Yup!
It warms my heart.
I’ve been reading Innocent Ximba’s ‘Dabs for distinctions’ and I realise that excellence is a principle.
Most of us envy people who do well in anything.
Academics, athletics, entertainment but we are seldom willing to put in the effort that it would take to get the same results.
All we have are wishes.
We don’t have the discipline to create schedules around achieving our goals.
And that is why we are barely making it.
Perhaps we were raised to accept ‘average’ as ‘okay’ as long as you ‘tried’.
But we cannot pass these lame expectations to the next generation.
Can our society raise children that are obsessed with excellence?
In 2011, The Guardian embarked to resolve how children of Chinese origin, whether rich or poor, do incredibly well in school.
They found that it is mostly due to the parents.
It is said that Chinese parents tend to push their children a lot and have really high expectations.
This echoes Ximba’s sentiments as well who believe that most of what encourages academic excellence occur outside the classroom.
Parents hold the key to how children respond to excellence with few exceptions.
Our expectations frame their efforts and later outcomes.
That is why we STILL get so surprised when a black child from a ‘black school’ gets 7 distinctions.
I am ready to switch it up.
Let us teach them the principle of excellence, in all things, support them where we should and then expect them to produce results accordingly.
Then watch and see what happens… #blackexcellence
