Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie,
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said "What a good boy am I!"
Eating his Christmas pie,
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said "What a good boy am I!"
http://iamachild.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/little-jack-horner.jpg?w=500&h=494
A good boy Little Jack Horner was
not. And unfortunately in today’s
cultural there is a very basic principal that seems to be slipping and should
land a lot of people in their own corner of “time-out”. I am talking about using good manners.
All too often in today’s culture
people get hung up in what I call “consumer mentality.” And over and over I
have seen this happen in the education world as well. Students have this faulty thinking that goes,
“I am paying for my education and because I am paying, you owe me something in
return.” That “something” can be a good
grade, an instructors time, special treatment because your life is so much
different and busy than everyone else’s, or any number of other things.
It
is time for a reality check. As students
we are owed NOTHING, NOTTA, ZILCH if we do not earn it. I am not one to toot my own horn, but let me
give you a true to life example. For the
last 20 years my main job title has been “Home Manager” because we have ten
children – yes I said TEN, same two parents, still married and still sane (at
least most days). The oldest is 20 the
youngest is 19 months. From Sept 2012 –
May 2013, my second child had THREE major surgeries to repair a fractured ankle
from a football injury and we watched his hopes of a Division I athletic career
crumble. During this time I did not once
ask for special treatment from my instructors and I still carried a high
GPA. I DID stay in communication with my
instructors.
Secondly,
you will hear faculty, staff, and student ambassadors say over and over and
over again that the instructors are here for YOU. They want to be available to HELP. That being said, when you reach out to an
instructor and they do help you, take the time to let them know it was helpful
and say, “THANK YOU.” Basic, simple,
polite manners can get you a long way.
Even if it is the simplest of questions they answer, use your manners.
Emily
Post is known for her advice on manners and she has this to say,
“Manners
are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good
manners, no matter what fork you use.”
Keep your thumbs out of
plumbs and avoid sticking forks in your instructors.
It’s
been another Manic Monday…..
Monday
Ambassador
If you are interested in
more on my life with ten kids, see my blog at www.mommysmumblings.blogspot.com
Greetings Monday Ambassador,
ReplyDeleteWouldn't you know that I wrote a very long response and I broke the cardinal rule of writing it directly in the box just to have an error message pop up and all the text disappeared.
Maybe it was a hint that my message was to long but here I go again.
The blog makes very valid points and should be taken to heart. I don't know how you stay sane with ten children, but as a mom I do wonder if at times we have super powers. As a volunteer I instruct leadership and military life skills to Army families at the local US Army Post. As a Spouse of a Service Member for 17yrs, I can relate to the feelings the younger Spouses are faced with daily. Very similar to the feelings described in the blog about personal expectations vs personal gain. Be that I lost my original post, I'm just going to cover a more basic explanation of communication, expectations, stress and time management.
If you go to the grocery store, and buy the ingredients to make a dinner then return home and put the items away in the refrigerator, will the meal prepare itself? Wishful thinking and maybe a magic wand it might, but chances are the ingredients will sit and eventually rot away if left untouched.
Using your resources wisely, is a key to managing stress and time. Communication is the foundation in all we do. Recently my son was getting frustrated with the amount of homework and activities outside school. Part of the issue was time management, the other issue was the lack of communication and in turn lead to stress. We took a seat at the table and opened up the communication train to sort out the issues. You could visually see that through the conversation that he was releasing the stress that had built up as we sorted though his priorities onto a piece of paper.
Sometimes a visual review is needed and that is why I thank you for your time in writing the blog. A great reference we use in the classroom on Post is "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" written by author, educator and motivational speaker Stephen Covey. Unfortunately Convey passed in July of 2012 but his videos and books are available online.
To wrap up my response, what I hope everyone reading got from this blog is that resources are available. Communication will open doors to anything life has to offer. In order to have personal gain one must be willing to receive and make the effort to acknowledge the difference in realistic expectations vs unrealistic expectations. Don't assume one understands if you have failed to communicate in some form.
“In the space between stimulus (what happens) and how we respond, lies our freedom to choose. Ultimately, this power to choose is what defines us as human beings. We may have limited choices but we can always choose. We can choose our thoughts, emotions, moods, our words, our actions; we can choose our values and live by principles. It is the choice of acting or being acted upon.”
― Stephen R. Covey
If you have the time, and I know everyone does look up the videos of Stephen Covey speaking about different principles.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
90/10 Principle
The 8th Habit