Academic Enhancement Tools

Empowering Students for Academic Enhancement (Purpose) Managed by the Family CEO The family is the basic unit that gives moral and inner strength for stability, internal growth, and strength in society. Therefore, the “power source” for student success is in the relationship and interaction between the parents and student. Parents need to honor, respect, and protect their student as they model positive student performance. This is especially true when the student between twelve to fifteen years old. It is the parents’ responsibility to equip their student on a long-term basis and model the approach needed for success. Parents are the individuals giving primary emotional and physical support to the student. Schools need to encourage the student in the short run through passionate and caring teachers. We are quick to allow the school to do it—big mistake. Remember, schools do not have the profit factor as an incentive for success. Therefore, it is the responsibility of parents and the school to interact and use the parent-student relationship as the foundation for academic success. The school should never move without the parents’ direct involvement, especially with the electronic media of today. The old saying “Blood is thicker than water” is still true. The family must provide a safe learning environment for students as the parent knows what works with his student because he has interacted with the student since day one. The school does not have this history with the student. Professional degrees and educational experience do not trump the interaction parents have with their student. The school can play an advisory role, but the student, working with the advice and consent of his parents, needs to make the final choices, in line with the options the schools have. The challenge is to use quantifiable cognitive information to enable the student to find what works for him when making life role decisions. The affect/feeling side can be used to verify and support the cognitive facts based on a clear decision-making process. Emotions play a sound, supportive role in making decisions. It is the human emotions that provide the passion and commitment for success. In general, when people make decisions based on feelings with little factual information, their choices do not work out well. In business, the bases for decisions are reality based, with verified facts to support the final choice. That cognitive data becomes the foundation for decisions that require extrapolating and making timely and sometimes risky decisions. At times, this is a process of making an affect/feeling decision based on the best cognitive facts that can be put together. The primary goal is to use a natural competence identification process with several cognitive information sources to allow a student to choose options that fit their natural interests, competencies, and aptitudes. Understanding the role competencies play in identifying logical career options is one objective of this model. In general, students do not get the connection between competencies learned in school and the competencies used to select the best candidate for a job opening. Most of the students’ experiences just do not extend that far. It is essential that both the academic and the business community use a common language. Competencies are that common language. One essential function of the school is to teach the competencies needed for success in the world of work. Business evaluates potential employees on the competencies needed in a job against the competencies the prospective employee is developing. This is a suitable approach for education and business to work together. Communication between the local businesses and the local school systems needs to be an ongoing activity. The competency discovery process needs to emphasize the importance of being honest, practicing integrity, demonstrating a strong work ethic, and practicing the aggressive/humble balance needed to build and use the confidence for success. The student needs to be confident but not arrogant. Learning the art of being humble will allow for the proper balance. The same values are the basis for business and life success. It is all about people. Just follow the news to see what happens to individuals who do not maintain a focus on these critical values. These values provide the same foundations that need to be nurtured for a positive relationship between the parent and the student. The home provides security where the student can risk a choice while knowing he can come back to that safe environment. This is important for the twelve-to-fifteen-year-old student. If there is logic to the career and the other goals the student identifies, then there is logic for the academic and vocational work needed to achieve those goals. Students in the twelve-to-fifteen-year range need logic and facts to explain why their course work is essential. As they get older, the affect/feeling side plays a stronger role. As a parent, it is reasonable to take advantage of what works because of the age span of the student.