a little off topic

Let me ask you a question,.. "kids in school - what are they motivated by? Why do they do their homework?"

Fear.. they are motivated by fear, all the many days in school, from the second they are in kindergarten to the day they grad from high school - fear. And how many years is that? 3 years to 17 years - 15 years of being driven by fear..

Why am I talking about this? Because I dreaded school.. I hated school, and when I was only in elementary school, I figured this out and purposed it in my heart to do something about it when I grew up. I always had a heart for kids and teenagers, ever since I was still a kid.

Tell me, when God first created the world, what was the ultimate education system at that time - His main intention? - family - parents. It was the duty of parents to educate their children. Parents had the authority to discipline their kids - why? Because they loved them. And the kids knew that their parents loved them dearly, and the kids knew their parents well - he who held the rod was no stranger. He who held the rod was he who loved them most in the whole world - so were they driven by fear? -no. They feared the rod, yes, the pain. But they did not fear going home to their parents.

But what happens when parents are busy and send their kids to school? Teachers beat them for everything - when they run around, when they throw rubbish on the floor, when their handwriting is messy, when they don't know how to answer the question correctly, when they didn't bring their book or when they did not pass up on time or worse- when they didn't do their work. And who is this person who has the cane? - a stranger.

The worst comes when it is the first day of school - all you know is the name of the teacher, and she already has the cane in hand. Are you afraid? Definitely. Is this torture? Yes. When she asks you to do something, what drives you? - fear.

And finally when you go to work, what are you driven by other than money? Fear - "If you don't do this properly, you're fired or I'm going to cut your pay, or you won't get bonus end of this month, or so on and so forth." What's worse is when you fear your superior above you - they scold you and you're so sick of it.. because you have been listening to this scolding tune your whole life, and now when you go to work, you have to face it again. So all your life, what are you driven by? From the day you go to school until you graduate and go to work - what is your motivation - fear. Afraid that you won't have enough money to send your kids to school and lay food on the table.

Not everyone can escape this fear. Very few has - kids who homeschool or adults who have their own businesses. People who run their own lives and not being controlled by another person.

Now let's look at the adults - what was God's ultimate plan for us to provide for our family? When God first created the world, for the first few thousand years, there were no such thing as employment. Everyone provided for their own, other than slaves, who has no freedom and is wholly controlled by another person.

Employment only came much later, around Christ time, there was already such a thing as wages. I'm not saying that employment is wrong - there is nothing wrong with it, not to Christ, at least. Some of His parables also used wages.

My point is, is this God's intention for us? To be driven by fear? The education system and the employment system was not God's first intention when He created human beings to multiply on this earth. "Be fruitful and multiply, have dominion over the earth, the sea and the dry land - over every living thing" - to rule, to have power and dominion.

But like I said, there is nothing wrong with having a school and employing people. I just believe that the way it is done is wrong. There is a better way of motivating people. Don't treat your employees like they are at your mercy. Treat them like human beings who have a choice in life.

Oh, one more thing I'd like to add, since we're on this topic of treating your employees right - Give them proper wages, don't pay them peanuts for something they work their butts off for - for example, RM3 an hour, working in fast food outlets - yes, you know who you are.. the minimum wage in Australia is $10 an hour. Those promoters in the supermarket - not allowed to sit? Why? For 11 hours and only 1 hour break, and the rest of the time no sitting, everyday? And how many years are you expecting them to keep that job? Stop counting the hours where you have to stand and start counting the hours when you actually do get a chance to sit!

And whoever came up with the idea of working 9-5 everyday? Isn't the most important thing doing your work and not how many hours you spend in the office, for goodness sake, I thought you guys were human beings with brains. If you seriously had brains, you'd be paying people by the amount of work they do instead. Instead of paying for the electricity bills and air cond used to cater for all those employees sitting in the office who are chatting online, and they get scolded for it too.

What is wrong with employing mothers who have kids? Why must they come to office and abandon their kids with a baby sitter? Why can't they do their work at home? The most important thing is to get the job done, right? And if they really do get the job done, then what is your problem? Isn't it cheaper to employ them who work at home and not have to pay for furniture and fixings and bills for those in the office? If they really wanted the money, don't be afraid if they didn't do their job.

