Humility - the best starting point for learning
Minda Marshall is married to Thomas Marshall and the dedicated mother of their three children. She is involved in various training and education institutions. She co-pastors Destiny Alive Family Church with her husband Thomas and they oversee CAL, a registered Private FET College and MDA private school in Mokopane. Minda is an educationalist and researcher in reading and has developed innovative reading solutions like LAB-on-line for more than 17 years through their company LectorSA. Minda is passionate about educating and empowering parents, children, teachers and educators to discover their internal strengths and to maximize their abilities. She trains leaders around the world.
We are establishing the importance of building an accurate ‘structure’ into our children. The way we see ourselves and our place in this world is crucial in developing an accurate attitude and view of life. As a parent your role in developing in them a positive way of looking at life is crucial. It is even more important than their ‘formal schooling’.
We live in the ‘age of information’.
The environment our children grow up in can easily give them a false sense of empowerment that can lead to a loss of wonder and awe for life. This can even create an entitlement to ‘know things’ in our children. The way we are able to access information through modern technology has changed the way we look at life. We live in a ‘quick-fix’ day and time and it is crucial to help our children start their journey to knowledge in the right place.
Thinking ‘I know’ or ‘I’ve heard that before’ will lead to missing out on the wonders of truly knowing.
A mind that is observant is also humble. If we do not want to know, we will never know properly. Being attentive leads to true knowledge. Nurturing humility in our children is very important in building an accurate structure in their lives.
I’ve found that the ‘Habits of Mind’ is a wonderful way to describe the structure we need to build into our children’s hearts and minds in order for them to be successful in life. Horace Mann observed that "a habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it." What are we weaving into our children’s outlook on life?
What is the Habits of Mind? It describes different ways we act when we behave intelligently. These behaviours are a set of problem solving, life-related skills. They help us to develop a way of thinking and understanding our world. They develop ‘grit’, creativity and skills in our children. Let’s take a look at the first of these ‘Habits of Mind’; Responding with ‘Wonderment and Awe.’
Albert Einstein said: ‘The most beautiful experience in the world is the experience of the mysterious.’ This way of looking at life leaves us intrigued by the world's beauty, by nature's power and the vastness of the universe. We look for the ‘wow’-factor around us and are open to the small and big surprises in life. A beautiful sunrise, a small flower along the roadside, a child laughing for joy.
Many people live life by just ‘going through the motions’, or ‘getting through the day’, but to be successful in life you must have a passion for what you do. Scientific studies have proven that people who live effective lives have not only an "I can" attitude but also an “I love doing this” attitude. One such a person is chemist Ahmed H. Zewail, a Nobel Prize winner, who said that he had a passion to understand fundamental processes: ‘I love molecules. I want to understand why they do what they do’.
Sometimes we avoid problems and don’t like to learn. I’ve heard children saying ‘I ‘m not good at this or that,’ or ‘Who cares,’ or even ‘I don't do thinking!’
But if we as parents want to take up the responsibility to set our children up for success we would encourage them to be curious, to take a keen interest in the world around them, to think about the changing formations of a cloud, to be amazed at the opening of a flower, to find joy in the awesome beauty of a Bushveld sunset. We would want them to live in a place of ‘Yes, I can!’
Intelligent people find intrigue in the ordered shape of a spider web, and excitement in the beauty of a hummingbird. We live in a beautiful part of South Africa, use this environment to create a sense of awe in your child.
Take time to lie on the grass with your child, flat on your back, and discuss the formation of the clouds. Talk to them about the challenges we face with adequate food supply for future on earth, discuss different solutions with them at dinner table. Set their minds free by opening their hearts to ‘Responding with wonderment and awe’ at the world around them.
We want our children to be enthusiastic and passionate about learning, asking questions, and understanding new knowledge. In this way we are building a structure for success into our children.
At our next meeting we will discover more of the ‘Habits of Mind.’
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