napolean Hill, etc.
Recently I came across Mark Joyners Kaizen. Kaizen is about investments and tiny improvements in the most important areas of life:
1) self-esteem
2) business (in this case learning to learn)
3) relationships, which is your first point
4) energy (the right fuel for our engines :-) proper diet, exercise,...)
I still miss such things in school!
have a nice day, with a big smile on your face :-)
I would add: Skills are fluid. Relationships are timeless.
Or maybe that is a summary of some of your points.
I couldn't agree more with the "fitting in doesn't make standouts" comment. Back in the day, it was the norm for everyone to "do a little bit of everything" to increase their social circles / get more out of the experience. Unless it was on the sporting field, there was never encouragement to devote ourselves to that One Thing that would make us stand out.
I often wish I was as self-aware then as I am now - it's not enough to "fit in". We should stand for something, and stand up for our beliefs. Same goes for life as well as business!
If anyone has not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's seminal TED talk about fostering creativity in education, here it is:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson...
And here's his most recent presentation:
http://fora.tv/2009/01/29/Sir_Ken_Robinson_A_Ne...
great list
From then on I was a little more careful, but I believe we've gradually lost something with the rise in safety anxiety, particularly regarding our children. I learned so much in that mistake; what it might be like to be deaf, not to mention a first hand experience with a massive exothermic reaction. But we (people, government, the media, etc) are so nervy about anything potentially dangerous that to merely mention the key oxidizing components of said reaction would get your blog flagged by every Western intelligence agency!
I’ll start by saying I really love reading your blog and am a big fan.
Enjoyed this post but felt it is very skewed to a Western perspective and missed that vital thing I call “The Migrant Work Ethic.” My parents came out here when I was 9 years old. Mabo had just won land rights for Aboriginals, recession had hit hard, multiculturalism didn’t exist and migrant was a dirty word. In order to send their kids to good schools, they worked like maniacs in menial jobs, and taught us to do the same. A decade later, after fitting in, conforming, doing the right thing, not getting in trouble and studying like crazy, my migrant work ethic got me into Harvard. My parents re-mortgaged their house and took on second jobs to pay the fees, while I worked 18 hour days to fill the financial gap.
There is a real sense of entitlement here in Australia, and in Western culture in general, that is both good and bad. What annoys me is this idea that hard work is something shameful, that being a big thinker excludes you from working hard or putting in the grunt work. Big ideas require commitment and discipline to be executed. Just ask your account managers or your junior planner. You suggest that capitalism requires big thinkers, but the reality is that China’s economic growth is not fuelled by big thinkers but by a work ethic that doesn’t exist in the West, and factories full of workers willing to stand and do the jobs that the West considers below them.
Rote learning, uniforms, deadlines—these things teach discipline, respect for authority and a sense of duty that create socially responsible human beings. One can be just as creative in a uniform. And children need the guidance. What they do after this is up to them, but as parents and as a society, we have an obligation to teach them the basics.
As for my parents, they were the menial labour you shipped your ideas out to. My father, who grew up in the slums of Delhi, considers his daughter his greatest achievement. What he doesn’t know is that she considers her father her greatest hero because he was courageous enough to give up his dreams to allow his children to have the privilege of chasing their own.
11. The popular group in high school aren't necessarily popular outside of that closed ecosystem (yeah, so I wasn't one of the popular ones in high school...but somehow got the tag of being a "cool nerd")
12. The people that you surround yourself with can rub off on you (refers to #10)
13. There are certain times where you need to swallow it up and follow the "system" (I skipped school a day a week by year 12..although this is a rant in itself - ie how high school/uni can encourage engagement from types like me)
14. I should have encouraged my team to take up debating in senior high school - that was really fun
15. Senior high school made me really anxious (like a lot of other teens), so should have spoken out about that + chillaxed more