My Passion In Education

Passion

The misunderstanding of education in this country is beyond funny. We tell our students to have grit but forget that grit is a product of passion, something we clearly don’t inspire.

When I was young living in Kenya my siblings and I were blessed. We were a few of the fortunate kids whose parents had the money and cared enough to spend a fortune on our education. My parents did this in hopes that one day my siblings and I would all graduate, make something of ourselves, bring wealth to the family and greatness to our name. This was a great investment betted on my siblings, but when it came to me this was a gamble and I knew it. I could also see it in my father’s eyes as my teachers would express to my parents that I was smart but lazy. Bearly passing most of my classes but receiving A’s the subjects I had interest in. “He 's clever but a daydreamer.” My teachers would say. This is when my father would explode with anger and yell “We don 't pay for you to come to school and dream. If that was the case you might as well stay home and dream there.” I would apologize and promise to do better but continued having similar conversations till my last year of highschool. This is when I fell in love with computers and found my passion in software.

Every day, parents and teachers ask me, "How do I build grit in kids? What do I do to teach kids a solid work ethic? How do I keep them motivated for the long run?" The honest answer is, I don 't know.” By saying this she pointed the biggest problem facing our educational system to date. How can our teachers teacher students how to become successful if they themselves don’t understand what make students successful. I’m glad Duckworth lets us know loud and clear that she simply doesn’t have the answer. I respect and appreciate her honesty more that filling teachers and students with fake