I just got off the phone with one of my friends who’s a grandmother.
She’s going to be staying up awfully late tonight sewing a Halloween costume for one of her grandchildren.
Why?
Because that girl’s teachers told her that if she dressed as a famous historical figure on Halloween she’d get extra-credit.
How great is that!
Why does everything in school have to be linked with grades?
Grades. Grades. Grades.
The key is to pay close attention to which activities make us feel most alive and in love with life – and then try to spend as much time as possible engaged in those activities.
Nathaniel Branden, psychologist
Look at it this way . . . I don’t think Thomas Edison was looking for extra-credit.
Extra-credit is all about the GRADE. Many teachers are teaching their students to be “grade obsessed.”
Rather than focusing on the grade why didn’t that teacher focus on the kid’s innate curiosity and passion.
Why didn’t that teacher try anything to instill some curiosity rather than just bribe the kid with a grade?
“Try anything” other than “grade-bribing.”
I know I’m not making my point as well as I could . . . but stay with me.
I need help for this one so I’m bringing in a pinch hitter – the great Tom Friedman.
You must always be curious.
Walt Whitman, poet
The following passage is from the absolutely brilliant book The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman.
In his equation CQ + PQ > IQ . . .
CQ = Curiosity Quotient
PQ = Passion Quotient
IQ = Intelligence Quotient
As Friedman says, IQ still matters, but CQ and PQ matter even more.
Here’s Tom Friedman . . .
I live by the equation CQ + PQ > IQ.
Give me a kid with a passion to learn and a curiosity to discover and I will take him or her over a less passionate kid with a high IQ every day of the week. Because curious, passionate kids are self-educators and self-motivators. They will always be able to learn how to learn . . . “Work matters,” said [Doc] Searle [the respected technology writer], “but curiosity matters more. Nobody works harder at learning than a curious kid.”
For my money, they could engrave that onto the doorway of every school in
Some kids are just born that way, but for the many who are not, the best way to make kids love learning is either to instill in them a sense of curiosity, by great teaching, or stimulate their own innate curiosity by making available to them all the technologies . . . so they can educate themselves in an enormously rich way. . . .
Is it possible to generate your own high PQ, high passion quotient for leaning a subject, without a teacher or parent stimulating you?
Of course.
Just think back to when you were a kid and you got your first fire truck or doll or doctor’s kit or astronaut’s helmet, and you told everyone you wanted to be a fireman or a fashion model or a doctor or an astronaut when you grew up. That innocent passion for a certain job, without knowing the salary or the working hours or the preparation required, is what you need to get back in touch with.
It’s the child-like feeling of “I want to do that because I want to do that – and I don’t have to explain why” that we all need to rediscover.
To put it simply: You need to rediscover your inner fire truck. We all have one, and when you find it, you’ll know it.
Fill your life with as many moments and experiences of joy and passion
as you humanly can. Start with one experience and build on it.
Marcia Wieder, author and speaker
Thanks, Tom Friedman . . .
Rob Gilbert
