

Archive for February, 2010
I am going to be bold and state that everyone sets goals. But, there is a vast difference between achievers, smart goal setting, and simply setting goals. I want to ask you a question – are you doing smart goal setting when setting goals? Join me as I show you how you can start smart with setting goals.
Setting goals and achieving goals is both a science and an art. There is many ways to go about it, you can be analytical with goal setting or you can start getting creative. In either case goals fall down into 2 parts.
The 2 parts of goal setting, can be thought of as a piece of string, a timeline. This timeline has a point A and a point B. These points are critical, because point A shows you in your current position, and point B shows you at your goal achieved.
This looks good so far, but why doesn’t everyone achieve there goals? The biggest problem is that most people don’t go through both parts. Without setting effective goals, there is no way to maneuver to the destination.
You see, most people will set goals. They will set goals at New Year, when it is time to go on vacation, etc. But, they will never sit down and plan the most important destination, and that is life.
Goal setters are a different breed of people. Instead of focusing on such words as fate, destiny takes on a new meaning, because day by day, you can design your life, how you want. And this is the domain of the goal setter. Because they are focused to do, be or have something.
In my research, I have found that approximately 50-60% of people who set goals, achieve them. This may seem like flipping a coin, and goal setting may not prove successful. However, the truth is that when we take a look at the New Year resolution goal achievers, the figures dip down into 1% success rate.
So, smart goal setting is about tipping the balance in our favor. And there are many ways to accomplish this. Writing your goal down adds a few percentage points in your favor.
Add a goal setting system to this equation and you can take the success rate even higher. Now, there is only one part that makes or breaks all these benefits, and that is action.
Now, I can’t stress the action part. Some people are all for the action, and forget the goal setting and planning phase, while others don’t act. And here is the biggest concern, because the goal setters, who don’t make it, are those who don’t act.
Action is the most important part, because goal setting can take you a week, it could take a day. If you have been looking at setting life goals, you can easily do that within a week or like I did, invest a whole month into the process.
That is small in comparison to the action necessary. When I set a life goal, it requires decades of effort. Action and smart goal setting is the only way to achieve success.
One of the best and easiest ways to inform yourself about your child’s learning disability is by reading a good book on the subject. There is a ton of literature available about learning problems, so it may be a bit of daunting task to choose something to start with. Luckily, there are many informed parents and specialists out there who have already waded through this flood of information, so you don’t have to dive in on your own. The following is a list of written resources that have made it past the critical gaze of those in the know:
1. No Easy Answers: The Learning Disabled Child at Home and at School, Sally L. Smith, $23 (paperback), available at Amazon.com
This has been the book that parents of learning disabled children have turned to for more than fifteen years now. Smith is the parent of a learning disabled child, the founder and director of the Lab School, and an education professor at the American University, so she’s extremely well-qualified to write about this subject. The book covers a wide range of information, including a look at how learning disabilities are diagnosed and tips on how to make sure your child is getting the education he or she deserves. The updated version includes sections on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), ADD, and ADHD.
2. All Kinds of Minds: A Young Student’s Book About Learning Abilities and Learning Disorders, Melvin D. Levine, $28.70 (paperback), available at Amazon.com
Even though this book is geared toward young readers, it’s a valuable resource for both parents and children to learn from together. Levine is a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School and a staunch child advocate. Here, he introduces different types of learning disabilities through stories told from the point of view of five elementary school students. Each student talks about their classroom experiences, their struggles and triumphs. This approach will help children with learning problems to see that they’re not alone and that there are strategies that can they can implement to ease their scholastic difficulties.
3. Helping Children Overcome Learning Disabilities: A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents and Teachers, Jerome Rosner, $18.95 (paperback), available at Amazon.com
The approach of this book is different from most others on the subject. For starters, the author suggests that parents and teachers avoid using the label “learning disabled” and instead focus on the specific problems that their children or students face. Rosner is a professor of pediatric optometry at the University of Houston and has written several books on working with children who have learning issues. Readers will appreciate his accessible explanations of each type of learning difficulty, as well as his positive and practical solution-based approach.
“Education means bringing out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent in the mind of everyman”.
–Socrates–
In every civilized society men and women believe that education is comprehensive, compulsory and necessary for every individual. Education is an important human activity. The very concept if education is like a diamond which appears to be of a different colour when seen from different angles.
Etymological Definition:
The word ‘Education’ had its origin in the Latin word ‘Educatum’, itself composed of two words, ‘E’ and ‘Duco’, means developing and progressing. Hence, in its literal scenario, education means becoming develop or progressing from inside to outside. In other words, education implies some of the change for the better and greater in a person.
Different educational theorists has given different derivations of the concept ‘Education’.
1. According to Forebel, “Education is a process through which child makes its internal external”.
2. According to Eddisoan, “When education works on noble mind it draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection.
3. According to Pestalozzi, “Education is defined as natural, harmonious and progressive development of men’s innate powers”.
4. According to M. K. Gandhi, “I mean an all around drawing out of the best in child and man body, mind and spirit”.
Education is aggregate of all the processes by which a person develops ability, attitudes and behaviour of practical values in the society in which he lives.
Narrow Sense of Education: In large majority of people use the concept of education to mean the training undertaken for some years in some educational institutions. This is the narrow meaning of the concept of education. In other words, it implies education provided according to a fixed curriculum by a particular set of people in a specific place.
Wider Sense of Education: The very betterment of an adjusted pattern of life is the product of that educational system. The very educative system is going on every moment in the life of a person. Here, each day’s activities has an effect upon him. The educant may perceive or not perceive that effect.
Liberal Sense of Education: When the word ‘Education’ is accepted in its more literal meaning it is granted that all the times and places and individuals is imbibing some of its areas. Here, it is not limited merrily to the classroom. It can be obtained all kinds of social organizations, associations, individuals, nature, etc. It is mention may be made that a child gets his education not only from his teacher, but also from the entire environment of his life.
A Sense of Individual Development: Education is the complete development of the individuality of the child. According to some thinkers and philosophers, education is nothing but a process which a child can have free, spontaneous and individual betterment. Basically, the main achievement of ‘education’ lies in ability to arouse interest towards the subject of inspiring him.
As a Product: Education is the product of learning process. It implies growth and development. Education is a process or system through which date, experience, information is achieved of course it is a continuous and comprehensive process of training and guidance.
A bi-polar System: Education of course is a bi-polar system. Here it involves the interplay of the educator and the educant. In this process of education the teacher and the taught are the active participants. So education is nothing but bi-polar process by which the natural spontaneous and progressive betterment of the child is justified.
A tri-polar System: Education is also a tri-polar system. It involves the interaction of the personality of the educator and the educant in a social setting. In other words it effects the modification of the behaviour of the educant.
Education in the West: Educational training like every other branch of knowledge started in the philosophical deliberation of the ancient Greek philosophers. Here, it is mention may be made of Plato’s name. He termed education as a “Life long process starting from the first years of childhood and lasting to the very end of the life”.
Education in India: In Indian approach, it becomes necessary to cover the spiritual area. Here, it is accepted as a part of betterment by education. In other words, Indian philosophers have placed special importance upon this. According to Shankaracharya, “Education is that which leads salvation”. Yajuavalkya said that, only that is education which gives a sterling character to an individual and renders him useful for the world.
A modern developed society cannot survive without education. It is an old as humanity. It helps people adjust to change. Succinctly, it is only education which can help a person understand to all the Social changes and provide the skills and technology for adjusting to them.

