Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.
by Julia Hanschell
To this day, Algebraic Maths is a challenge for me. I understand the concrete Arithmetic used in Accounting, but abstract thinking in numerical form made no sense, so I disconnected, rationalising it would always be irrelevant to my life. Except it hasn’t been. I have to constantly ask my brilliant Mathematical friend how to use Algebra to work out a formula for Accounting purposes.
On the other hand, my friend asks me to write letters for her, ‘because you can put words together to say what needs to be said in the right way.’
Yet, we both TRY before we ask for help because we both want to raise our competency, in spite of acknowledging our weaknesses, which, as hard as we try, will never be natural strengths.
I say this because we are no different from our students. Recognizing our weaknesses, we had to persevere to pass exams so that we could move on to study what we loved at a higher level.
Often you do what ‘needs must’, so that you can leave the terror of a subject behind and move on, achieving through natural ability.
However, the most meaningful lessons I learned were not academic – they were psychological.
The first was when I wanted to drop Latin to study Art at school. Art was my passion; Latin was my nemesis. My mother gave me an edict: “Get an ‘A’ in Latin and you can give it up.”
I knew there were no false threats from this lady, so I worked for my ‘A’ and was released from studying Latin forever. But not before I had learned determination and to manage resentment.
The second was when I received a failing grade in O’ Level French. It was well deserved. I had assumed my natural ‘smarts’ would get me through. They didn’t. I faced the fact that a FAIL now stood like a beacon after my name.
So, when I moved on to the A Level subjects I loved, I decided to re-sit French.
I made an independent decision that I would never invest in failure again. The first lesson had inspired the second.
However, an even more important lesson was yet to come before I left school. From my mother – again. “You are going to do LCC Book-Keeping.” “WHY?”, I asked, “I have no intention of doing anything with Accounting in my life.” “Well,” she replied, “if I am going to fund you studying Art, the chances are high you will always be poor, unless you are brilliant and dead; that’s when artists become rich!”
I cannot tell you how much I hated these words, “If you are destined to become an Artist, you will need to know how to manage the pittance you make in life.”
So, I studied Book-Keeping with ‘Ma Flops’ in private classes, with my astoundingly poor ability in Maths. But, having learned the lesson on what a failure felt like, I earned a Distinction and success drove my decision to continue it – for a lifetime! My mother was right (as she always told me, I would say).
When I graduated University with a degree in Fashion and Textile Design, the UK was in recession and there were no jobs. By serendipity, my first job (because you take what you can get, when there is nothing available that you want), was as an assistant to an Accountant.
I had to use my alternative skill set just to earn, to independently survive. By 22, I was tired of being supported by my parents. I wanted to be the master of my fate. Hardship was my ally.
In retrospect, what played a huge part in my journey were two things: the restrictions placed on ‘Baby Boomers’ by parents and the absence of social media distraction.
Sure, we had social distraction, but it was limited to short telephone calls (parents guarded their phones like the Crown Jewels and limited our time on them).
Being with friends consisted of a Sunday afternoon at the beach, after spending the weekend studying. Success and studying are apparently inseparable!
So, we read for diversion and we spent countless hours dreaming (in my case – how to escape my mother). I remember time spent on the thick grass under the mango tree, just looking up at the clouds and asking myself those ‘BIG’ questions of ‘Who am I?’, ‘What do I want from my life?’ and ‘How do I get it for myself?’
A great deal is achieved in isolation when you have time to think, dream and plan. When you spend time privately examining the possibilities in the life before you, challenges cease to matter. You dream about how you will use my our strengths.
So, what do I wish for ‘Gen Z’? EMPTY TIME that will force them, if necessary, to start thinking, dreaming and planning.
To get to know THEMSELVES better and what they really want for their lives.
To experience the excitement of the unknown and to embrace the quest.
How do parents achieve this paradigm shift in their children? Octavia Spencer answered, ‘Tough love is the hardest to give.’
Julia Hanschell can be contacted on smartstudying@gmail.com.
