Tuesday 22 May 2012

FACT: There is no such thing as genius!

"If educators invested a fraction of the energy they now spend on trying to transmit information in trying to stimulate the students' enjoyment of learning, we could achieve much better results."
Csikszentmihalyi

It's important that we all understand that the chief impediments to learning are not cognitive; it's not that any of our students can't learn; it's that many of them don't want to. One of our major challenges is to switch on what is currently switching off so many of our young people. Everything I have read over the last thirty odd years has convinced me that success is 30% coaching, teaching, mentoring and supporting and 70% hard work.  So I’m not clever enough is simply an excuse for the lazy and those not prepared to put in the effort… there are no excuses. Attitude is the force that matters. We all of us have great minds, great talents and great potential… you might not believe it yet but understanding this means that you will be able to achieve so much more. We all know people who have been dealt the worst possible deals in life. People who have been abused, locked up, bullied and oppressed and still succeeded. Just look at Nelson Mandela! When Nelson Mandela was elected as President of South Africa he told the people of South Africa that they were all brilliant, talented, gorgeous and wonderful.
FACT You are brilliant, talented, gorgeous and wonderful but it’s your choice and there are no excuses.

2 comments:

  1. Actually, there's no evidence that Mandela ever said that. The quotation is from a writer called Marianne Wiliamson, whose website (http://www.marianne.com/) reveals that she specialises in ripping gullible people off by suggesting they can lose weight by being more spiritual. And that's the context of the quotation -vacuous religiosity. It goes on: "We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us". The detail about the misattribution of the quotation is here: http://www.youquoted.com/our-deepest-fear-is-not-that-we-are-inadequate/
    So - a bit of hard work on checking your references is required!

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