The Importance of Education

The Importance of Education - Touching Story

This is a true story you can use to stress the importance of education to your children. When I was 19 I worked for a seafood restaurant as a prep cook, but specifically, I sliced and hand peeled thousands of individual shrimp 12-14 hours a day, six days a week. We were a bunch of 18-30 year-old classic American burnouts – except – after school each day – one 15 year-old Korean kid peeled shrimp with us. We affectionately nicknamed him “Flounder.” He was a good kid and we tried not to corrupt him.

Everyone knew Flounder’s parents; they owned the flower shop and the liquor store at a nearby mall and his dad had been selling us booze since we were 15. So, one day, about eight of us were standing around in the cooler doing whip-its, when I said, “Flounder, what are you doin’ workin’ a shit job? I mean, your parents own two businesses. They must be doin’ pretty good. You don’t need the money, do you?”

Flounder replied, “No, we don’t need the money. I don’t want this job. I hate it here. My dad makes me do it…. He said he wanted me to know what my life would be like if I didn’t get an education.” It was silent. Flounder didn’t realize what he had said to us. We didn’t hold it against him. We all knew his dad was right, and it hurt.

We’d all been schooled, but we weren’t educated. We didn’t even know what it meant. Some say Mark Twain said, “Never let your schooling get in the way of your education.” Flounder’s dad knew that we learn in every moment of our lives, so he gave his son the best education he could by forcing him to peel shrimp. At the time, I didn’t view peeling shrimp as an education, I viewed it as a way to make money. But it was a part of my education, and a valuable one I’m grateful to have had.

Comments

The child and his mother

The child and his mother: A curious child asked his mother: “Mommy, why are some of your hairs turning grey?” The mother tried to use this occasion to teach her child: “It is because of you, dear. Every bad action of yours will turn one of my hairs grey!” The child replied innocently: “Now I know why grandmother has only grey hairs on her head.” Wrong email address: A couple going on vacation but his wife was on a business trip so he went to the destination first and his wife would meet him the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email. Unfortunately, when typing her address, he mistyped a letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen: D...

THE 9-YEAR-OLD INDIAN TAKES AMERICA BY SURPRISE!

Lets congratulate Tanishq for making India proud with his super intelligence. He took entire America by surprise when he was tested for extraordinary intelligence and scored 99.9 percentile. At 7, he gave lectures to students who were twice of his age. Today, he is only 9 and already completed one third of the credits needed for a college degree at the American River College in Sacramento, California. Tanishq is born to mother Dr Taji and father Bijou Abraham, speaks his mother tongue Malayalam at home and wants to become a scientist. We wish you a bright future ahead, Tanishq!!! Tanishq attracted intense media attention after he joined the Mensa programme for gifted children at the age of four-and-half years. He was recently featured on the premiere episode of Prodigies, a new bi-weekly YouTube series showcasing the youngest and brightest as they challenge themselves to reach new heights. I like particle physics, anti-matter, the fate of the universe and the Big Bang, he...

The White Tiger - Must Read..

Long ago in a village near the Kumgang Mountains in Korea there lived a young boy. His father had been missing since he was a baby, and the boy knew very well the reason why. Andrew, age 6 An enormous White Tiger still lived in the Kumgang Mountains who had tormented the village for years, coming down to prey not only on horses and cattle, but even on the human beings who lived there. Years ago, his father, who had been the finest hunter and gunman in the land, ventured into the Kumgang Mountains to shoot the White Tiger and to save the village. He had never returned. When the boy was still small he already decided deep in his heart that when he grew up, he would be the one to shoot down the tiger that had overpowered his father. As soon as he was allowed, he trained rigorously with the gun and became almost as good a gunman as his father had been. When he was fifteen years old, the boy went to his mother and said, "Mother, I'm ready now to set out for the Kumga...

Search This Blog