The Most Important Lesson a Kid Can Ever Learn is Best Taught Physically

By Rick Osbourne

I contend that one of the most important lessons any kid can ever learn is what I like to call the "Oh yes I can lesson." Whether they're male or female, black, white, yellow, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Asian, European, African, tall, short, rich, poor, or middle class, if kids develop their natural born ability to believe in themselves and to relentlessly persist, odds are they'll learn to succeed, even in the face of life's most difficult challenges, despite a system that's specifically designed to relentlessly mass produce infinite waves of mediocrity, homogeneity, predictability, conventionality, and submission the status quo.

Show 'Em How

Now you may recognize this as the age old American adage that says "You can grow up to be President if you're willing to stick with it." But if this lesson is not delivered through practical, hands-on experiences (getting down in the mud and wrestling with the beast), it quickly becomes meaningless, adult doubletalk that goes in one ear and out the other for most kids. In other words talk is cheap. The trick is to show them how to walk the walk if you really expect them to believe in themselves and to live their lives accordingly.

Show 'Em Earl

Timing is also an extremely important consideration for the Oh yes I can lesson. In fact you have to get to them before they start school, because conventional school systems are so incredibly efficient at teaching kids the "Oh no you can't lesson."

You see school is specifically designed to pit kids against kids, expecting them to compete against one another for gold stars, teacher's praise, positions in the top reading or math group, who's the prettiest, who's the most athletic, who's the most popular, etc. By the time they're finished with first or second grade, most kids will have been thoroughly indoctrinated into the hierarchical mentality that sees the world in terms of a few winners at the top, the bulk of us (the masses) wrestling around in the middle, and a few stragglers (the kids term these days is losers) bringing up the rear.

Immunizing 'Em Against the Bell Curve

In educational circles it's called the bell curve, and whether it's anywhere near true, most educators are paid to believe it, and to conduct their classes accordingly. If not immunized against this problem before they enter school, kids easily fall pray to the bell curve mentality, and they become passive victims of the machine that's built to convince most kids that they're average or worse, and there's very little they can do about it.

Conventional educators are of little help because most of them have lived with the bell curve for so long that it's second nature. And once the labels are systematically imbedded it's very difficult for kids to break out of the conventional box and to recognize that the system itself is stacked against them, fatally flawed, if not fraudulent.

However, if you teach kids to think for themselves, to see the world through their own eyes, and to relentlessly persist despite the system, many kids will survive, and their odds of living meaningful lives (real winning) are enhanced a thousand fold. They'll effectively be immunized against the system instead of indoctrinated by it. But remember, one of the biggest keys is to teach kids the Oh yes I can lesson before sending them off to school.

At the Physical Level

The third issue then is how to teach them what you want to teach them. My suggestion is that most young kids are far more physically oriented than they are mentally or spiritually oriented. And it's one thing to tell kids to persist and win, and an entirely different matter to physically show them how to persist and win. This is true whether they're going to be athletes or first cello in the county orchestra. The name of the game in the early years is PHYSICAL!

How About an Example

Ok, how about an example of what I'm talking about here. I suggest that you choose a body weight exercise that's generally associated with being strong. You see all kids want to be strong at everything and weak at nothing. It's in their genes. Have you ever met a kid who wants to be weak at anything? I know I haven't. Once you've chosen the strength oriented body weight exercise, then you simply help your kids learn to master it.

For example, everyone that I know associates pull ups with strength, yet most kids today can't do pull ups. However, if you start them young, before they've had a chance to super-size themselves, most kids can learn to perform pull ups in a very predictable amount of time if they get the right advice and have access to the right equipment.

So consider the following scenario. Your son, daughter, or student
• is going to set a difficult to achieve goal (to be able to perform pull ups)
• is going to be given the right goal achieving information
• is going to be given access to the right goal achieving equipment
• they'll make a little bit of progress every single time they workout
• they'll be congratulated by peers and adults every time they progress (a great motivator!)
• they'll learn to look forward to the opportunity to grab hold of the bar and grow stronger
• within a few months they'll be able to do pull ups (they'll reach their goal)
• they'll be immunized against obesity, because kids who can do pull ups are never obese
• the more pull ups they can do, the leaner they'll be. (Ma Nature designed us that way)
• they will be physically strong in a way that will impress friends and relatives
• but most importantly they will have learned all the above, first hand, at the physical level
• in other words, they'll have a first hand, physical experience in learning to control (take responsibility for) their own body (the physical self)

Expanding the Oh Yes I Can Lesson

Once this experience has been well chewed, digested, and understood at the physical level it will naturally expand to include everything else in a child's life from the three R's, to their social (a positive self image is critical) and spiritual possibilities. With patience and relentless persistence, most children can reach almost any goal they set for themselves despite the system that's inadvertently working against them.

In simplest terms, if you don't think you can, you won't try. And if you refuse to try, failure becomes a predictable certainty. On the other hand, thinking you can always precedes genuine effort. Once under way, constant progress fans the motivational flames and keeps them burning brightly. And motivation is the fuel that feeds relentless persistence, the key to success.

Soaking it in Yourself

If you physically immunize your kids with the "Oh yes I can lesson," on the physical level before you send them to school, you'll do them the biggest favor possible. You'll teach them the most important lesson they'll ever learn...to persist, persist, and persist again.

In the words of the late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, never, give up!" In the words of former Olympic mile champion and world record holder Herb Elliot, "You've got to be arrogant enough to think you can, yet humble enough to pay the price."

There's really no substitute for relentless persistence. And teaching this lesson to kids is one of the surest ways to relearn it yourself.

Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and the Oh Yes I Can Lesson

On the adult level, former President Ronald Reagan always maintained that his greatest achievement was to make the American people feel better about themselves in the wake of some pretty tough times. Ironically enough we currently have another guy named Barack Obama who's actively preaching the Oh yes we can lesson to Americans who are again wrestling with some pretty challenging times.

And just like their kids, American citizens who are convinced that they're helpless in the face of big money and big government, refuse to invest their limited time and effort into producing change. In other words they refuse to try. And those who refuse to try are the status quo's staunchest proponents. And they're easy to control, a dictator's dream.

The Best Time to Start is in Kindergarten

Democracy is completely dependent on citizens who believe that they must govern themselves and control of their own lives as opposed to being dictated to by autocratic bureaucrats. In this context, the Oh yes I can lesson lies at the very heart of American Democracy. And the best time to start learning it is in kindergarten. Carpe Diem.

Rick Osbourne is a Chicago based writer who currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, an informational web site that's dedicated to naturally immunizing kids against obesity for a lifetime without pills, shots, or special diets. If you're interested in childhood obesity prevention, then check out either http://www.pullyourownweight.net , or http://www.pullyourownweight.com , any time. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and he's recently published a book entitled "Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity," (on the web site) that provides practical minded parents and educators with a simple, functional, affordable, and infinitely measurable antidote to childhood obesity. Osbourne can be reached by email at Osbourne.rick@gmail.com

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