Moving A Generation Forward
Updated: Jun 20, 2020
Nichelle Nichols is a legendary African American actress who played the role of Lieutenant Uhura on the hit T.V. show Star Trek. She stated, “Science is not a boy’s game, it’s not a girls game. It’s everyone’s game. It’s about where we are and where we’re going”. Her role was not only a breakthrough for African Americans on T.V., but she represented the entire female population in the race for S.T.E.M. related careers.
In fact, her statement captures the heartbeat of America and its quest to encourage youth to prepare for careers in science and innovation. A noble goal indeed, but we cannot ignore the fact that America might be a leader in innovation, but falling behind in advancing the human soul to improve our society.
What about Anne?
The life of Helen Keller is an American success story, but without Anne Sullivan, we probably would not have known about Helen Keller. Miss Sullivan was hired by Helen’s family to be her personal mentor and teacher. Rarely is she mentioned in the contribution for Helen Keller’s success, but she should go down in history as a pioneer in human development and growth.
Helen Keller words were few before Miss Sullivan entered the picture. However, one day she was determined to get Miss Keller to break her silence while at the water pump. She put one of Miss Keller’s hands under the water while tapping out an alphabet code for water in the other hand. Suddenly, Helen Keller broke her silence and knew that water meant the cool something flowing over the hand.
Helen Keller’s breakthrough at the water pump accelerated her passion for learning to the point where she was able to speak well enough to attend prep school and college by the age of sixteen. Miss Sullivan was also a victim of an impaired vision but it did not stop her from graduating as a valedictorian from the Perkins School for the Blind. She alluded to the source of her success in her commencement speech by saying,
Self-culture is a benefit, not only to the individual, but also to mankind. Every man who improves himself is aiding the progress of society, and everyone who stands still, holds it back. The advancement of society always has its commencement in the individual soul. It is by battling with the circumstances, temptations and failures of the world, that the individual reaches his highest potential.
Helen Keller’s most popular quote states, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision”. A powerful statement indeed, but if we are going to move a generation forward, we must re-purpose this thought with Anne’s philosophy. Every parent, teacher, coach, and mentor must live by the philosophy that says; there is nothing worse than having a vision for academic excellence, without having a vision for advancing the human soul for a greater purpose.
Forecasting Failure
My good friend and retired Kennesaw State University professor H.E. “DOC” Holliday reported an alarming fact in his book titled, Reconnecting, Redirecting and Redefining 21st Century Males. His research reveals that the Prison Industrial Complex can forecast with pinpoint accuracy the need for prisons based on the failure rate of boys on the third grade reading portion of the CRCT (Criterion-Referenced Competency Test).
The data confirm that these young men will be incarcerated by the ages of 14-18 years old. In fact, America makes up only five percent of the world’s population, but boasts twenty-five percent of the world’s prison population.
Our country boasts some of the biggest names in self-development and spiritual growth, but we are falling behind in advancing the purpose of the human soul. Our S.T.E.M. and S.T.E.A.M. initiatives are full steam ahead, but we are losing steam in advancing the human soul to better our society.
Harvard business expert, Nikos Mourkogiannis states, “Purpose is the primary source for achievement”. It is amazing that we live in a country that desire so much from its youth, but providing Purpose Skills™ is not even on the radar. We treat higher education as the king pursuit and forget to understand that without purpose, youth will fail in ruling over behaviors that enslave their character to a dysfunctional culture. As a result, we will continue to be leaders in innovation at the expense of not being able to forecast the failures from individuals who are void in purpose.
Points of Inquiry
Spiritual youth leaders take a different approach. They form groups who take the message of salvation to schools across the country. Kids participate in events like praying at the pole and forming Christian athletic clubs. This is a great start for securing eternal life and planting seeds of purpose, but moving a generation forward requires skills to help today’s youth harvest the Energy of Purpose™ to affect change.
Today’s youth live in a world that isolates them from purpose and now it is time to transform their world into one that leads to purpose by association. We must expand the African proverb that say’s it takes a village to raise a child. This is a powerful statement, but if the village has a low Purpose IQ™, the product of the village will be adults with mature bodies and a child’s purpose.
Purpose Deficit Disorders™ are the inability to recognize anatomical hints from the body that lead to a higher purpose. This method of breaking through to today’s youth is no different from Anne Sullivan’s approach to igniting Helen Keller’s passion for education. The only difference is that we have an opportunity to ignite the passion for education and behavior modification by identifying points on the body that lead to an Education in Purpose™.
An Education in Purpose™
The village in America is made up of a complex web of institutions that form our culture. Unfortunately, each institution consist of individuals who are driven by the appetite for power. As a result, the human soul is lean in resources that feed the appetite for purpose, which has resulted in an Institutionalized Purpose™.
This disease is prevalent when the human soul is confined to being developed at the rate of the institution. In other words, if the institution is lean in purpose, the people within the institution will be lean in purpose.
Education is king within a system of an Institutionalized Purpose™, but an Education in Purpose™ is not a budget line item. We have one of the best systems in the world for advancing the intellect to drive the economic engine of our country, but we have failed in feeding the Appetite for Purpose™ to prevent individuals from being destroyed by the power that comes from the economic engine.
America is experiencing a massive engine failure and it does not have anything to do with money. We have failed in servicing the engine that drives the human soul. The seven institutions in the diagram below must choose to either contribute toward the advancement of a generation, or hold it back due to shortsightedness in the role that purpose plays in academic excellence and behavior modification.
We’ve made a noble attempt to empower today’s youth through spiritual and character development solutions, but somehow we have failed to give them the right tools to play the game of life as champions. Purpose is the game of champions, and in the words of Nichelle Nichols, it’s not a gender specific pursuit.
Purpose is a game for everyone. It’s about where we are, and where we desire to go as a nation. If we desire to compete on a global stage, we must create a culture where S.T.E.M. and S.T.E.A.M. initiatives are supported by boys, girls, parents, teachers, coaches and mentors who understand how to use purpose as a vehicle to affect change in the world.
That’s why I invented the Character K.I.N.G.™ Coaching System. It’s more than an aid for character development. It’s a system for everyone involved to take a systematic approach in harvesting a natural instinct. This program takes into consideration that our youth are under the influence of a 99 billion dollar gaming industry. It has managed to create an avatar crazed gaming culture that allows youth to log out of reality into a fictitious world where points amount to nothing.
On the contrary, the Character K.I.N.G.™ Coaching System was designed to help today’s gaming generation log back into reality, and score points to win the game of life. It provides a unique education in purpose by capturing Anne Sullivan’s philosophy for improving the world by developing the human soul. Instead of forecasting failures for today’s youth, we can now be proactive by increasing the degree of success for the future, by increasing the degree of purpose in the present.
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