What do the class clown and class thug have in common? Emotions! How successful each of them becomes depends on their ability to express and manage their emotions.
The inability to manage emotions can create a situation where the smartest boy in the class is also the class thug who punches the funniest boy in the class for being funny.
While reading the premise of Dr. Daniel Goleman's book "Emotional Intelligence" I thought about the number of smart youth I have mentored over the years who were emotionally impotent. I have seen so many smart boys who could not control their tempers or others who were academic whiz kids but could not express themselves openly or relate to other people.
Dr. Goleman contends that EQ is as important as our IQ. A smart man who cannot express himself emotionally or manage his emotions doesn't go very far. If he has risen, his demise is lurking somewhere in the near future. He says managing emotions is something that should be taught in school, especially since it is crucial to career success. He has his critics of course; they claim that there is no "right" or "wrong" emotion and such things should not be taught.
Somehow I tend to think there would be fewer fights, less violence and more creativity if children are taught, from childhood, how to express emotions properly and how to manage their emotions.
Maybe fewer people would get punched in the nose.
Emotional management is best taught to children and as they mature the qualities will exhibit themselves in every aspect of life.
Dr. Goleman thinks schools should do the training but the bible puts the responsibility on everyone who has any dealing with a child beginning with its parents.
Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
What's next? Along with our IQ we will probably get an EQ number as well.
Many who pass the IQ test may flunk the EQ, get angry, storm out of the meeting and curse out the test administrator for being so dumb!
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label training. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
He made an A in football, but failed everything else
He made an A in football, but failed all other subjects.
A young friend of mine is facing summer school again after earning grades of D and F in all of his subjects. He failed a full year of social studies, math, and science and made D's in all other subjects. However, he did earn an A in football.
The school will allow him to pass to the next grade if he enrolls in summer school for one of those failed subjects. He's tickled because he'll still get to play football in the 9th grade instead of spending another year in the 8th.
His mother wants to pull him out of athletics and focus on his academics but the coaches tell her that he is "athletically gifted" and should be allowed to play on the school's team. They are bending every rule to get him into high school so that this academically deficient student can demonstrate his athletic gifts and help the school win games.
The mother is frustrated. The son is disillusioned; he hears the coaches tell him that he can go all the way to the pros. He doesn't pay attention to the fact that nearly all NFL players are college graduates and all attended college to some length.
With D's and F's he won't get into college at all. Apparently that doesn't matter to some people, they plan to pass him along through his high school years. He will help the school win games but after he graduates, or gets too old, that's when they will dump him.
He loses.
My advice to her was to let him repeat the grade, pull him out of athletics altogether, and plunge him to a year long "catch up" crusade of special tutoring and instruction to help him get his head ready for life. It would be expensive and time consuming but by no means should she allow him to go forward without the proper academics. She didn't take my advice or similar advice from others.
Against her better judgment, the mother enrolled him in summer school to learn in a few days what he did not learn the entire year. She will also let him move into high school deficient in core subjects that will not get easier but harder. You see, the coaches convinced her that her son is athletically gifted and should not be deprived of his chance.
We have a responsibility to train and direct the paths of our children. They are children, they do not know what they need. We must train them to value knowledge, develop their talents and to apply themselves. If we don't do it when they are young, they will grow old having missed their mark in life.
This need for training is biblical. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
The young man can't see how he is being used. When he wakes up a few years from now and recognizes what has happened to him, he will be frustrated and angry with the world, his mother and his high school coach.
A young friend of mine is facing summer school again after earning grades of D and F in all of his subjects. He failed a full year of social studies, math, and science and made D's in all other subjects. However, he did earn an A in football.
The school will allow him to pass to the next grade if he enrolls in summer school for one of those failed subjects. He's tickled because he'll still get to play football in the 9th grade instead of spending another year in the 8th.
His mother wants to pull him out of athletics and focus on his academics but the coaches tell her that he is "athletically gifted" and should be allowed to play on the school's team. They are bending every rule to get him into high school so that this academically deficient student can demonstrate his athletic gifts and help the school win games.
The mother is frustrated. The son is disillusioned; he hears the coaches tell him that he can go all the way to the pros. He doesn't pay attention to the fact that nearly all NFL players are college graduates and all attended college to some length.
With D's and F's he won't get into college at all. Apparently that doesn't matter to some people, they plan to pass him along through his high school years. He will help the school win games but after he graduates, or gets too old, that's when they will dump him.
He loses.
My advice to her was to let him repeat the grade, pull him out of athletics altogether, and plunge him to a year long "catch up" crusade of special tutoring and instruction to help him get his head ready for life. It would be expensive and time consuming but by no means should she allow him to go forward without the proper academics. She didn't take my advice or similar advice from others.
Against her better judgment, the mother enrolled him in summer school to learn in a few days what he did not learn the entire year. She will also let him move into high school deficient in core subjects that will not get easier but harder. You see, the coaches convinced her that her son is athletically gifted and should not be deprived of his chance.
We have a responsibility to train and direct the paths of our children. They are children, they do not know what they need. We must train them to value knowledge, develop their talents and to apply themselves. If we don't do it when they are young, they will grow old having missed their mark in life.
This need for training is biblical. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
The young man can't see how he is being used. When he wakes up a few years from now and recognizes what has happened to him, he will be frustrated and angry with the world, his mother and his high school coach.
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