Sunday, January 9, 2005
There's no escaping hard work
By RICK PIERCY, Special to the Press Dispatch
A couple of weeks ago I was at a conference seated next to the director of education at a prestigious research organization and we began to talk about our work. After trying to sound like I understood statistics and bar graphs, I finally leaned over and said, "You know it just doesn't seem like rocket science." He turned to me and said, "You're right, but don't tell anyone or we'll be out of a job.
Indeed, with all the studies and years of looking at the ways in which children assimilate knowledge the answers may be rather simplistic and very difficult to put into practice. So without the use of bar graphs, statistics or words like 'pedagogy' and 'Socratic', I will give you my own non-scientific analysis of improving education.
The truth is, to become a well-educated person; a good writer, bilingual, comprehend and use what you read, calculate and decipher algebraic problems, play an instrument, and be an artist, you must be disciplined and have an exceptional work ethic. That's the secret! Education is hard work.
If you want to succeed, stop making excuses. Everyone can come up with some reason why they can't do this or that. In fact I know students who work harder at getting out of work than they would if they just did the work. If you want to be a victim, burdened with self-pity and always blaming someone else, then you will live an unfulfilling life.
Parents, the truth is just as blunt for you, I'm afraid. Your children need to suffer the consequences when they make mistakes. I'm not saying that you shouldn't protect and nurture, but it is destructive and damaging when you step in and bail your child out.
Learning that our actions have consequences helps children become disciplined and provides the basis for building a healthy work ethic. Let your child own the problem they create. One of the best retorts I have ever heard comes from Jim Fay, creator of "Love and Logic". When confronting a child who refused to do his schoolwork he simply said, "you're in luck, this school has 7th grade every year." Amazingly, the child did the schoolwork.
Teachers and administrators don't get off the hook either; after all I might as well be on everyone's bad list. The honest reality is that teaching, I mean the kind of teaching where children understand and comprehend, teaching that inspirers and motivates, that creates a classroom where students can't wait to get to school and where they will work hard just because they want to please you, well, that's the hardest work of all.
There you have it, the secret of quality education, we can continue to study and understand brain function, we can create new and exciting curriculum and we can test until our number 2 pencils run out of lead, but without disciplined work we aren't going to get better.
While I'm at it, those diets that say you can lose weight by eating what you like and not exercising, well that's a lie.
For more information about Jim Fay and Love and Logic, visit the website http://www.loveandlogic.com/.
Rick Piercy, President/CEO of the Lewis Center, has been in education for 25 years as teacher, principal and administrator.
Used with permission by Daily Press, Freedom Communication, 2005