I am passionate about empowering those who are looking for a hand up, not a hand out. The direction our current President would like to lead our country dose not sit well with me. I am truly appreciate of the fact that I am still able to say that.
One of the ways I empower people is via education so that the individual can do some critical thinking; ask questions, think about the answer, ask more questions if necessary. With the end goal being to lead to an informed decision.
Maybe this story I read over at Glen Meakem’s Success Through Leadership will help you begin to do some critical thinking.
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that President Obama’s socialism way of thinking worked, and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
So the professor decided to try out an experiment on this class. He informed the students that all grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and now would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the third test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased because bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. The entire class failed – to their great surprise by the way!
Although this is a story for illustration purposes. Image what would happen if this small size experiment took place in your child’s classroom.
I believe ultimately the great equalizer plan will fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when the reward is taken away, no one will try or want to succeed.
You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Roger
Debi Talbert - Proud Member of Success Team Builders