Write Me a Picture Exercise

You will need a pen, paper, a camera and a phone for this exercise. You can also do this exercise on a mobile device or personal computer.

Draw a canvas; this can be a square or rectangular shape or any other shape of your choice.

In your canvas, draw a polygon enclosed in a circle.

Add another fairly simple image of your choice that almost touches the circle.

Add an alphabet anywhere on the canvas.

Here is my finished canvas below.

 Perfect! Good job!

Now for the second part of the exercise.

Write a detailed description of your image and have a friend draw out what you described.You can type your description in an email or text or describe the image over the phone. Once you are done describing the image, have your friend draw and send you the interpreted image. How close is your friend's picture to your original?

Based on the image your friend sends, update your description and have your friend try it again.

Try this with different people, different images, add color, depth, line thickness, perspectives and other variations to consequent images.

If you got a very similar image on your first or second try, let us know about it. Send the image, your description and your friend's replica to wakoseblog@gmail.com. Include "Write Me a Picture" in the title of your email, so we know what the email is about. If you got any other interesting results you would like to share, post them in the comments section below and send your image, your description and your friend's copy to wakoseblog@gmail.com.

In the upcoming blog posts, I will be making references to this exercise.

Please, Observe and Explore

Life poses questions at us at every point in time, which could be simple or difficult. Let’s face it; we all love it easy and straightforward because the process of extracting answers to difficult and puzzling questions could be tasking. But really, answers to some questions would never be attained if some depths are not explored.

Something interesting to note for everyone seeking answers is that some answers are fetched directly while some are to be received through some puzzling processes.

Tony received a gift from his cousin. He loved the package and it looked like something he would keep forever. He received it with appreciation and unwrapped it. The book was the sequel to a series he had fed his mind with. The giver was right. Tony loved the gift. However, Tony would have loved to receive a gift of NGN 750,000 as he needed that exact amount to expand his business. He dropped the book on his shelf and it was sure that he would return to read and enjoy the beautiful art piece. The most important thing to him at that point was the amount of money he needed. Efforts proved abortive so he had to get a loan from a friend.

After project sign-off, Tony returned to the book. The content page excited him a lot more. He decided to devour the book in 24 hours. Curious tony flipped through the pages of the book. He skipped to chapter 5 titled “The Gift of Your Dream”. Like a dream, he saw a cheque of NGN 750,000 in-between the pages. His cousin, who knew Tony as a lover of books, packaged the cheque with a book.

It was a 2-in-1 gift and the giver’s aim was to sponsor the expansion project. Tony hit the dial pad, called his cousin to apologize and ask for him to prepare the cheque again. Unfortunately, his cousin had financial issues at that point in time so he couldn’t help. He missed the answer to the question of finance that his expansion efforts threw at him.

Mr. Tony wished he had been more observant. A line in the note which accompanied the package flashed through his mind once more. His cousin wrote “every page of this book is important. Chapter…”.  He should have observed and explored!

Two key facts to note when you need answers: observe and explore! If my friend knew that her valentine’s gift from her lover was a promissory ring packaged in a chocolate box, she would not have thrashed it. It felt like he didn’t appreciate her but she was wrong!

Adamu’s 85 year old grandfather who didn’t attend “makaranta” said that he extracted a fact from ‘Google Hausa’. ‘Makaranta’? Ask google! The old man once asked his son what Windows 8 meant! We realized he saw a computer system specification with Windows 8 operating system while he explored the web. He wanted a new system so he went online exploring and observing.

That answer is waiting to be explored. Despise nothing. Observe and explore!

Being Unemployable...

What needs to be known about work that isn't taught in school?

It is said these days that 80% of Nigerian graduates are unemployable. Each time this demography is quoted, a whole lot of people scream bloody Mary as to HOW it is possible and if so, WHY? Why are we churning out more "unemployable" graduates from our tertiary institutions?

I mean, why should Tunde Lemo say something as nefarious as that to the dearest people of his country? Wouldn't that be the singular most heart-wrenching to be heard after 16 years of slaving for an education?

A lot of other questions might be asked, questions which truly are daunting and worthy of thought, but the only(?) question that will lead to a solution is this;

What is happening in our schools that isn't preparing attendees for work?

Its worthy to note at this point that the workplace of the nows differ remarkably from what they used to be. Effectively, the skills needed to 'do work' now are a lot different from what was needed some twenty, ten or even five years ago.

The Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof. Biyi Daramola, believes that Nigerian graduates are unemployable due to the lack of self discipline and commitment to vigorous academic pursuit  but I quite disagree with his stand on the matter. He seems to shelve, skilfully, the responsibility of preparing people for work from the institutions which should, and placing them directly on the ones who should be prepared.

A lot is being said already about how the schools one attend do not matter and how soon, a degree may not be needed to secure a good job, and we all need to respond appropriately to this trend which will soon drive our educational system off the world scene altogether.

Where do we go from here?

The new skills needed to work are the so-called higher order skills of the Bloom's Taxonomy and could be listed basically as the ability to EVALUATE, ANALYZE and CREATE.

These skills are not being taught in our institutions and to make one "employable", one must learn how to think higher than the competition to secure the scarce available spaces.

We need to learn to keep LEARNING!

The Four Keys to Proficiency and You

There are four keys needed to become proficient at any skill: time, action, opportunity and intentionality.

Time: I talked about time a little last week in "I Need A Raise!". It takes a lot of time to master any skill. Most of the "academically gifted" students, professional athletes, and other elite professionals we admire started learning their respective skills at very early ages and they all individually spent thousands of hours learning their skill. A kid that reads books around the house after school is going to be more "academically gifted" than a kid who doesn't get time to study because he has to work.

 

Action: Having all the time in the world will not make us better at any skill unless we channel that time to a particular skill. Action is signing up for swimming lessons if you want to learn how to swim, making friends with people you can learn from, picking up a book on the skill you are trying to learn. Action here refers to the first step that marks the beginning of any journey.

Opportunity: Opportunity refers to the equipment, traits, facilities and personnel that help in skill development. Opportunity is Jumpstart Academy and her volunteers providing mentors to young secondary students. Opportunity is CcHub providing a community where aspiring learners and entrepreneurs can exchange ideas and hone their skills. Opportunity is cyber cafes providing us access to the internet at a time when many of us could not afford it.

Intentionality: Intentionality is the sum total of decisions we (or others) consciously make to improve on the skill we are learning. There comes a time when learning a skill that we have to decide whether to remain "good enough" or "go to the next level." Intentionality is figuring out how much time and what opportunities are needed to "get to the next level" and taking the necessary actions to get there. Intentionality is your parent signing you up for after-school lessons. Intentionality is moving to a location that offers more opportunities and time to get better at your skills. Intentionality is hiring a private tutor, interviewing someone great in your field, saving to get better equipment.

 

Opportunity is Our Collective Responsibility

While we can individually muster the will-power to find more time, take action and make conscious decisions to improve on a skill, opportunity can be more elusive and harder to come by. Opportunity is transient and is linked to a community's past and current vision.With a growing world population, the rate at which we create opportunities has to outpace our population growth rate or else we are heading for harder times. We all have to take opportunity creation as a challenge. As we spend our time more wisely and intentionally take action and seek opportunities to improve ourselves, let's not forget that opportunity is a two-way street. As we look for opportunities, let's remember that we are someone else's opportunity. It's easy for us to complain about not finding opportunities, but are we creating opportunities for others? Are you helping your daughter with her homework? Do you allow your little brother to play soccer with you and your friends so he can get better? Do you lend/recommend books that changed your life to others? There are some youth close to you that can learn a lot from you. Are you creating a system or supporting an existing system that will help you help them? How many people are lucky you are alive today?

Shout out to all you out there creating opportunities with your time, actions and businesses. And for those of us not yet creating opportunities, let's start today in whatever way we can.

If you are looking for a way to create opportunities in and around Nigeria, Wakose will like to help you help Nigeria. Shoot us an email and we will look to work with you.

HUBRIS?

Rich men want more riches! Why?

Why do you think people ask for more after a sumptuous meal? Anything that is pleasant to the taste buds and to the soul enjoys much patronage. Success is sweet so it is natural to yearn for more levels of success. This is the reason people who have tasted success yearn for more.

However, it is easy to get contented when you attain a particular level of success. When you succeed at something, please celebrate yourself. On the other hand, be careful not to lay a blueprint of bankruptcy by taking your mind off the lane of management of your success. If Samuel Peters had paid more attention to this fact, he would have avoided the mess he drifted into at the latter part of his career. He got too sure of himself to his detriment. He had achieved success with the likes of Iron Mike Tyson. He believed himself infallible.

