By Hedges Capers
School has started and I am reminded how year after year, semester after semester, quarter after quarter, I made the declaration, “This year I am going to study hard and do all my assignments!”
Each year, each quarter, my good intentions lasted only a couple of days. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do well in school, because I got good grades easily in the classes I enjoyed, but I just couldn’t bring myself through will or discipline to stay up with all those assignments … until I went to graduate school.
Throughout my undergraduate work, I never really understood why I was going to school. Oh, I had plenty of people telling me that I should study and teachers telling me to try harder, but I don’t once recall anyone attempting to understand my picture of school and painting one that might appeal to me.
The day I went to graduate school, I went from being a student who showed up for class to an eager and hungry learner. I studied things that were not assigned and did work that was not required, simply because I saw a future I wanted.
The worst thing about having to make your children study or your employees work is that parents and managers then become the prisoners with the keys. For even the guards with the keys are in prison. The process of creating freedom is helping someone truly paint their future.
