“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.” Bill Gates (1955 - )

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“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”

Bill Gates (1955 - )

Found this quote on http://www.quotationspage.com/ . Interesting and makes me think of my past.

When in school, I wasn’t exactly the most studious student. I did only what was necessary to achieve what I wanted. Placement in university wasn’t hard. I was accepted by the then seven universities in the state and was able to choose the one I preferred.

Easy study life?

No. I wasn’t exactly regular to lectures especially when the Student Union cinema was showing recent release films at a very small cost for students each Wednesday to Friday. Result, I failed my first year. It was the kick in the pants I needed.

While many students didn’t need to study to get into university, they applied themselves whereas I hadn’t. Repeating the first year, I never looked back as I applied myself, gained my B.Sc. degree then Graduate Diploma of Education.

“Success is a lousy teacher.”

There seems to be a trend with young children, at least in Australia, to make them feel they can’t lose. Every child gets a prize in party games or a trophy in sport even if their team is the “wooden spooner”. There is the issue of self-esteem but we do need to lose sometimes so we appreciate the wins.

While typing this, I was also checking Twitter and came across an interesting link to a blog article. The post deals with the issue of behaviour in the playground, always an issue for schools.

“Perhaps too many children arrive at school expecting to always get what they want and being right. Perhaps too many parents view school as a free child minding service and therefore are not interested in the learning in the classroom but will make a huge fuss over playground antics.”

(From http://www.theheadsoffice.co.uk/too-risky/ )

We need to know losing, failing, not being right and not getting what you want is also a part of life. We are much more likely to learn when life doesn’t go our way than when we find all is easy.

I have heard teachers of the very young say one of the best lessons a parent can give their child is to teach them they can’t always win.