His career became a nightmare after his encounter with Vitali Klitschko. Samuel Peters, who had been dubbed the “Nigerian Nightmare”, realized that he had lost the WBC heavyweight title, and it wasn’t a nightmare but a reality. Klitschko pounded him heavily to a point where he had to give up on the match, after enduring eight of twelve rounds. Perhaps he should have yielded to Jerry Okorodudu’s call for him to quit the ring when the ovation was loud.

Vitali trained under extreme conditions and was set for Peters, who didn’t create ample time to train due to his multiple “success show” trips.  While Peters was meant to return to the training room, he travelled across the world on his victory tour. On the fateful day of the fight, successful Peters failed! He fell into the hands of the Ukrainian giant who pounded him mercilessly. He assumed he would chew Vitali but the deadly blows he received proved him wrong!

 “Most mistakes men have made came after some great victory. It’s called hubris, the over confidence that comes from your success. Always keep your eye on the ball.” Poju Oyemade

Three things to note:

•           Past success is not a guarantee for future success. Peters must have made baseless assumptions about Vitali Klitschko; falsely assuming his own level of fitness. He must have thought “at least, a WBC Heavy weight champion should swallow a guy who’s been off the ring for four years”.
•           Capacity building is essential at every stage in life. The fact that he was the champion didn’t forbid preparation efforts for the match. He was ill prepared!
•           When you are at the peak, be careful so you won’t fall and crash.  

No more words. Sit down and do a self appraisal. Perhaps you are basking in the glory of past successes. 

Teaching vs Learning

The Nigerian Educational system is built largely on the precepts of pedagogy; teaching, the art of teaching and the teaching of teaching, with the aim that if done well, students will have learnt what is being taught.

However, Wikipedia’s definition of learning subtly places the responsibility of learning on the students and not the teacher. It’s known that a teacher’s job is to present information/material/knowledge to a class while the responsibility of “acquiring” the knowledge is the students’.

For instance, I’ve been told that leaving comments on this blog is quite the herculean task, and say I choose to teach the lovers of our nascent blog how to post comments, and I go ahead to recommend a video for it, write a whole post on it, and also bullet-point the process as follows;

• Write your comment in the box provided
• In the “Select Profile” field, choose “Name/URL” and wait for a pop-up box
• In the box, input your name and site (Facebook/Twitter/Blog will do) as appropriate
• Click on the “Publish” icon and wait for a recaptcha pop-up
• Fill the recaptcha as appropriate and click on publish
• Wait to see your posted comment

Now, if you are not interested in learning Jack about posting on Google’s Blogspot, Otunba Gadaffi’s shit won’t be your business. In short, I would have taught but no learning would have occurred.

Do not be deceived though, the aim of education is for learning to occur, but in our institutions, “la cram la pour” is what is reinforced as “learning”.

I wish to expound on LEARNING as opposed to TEACHING in the coming weeks with practical examples of how it has worked for me in our swimming lessons, driving curriculum, class training and other Wakose Learning Platforms.

I will also be blogging on how education has changed in different parts of the world to focus not on teaching, but on LEARNING, the amazing results it is producing and ways Nigeria can adapt these innovations in educational advancements.

Thanks so much for your time.

P.S. Do leave your opinion on whether Nigerian Education allows for learning.

How to Post a comment on Blogspot

Hello

I want to quickly run by you the steps to posting a comment on Blogspot, and the possibly complications. Here goes:

First, write your comment in the box provided

In the “Comment as” field, choose the field most appropriate to you and wait for a pop-up box

If you select “Google”, then you’ll have to login with your Gmail account, if you haven’t done so before

If you selected “LiveJournal”, then you’ll have to input your username as thus http://username.livejournal.com

                If you select “WordPress”, then, you’ll have to input your username as thus http://username.wordpress.com

If you select “TypePad”, then you’ll have to input your username as thus http://profile.typepad.com/username

If you select “AIM”, then you’ll have to input your username as thus http://openid.aol.com/username

If you select “OpenID”, then you’ll have to input your ID

If you select “Name/URL”, then in the box, input your name and site (Facebook/Twitter will do) as appropriate

And if you select “Anonymous”, your comment will be posted as thus.

Next, click on the “Publish” icon and wait for a recaptcha pop-up. You’ll be required to fill the recaptcha as appropriate and click on publish.

Wait to see your posted comment.

Thanks.