Freedom, choice, liberty,.. a sound mind. A state where you needn't be controlled by another person. C H oi C E

We should not be motivated by fear. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love, power and a sound mind..

So now, let's go back to the kids. We should not teach the kids that this is how the world goes round - that the only driver there is, is fear. Young as they are, this is what has been taught in the schools. And the only driver they know is fear.

Make your lessons more interesting. Give them fun as a motivation. Learning is fun. Enjoyable. Exciting. Thrilling. Interesting. An adventure. A discovery. Life-giving and life-changing. Learning is almost anything but a chore - a duty. Not something you "have to do, if not.."

What did God give us? God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind.

These are our drivers- love, power and a sound mind. This is how the world goes round..

Did you know that kids who are taught directly by their parents learn much more? Because there is a connection that takes place when there is love involved. When you love the person teaching you, you'd just absorb everything so quickly. There are various kinds of memory - two of them are the temporary and permanent memory. Things that you study for the exam last minute goes into the temporary memory and stuff like phone numbers and songs seem to get into your permanent memory, which you remember, even when they are random numbers which doesn't make sense. When a person you really love teaches you something, it doesn't get stored into your temporary memory, but your permanent memory. Learned something today? ;)

Choice. Decisions. Dilemmas. Kids. Think about it. If kids had a chance to make their own choices, they could learn a whole much more.

Give them a red apple and give them a picture of a red apple, which do you think they will remember better? Teach them about maths virtually. I liked the concept from the Sunlight Homeschool for kids. They give them mini blocks, with different colours, one representing each number, and the smaller number is a shorter block, and the larger number is a longer block. And it's a block they get to stack up, so one plus one makes two. And they actually hold '1', which is a white short block and stack it up on another white small block to make '2', which is exactly the same height as the red block which represents '2'. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Times table was so hard for me when I first started to learn it as a kid, because it was memory work, and was supposed to get into your permanent memory, like phonenumbers do, but I didn't know that. As a kid, I didn't know what was temporary and permanent memory. I spent most of the time trying to count and recount, and wonder how the adults could get 3 x 3 so much faster than I did - memory work.

Most of the time I wasted in early form 4 because I didn't know that I didn't have to understand how the formulas came about in the first place, and that I just had to use it, not understand it. I think somewhere goes wrong here.. if they don't know how the formulas came out, then people like me will seriously have trouble using it. Because I keep getting distracted by how they came about that formula anyway.. Maybe they can help by giving some intro of how the formula came about first.. Okay, so maybe not everyone is like me, but food for thought, though..

One of the things that I really like is called On-the-job Learning.. :) Give kids real stuff to do. For example, business.. give them a business to handle, give them a mentor/sponsor, someone they can observe and learn from, and give them a small business to handle. Put them in a committee where they make decisions and spearhead that business. Teach them while they are yet young - I always believe that they can never be too young to learn anything. Learning doesn't have an age limit.

Recently I wanted to come up with new programmes for Palm Springs Educenter - wanted to teach the kids business strategy and accounting and stuff.. Then later heard that I had to get a full time job and eventually study culinary in Melbourne, so I totally abandoned the whole idea and gave it a 'one-day one-day' treatment. Later I heard that there was a company called 'The Money Tree' teaching kids about business and stock markets and giving them fake money and the course fees is exceedingly expensive.. -Hey! What the heck, you stole my idea, you guinea pigs!!! I shall slaughter you! >=/

Okay, anyway, the point is,.. Give them real stuff to do - bring them to the science lab and let them do the experiments. Let them invent their own things. They are never too young to learn anything, and if it is too dangerous, then do something about it. I'm sure you can come up with something, after all, we are the adults. It is our duty to ensure their safety anyway - don't be lazy. Just think of something.

Nurture their creativity. Don't limit them. Their minds are more and more limited the older they grow, not the younger they are.


* tRUST & OBey the LORD *