SayEducate

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Discipline to Success:

The Education Attribute

Educated men are as much superior to uneducated men as the living are to the dead.
Aristotle

continuation from BLOG post: part IX.a

We continue our review of the attributes that makeup our education attribute. We reviewed last week developing perception and positive language skills. Let’s move onto the final 3 attributes:

Education Includes Scholastic Abilities

Practically everything that you pursue in life will require some scholastic abilities. Almost all jobs today require high school diplomas, and many managerial positions require collegiate degrees and, in increasing numbers, Masters and Ph.D. degrees.

Scholastic achievements such as diplomas and degrees are individual goals. The skills to achieve these degrees are part of your education attribute. You can strengthen your scholastic skills by increasing your reading and listening skills and improving your study habits. You need to develop study habits that force you to study and learn subject materials.

Developing good study habits is exactly like building a strong physical body. You need to schedule time each day to study. Look for a secluded corner in the library or your home to study. Try to schedule the same time each day to study and don’t allow distractions to tempt you away from your studies. If your mind wanders, bring it back to the subject matter at hand. Scheduling time each day to study and then rewarding yourself when you complete the schedule is an effective method to strengthen your scholastic abilities.

Education is the Expansion of Your Knowledge Base

Most people are experts in one or two areas. A doctor, for example, will have advanced knowledge in medicine while a marketing executive has expert understanding of product launching. The expansion of our knowledge base includes learning subjects and materials that are not part of our current knowledge base.

Finally, Education is the Application of Knowledge and Experience

Education avails us nothing if we fail to apply our new knowledge. Well-rounded people apply what they learned, and then learn from the experience by applying their new knowledge. They gain wisdom as they reason between two or more variables.

For example, say you want to study and expand your knowledge in investment analysis. You can read and study every possible book on investment logic. But unless you apply that knowledge by investing in the market with real money, you will fail to experience the selection of investment securities that give you the best return.

That sums up my discussion on what you can do to develop and strengthen your education attribute. I’m sure you can suggest other educational ideas. Use them if they are appropriate.

Next time: we will review how the education attribute fits in your character development.

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Read more about achieving success and become something grand: subscribe to our RSS feed

BLOG postings: (link to Achieving Success BLOG for all posts and PDF downloads)

Discipline to Success:

The Education Attribute

Educated men are as much superior to uneducated men as the living are to the dead.
Aristotle

continuation from BLOG post: part IX.a

We continue our review of the attributes that makeup our education attribute.  We reviewed last week developing listening and reading skills. Let’s move onto:

Education is Perception

Take a moment and closer your browser. What do you hear? Perhaps the sound of a bird, the gust of a wind, the laughter of a child, the bustling of a traffic intersection, etc. What thoughts come to your mind when you listen to these sounds? Look around you. How would you describe what you see to a blind person, if requested?

When you have a chance, take a fifteen-minute walk around your neighborhood. Walk slowly and observe with your eyes and listen with your ears the sights and sounds of your neighborhood. Note the plants and flowers. How do they differ from one another? Describe in your mind the beauty and the ugly that is all around you. Study the unique features that architects used to design the buildings and homes in your neighborhood.

When you commute to school or to work, notice the sky, the traffic levels, the overhead bridges you pass under, the trees and animals in the distance. Try to identify something different each time you commute. In the winter, study the skeletal structures of barren trees . . . the oak, the maple, the ash. If you were to photograph a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, what scene would you focus inside your camera lens?

You can learn more in these simple activities each day than most people learn in a lifetime. There is so much education around us if we just take the time to look, listen and ponder. Education is increased perception of your surroundings and environment.

You are familiar with the verse that reminds us to take the time to smell the roses. In other words, take the time to perceive the world around you. Too often we rush to work, rush to school, rush to practice, rush back home, and then rush . . . rush . . . rush by opportunities to learn and appreciate our surroundings. We miss the animals and plants that beautify our world; we miss the different styles often worn by people; and we miss the funny shapes formed by the clouds. We are missing opportunities to expand our knowledge base.

Increasing your perceptive skills require that you first become a good listener. Then you need to spend a few moments each day to observe. Make it a daily habit to observe your surroundings when you commute to work or school. Spend a weekend in the woods and observe the changes in the seasons. Take jaunts or trips to discover nature’s tiny intricacies.

Another suggestion to increase your perceptive skills is to research a particular subject and then make a trip to observe the subject that you studied. For example, research some materials on botany science. Then walk through a conservatory to study the plants and trees. Perhaps you might be interested in local history. Schedule a weekend to tour your community to identify historic buildings and artifacts. Perception is listening and observation. By opening your eyes and ears to your surroundings, you can strengthen your educational attribute and your appreciation of your environment.

Education is Positive Language

Listen to your language. Do you use positive or negative language when you speak with others? Your language communicates how you feel, how you react to challenges and how you believe in yourself. Changing and strengthening your education attribute means developing a positive language with a proactive attitude.

