Achieve College Success

When I was young I would frequently say to my father, “I want to hurry up and get through with school” or “I want this or that to happen faster.” His reply was “Don’t wish your life away.” In other words, enjoy the journey and your life right now, instead of feeling frustrated because you have not yet arrived at your destination.

Life consists of both journeys and destinations. Journeys lead us to our destinations. For example, if you are a college freshman pursuing a college degree this is part of your journey. It may be a journey that takes you four or more years to complete. Your college degree or goal is your destination (which will probably begin a new journey). It is not that the journey is bad and the destination is good. Both can be perceived as good, especially if you enjoy them. They are both helping you to fulfill your desires and goals.

You are only guaranteed the present moment in which you are now living. The past is a memory and the future is uncertain and has not yet arrived. Now, in the present moment of your life, is the time that you can live, act and enjoy. Both your journey and your destination can only be experienced in the present and both of them can be enjoyed.

The problem is that many of us become impatient with the journey to our goals. Then frustration and discouragement replaces feelings of success, optimism and enjoyment. During the journey it is as if you are planting seeds and nurturing the soil before your effort bears fruit. There is a story about this that I tell my students which helps them to see the journey in a different light and to become more patient for results from their efforts.

The Story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree

This is a true story about the Chinese bamboo tree which may contain lessons and truths that can be applied to your life. You start by planting a seed in the ground and then you must water and fertilize it frequently. After one year there are no visible signs above ground that the seed has sprouted and that growth is occurring. You continue to water and fertilize the seed for another year, and still, there are no apparent results from your efforts. So you continue to water and fertilize the ground where you planted the seed for a third year, but you still see nothing happening. You continue for a fourth year and still there is no apparent growth.

During the fifth year you can begin to see a shoot above ground and signs that growth is occurring. And then something remarkable happens! The tree grows over 90 feet in six weeks. Eventually the seed you planted is capable of becoming a tree that grows over 200 feet tall.

Once the bamboo tree becomes visible (even as a shoot) it grows rapidly. What was happening during all of those years that you were watering and fertilizing the seed? It was developing strong and wide root structures to support the tree and its rapid growth above ground. In other words, the foundation upon which it would grow and stand was being developed during the first four years.

Lessons from the story:

• Your life dreams are like seeds

• Plant, water and nurture your dream seeds

• Keep working and be patient

• Results may remain invisible for some time

• Just as a tall tree can arise from a tiny seed, so can your dream
seeds manifest into something great

• Take care of the seeds and reap the harvest

Please answer and think about the following questions:

1. What is one experience from your life that is similar to a lesson in the story of the Chinese bamboo tree?

2. How can you apply an important lesson in the story to your life? What is that lesson and the action you will take?

Copyright 2010. Raymond Gerson

Best regards,

Raymond Gerson

A primary goal of President Obama’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization proposal is college and career readiness for all students. Increasing high school graduation rates and preparing students for post-secondary education success is necessary to prepare students for 21st century skilled jobs.

Most students who do not go beyond a high school diploma will be doomed to mediocre, low paying and back breaking jobs for the rest of their lives. This is one reason why Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education spoke to the House Committee on Education on March 3, 2010 about the administration’s proposal. He said college pathways and accelerated learning programs are needed to prepare students for post-secondary education and career success.

Many colleges already offer college success courses to increase retention, grades and graduation rates. Similar courses and strategies are needed in high schools to teach students how to learn better and to maximize their performance. Several colleges have conducted studies to demonstrate that a wide variety of study skills and interventions help students to get positive results.

Research on how the brain learns has provided educators with information for developing strategies which can increase college readiness and success. Here are just a few:

1. Creating a positive emotional climate enhances learning and retention. Educators need to build rapport, trust and a feeling of safety so students will take risks, ask important questions and develop positive mind sets.
2. Content and teaching methods need to stimulate positive emotions in the students for better understanding, retention and recall of material. Stories, stimulating questions, visual imagery and music can be used effectively. For example, some DVDs can be used that contain visual imagery, music and a powerful message related to the topic. This can be followed by group discussions and cooperative learning activities.
3. Information needs to make sense to students. Students can be taught to come up with real life examples from their own lives or the lives of others to make sense out of the new material.
4. Information needs to be relevant to the students. They need to be taught how new information relates to them. For example, a teacher recently told me that a student thought learning to write well would be a waste of his time. He asked, “Why should I bother with learning to write well?” She replied, “Because if I was an employer I wouldn’t hire you unless you could write well. You would not even be able to do well filling out the job application and that would be a turnoff.” This gave the student a reason that not only made sense, but he could relate to it and the teacher definitely got his attention. He wanted to eventually find a good job and now he had a reason to improve his writing skills.
5. Positive self-concept aids learning. Brain research has demonstrated that learning is enhanced by a positive self-concept or self-image. Conversely, a negative self-concept makes learning more difficult. If a student thinks of himself as a poor student he will probably perform accordingly. There are many ways educators can help students to improve their self-concept. Here is one example: Teach students to set a series of very small goals and encourage them to accomplish them. Every time students achieve a small goal it will improve their self-confidence, self-esteem and create more of a success mindset.

In conclusion, providing students with emotionally impactful content and teaching methods, presenting information that makes sense and is relevant, and improving their self-concept are a few strategies that will increase learning and prepare them for college and career success.

Copyright 2010. Raymond Gerson

Best regards,

Raymond Gerson