School Inertia; Arise From Ignorance

Inertia is a scientific term that describes the tendency for an object to go back or remain at its initial position.

Yes indeed, inertia is plaguing us Africans (young and old) in ways minds couldn’t imagine, and we need to wake up and flee from it.

Among the many inertias, one can cite:

• -Economic Inertia (our malnourished economy which has been denied growth by our leaders).
• -Sleep inertia (our inability to leave our beds after waking up, which by the way is a life-threatening limiting factor most of us under-look).
• -And our topic for today: School inertia (the tendency of students to intentionally or unintentionally pave their way into and find themselves in the same exact classroom the following academic year, or the tendency of students not being at the place they wanted to be the following academic year, simply because they didn’t have the coordinates of that place).

Reflect On The Following Points: 

        1. “Like a snake does, in life if we must go forward and escape inertia, we constantly have to shed off our old skin to give room for a new and improved one to grow” ~Mbun Ryan

Barely two months are left for those of us in examination classes to shade off our old skin to grow into new ones, but the question holds… what sort of skin will you put on at the end?

Some won’t be able to hold in their joy at their performance, others will hide their faces preparing to put on the same uniform, some will be disgruntled at their failure to build and immortalize precious high school memories with friends worth remembering, some will go head-on organizing parties whether the harvest is positive or negative, some will be epitomes of confusion on where to from there, others who had already been planning and anticipating will just go with the flow.

No matter where you’ll find yourself, the skin you’ll put on at the end depends solely only on what you do now. And I’m not only talking about grades but where to go from there? You’ve got to take a breathe and re-strategize. The science students must have heard about all sorts of concours, but have it in mind that you won’t be thinking of writing concours if you don’t first pass the GCE. Get that checkbox ticked before anything else.

If you were lost till now, 2 Months is largely sufficient to pave a brighter skin for yourself.

 “If you believe you can or you believe you can’t, either way, you’re right.” ~Henry Ford

I always advise people to do their research even beyond the scope of their context, in order to make well-informed decisions. I had to learn that the hard way.

        2. The way is narrow, and few there be that find it:

Sounds kinda biblical right?

Throughout my whole educational career, it is only now during my upper sixth education that I begin to comprehend the phrase Nothing Good Comes Easy. Sadly enough, the road is way narrower than many of us still think. A journey during which we’ve had to transition from moving on soft mattress to sand to stones and now we’re about to transition to moving on hot charcoal. Nonetheless no matter what you’re currently moving on, always begin the journey with the end in mind (having a clear vision of your desired direction and destination), and don’t let people and circumstances shape your life by default into inertia. Aren’t you tired of being an audience in your own life? Become the Actor. Don’t let life just happen to you. Sadly, I had to learn that the hard way.

        3. Know enough to be dangerous:

Ignorance is a sin. As youths, we must learn to SEEK knowledge. Mournfully enough, most fortunate ones who have acquired knowledge tend to fool themselves with the phrase “Knowledge alone is power”, hence ignorantly or pridefully sleep on their knowledge and letting it dissolve. Not knowing that knowledge is only POTENTIAL POWER. It only becomes power when we use it. And failure to use it ushers it out to individuals who will squeeze it to its fullest… Unfortunately, I had to learn that the hard way.

        4. If knowledge is power, learning is your superpower to master:

One mistake many of us make is to think that our intelligence, potential, and power are fixed and cannot change. But research shows that them all can be scaled by us learning how to learn. I understood from Jim kwik (a world-renowned brain coach) that:

•        Information * Emotion = Retention.
•        Quantity of work covered = Time Spend * Intensity of Concentration.

From the above, we can deduce that all learning is state dependent.

    - From 1, while learning something, if emotion = 0 (boredom) then information is stored on our short-term memory where Retention = 0

Hence to improve our retention while learning something, we should get ourselves into a state of love, enthusiasm, interest, anticipation, and other positive emotions towards the subject matter.

    - From 2, we deduce that a given quantity of work done can be achieved by using more time with less concentration or less time with more concentration. But why should we use more of the entity we can’t control (time)? Rather, while learning, we should set up our environment and minds into states of maximum concentration.

Again, I had to learn that the hard way (sure you’re tired of seeing this). But it’s important to reiterate the fact that many of us compel God to teach us lessons the hard way. We don’t have to be hard-headed, doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results (insanity).

As we go through these remaining 2 months (prior to exams) and way beyond, be open-minded enough to allow God to teach you the life lessons he wants the soft way, not the hard way.

It’s only a dog that goes back to its vomit. We’re not dogs, so we should start behaving as such.

Dwell not in the past. Dwell not in inertia.

By Mbun Ryan.

Director Of Content, Lenjval Technologies.