20/09/10

At morning announcements today one of my colleagues told this story. “A woman was carrying water on her head in a container that was not incredibly sturdy or well-secured, but she hoped it would last until she got home. The container made it some of the way, but inevitably it fell to the ground, spilling all of the water.” He asked the students, “will the woman be able to gather the water and put it back into the container?” No. “When is the proper time to fix the container? After it has already fallen to the ground, or in the beginning?” When the students responded that after the container had fallen it was too late to fix the problem, but instead the woman should have corrected it when she was first securing the container to put on her head, he explained that school is exactly like this example. If your skills and knowledge are not sturdy, you will eventually inevitably fall, no matter how far you make it initially. But the time to make corrections is not after you have already fallen, by then it is too late. You shouldn’t wait until after you have failed an exam to go ask the teacher for help or extra credit. The time to get help, to properly secure everything, is at the beginning, so you have a strong and not feeble base to work from, because after you have already fallen it is too late.