Negative phases such as:

• I can’t
• I don’t want to
• I can’t do that
• That’s not my responsibility

should change into positive, proactive language such as:

• I’ll try it
• I choose a different approach
• Let’s look as different alternatives
• Let me help you where I can

A positive, proactive approach to language, action, thinking and response will open your mind to experiences that increase education. Proactive people accept different challenges that force them to learn, to experience, and to enjoy. Though they may be bound by constraints such as personal knowledge and authority, they will always look for alternatives, believing that there are ways to accomplish an objective. Inventors, explorers and other successful people throughout history used proactive thinking. Similar proactive thinking must become part of your vocabulary.

Next time: we will continue our discussion of education attributes.

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Read more about achieving success and become something grand: subscribe to our RSS feed

BLOG postings: (link to Achieving Success BLOG for all posts and PDF downloads)

Discipline to Success:

The Education Attribute

Educated men are as much superior to uneducated men as the living are to the dead.
Aristotle

continuation from BLOG post: part IX.a

We reviewed last week the attributes that makeup our education character. These traits include the following. Let’s review each:

Being a Good Listener

“Hello . . . Hello . . . Hello . . . did you hear me?”

Becoming a better listener can increase your education. Why? Because listening opens our minds to opinions and advice from others. You can learn more about yourself by listening to others and their experiences. Becoming better listeners can also improve friendships, marriages, families and careers.

Good listeners increase their education and knowledge base by listening to people who have practical experience and wisdom. Listening expands our knowledge in unfamiliar subjects and events that can make our lives less complicated. Parents are excellent role models with practical experience. They can teach us about careers, education, child-rearing and caring for families. Teachers, friends, intellects and peers are all excellent advisers who can expand our knowledge if we take the time to listen. Even our children can offer advice on music, trends and new technological advances.

You can develop good listening skills by making it a habit to listen. Put aside your own dominating tendencies and allow others to express their feelings and opinions. Be patient. Spend some time to ask questions. Invite experts to share their knowledge. And probe the emotional feelings of the person who is speaking. They may be crying for help and you can be in the position to lend your advice by just listening. It might be helpful to think yourself as a counselor. Good counselors listen first to people’s ideas or problems before drawing any conclusion.

Being a Good Reader

Let’s take a test:

1. Name the economic powers that make up the Group of Seven. Show their respective geographic locations on a world map.
2. Summarize the environmental impact of acid rain. List solutions that you would recommend to resolve the problem without adversely impacting the economy.
3. Explain the gravitational properties of a black hole.
4. Recite the major political events that lead to World War I.
5. Name the tennis tournaments that makeup the Grand Slam.
6. Identify the three longest rivers in the world. Name the countries that these rivers flow through.

You might be asking how these six questions measure your reading abilities. They don’t. Even I couldn’t answer all of the questions without some research. I use the questions to illustrate a concept. If you had to answer each question, say to win the grand prize, could you make an attempt based on your current reading abilities?

Each question relates to a particular subject matter. The first question relates to economic issues; the second question relates to the environment; the third, to science; and so forth to the last question, which relates to geography. Does your reading cover each of these subject materials and more? Do you expose your mind to varied subject materials? How would evaluate your exposure to the following subject materials:

• History
• Chemical Science
• Government
• Biological Science
• Social and Public Policy
• Human Science
• Music, Drama, Dance
• Business
• Art
• Investments
• Entertainment and Sports
• Economic Policy
• Mathematics
• Languages
• Physics
• Literature
• Astronomy
• Geographical Science
• Computer Science
• Environmental Science

You can’t expect to become an expert in all of these subjects. But an educated, well-informed person learns much about these subjects by broadening his or her reading spectrum. An educated person loves to read about many different subjects by visiting libraries, subscribing to different periodicals and conducting personal research.

There are a number of ways to develop good reading habits. You should spend more time reading materials that interest you. You should try to read materials that will expand your knowledge base. Suggested readings include big-city newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. These papers can be easily delivered to your home and can expose you to current affairs and varied subjects of interest. Other reading materials includes periodicals in public policy, foreign affairs, economics, history, people, art, geography, etc. You might also consider subscribing to on-line services with your PC. These internet services offer a variety of educational sources at substantially less cost than many periodical subscription fees.

But what if you don’t like history, for example? Why waste your time reading history books if the subject material bores you? Let me make a suggestion. If you dislike history or any other particular subject material, try selecting a literary work that interests you — such as a novel — that is written in period of history. For example, if you like romances, pick a novel that is written about an early period. Or if you like mysteries, read a mystery novel set in Nazi Germany. Note passages in your book that tie to some historical fact. You might have an encyclopedia handy to research historical information that you find in your book. Reading “between the lines” and researching facts about a subject will increase your interest in history, geography, science, etc.

Reading is like everything else: practice makes perfect. Good reading habits require that you read . . . read . . . read. Schedule time to read in the morning, before bed, during lunch, etc. Try to read varying subjects that will expand your knowledge base. The more varied subjects that you read, the greater your exposure to the world around you.

Next week: we will continue our discussion of education attributes.

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