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"Why do we have to learn
all of this dumb stuff?"
Of all the complaints and
questions I have heard from my
students during my years
in the classroom, this was the one most
frequently uttered. I would
answer it by recounting the following
legend.
One night a group of nomads
were preparing to retire for the
evening when suddenly they
were surrounded by a great light. They
knew they were in the presence
of a celestial being. With great
anticipation, they awaited
a heavenly message of great importance
that they knew must be especially
for them.
Finally, the voice spoke,
"Gather as many pebbles as you
can. Put them in your saddle
bags. Travel a day's journey and
tomorrow night will find
you glad and it will find you sad."
After having departed, the
nomads shared their
disappointment and anger
with each other. They had expected the
revelation of a great universal
truth that would enable them to
create wealth, health and
purpose for the world. But instead they
were given a menial task
that made no sense to them at all.
However, the memory of the
brilliance of their visitor caused
each one to pick up a few
pebbles and deposit them in their
saddle bags while voicing
their displeasure.
They traveled a day's journey
and that night while making
camp, they reached into
their saddle bags and discovered every
pebble they had gathered
had become a diamond. They were glad
they had diamonds. They
were sad they had not gathered more
pebbles.
It was an experience I had
with a student, I shall call
Alan, early in my teaching
career that illustrated the truth of
that legend to me.
When Alan was in the eighth
grade, he majored in "trouble"
with a minor in "suspensions."
He had studied how to be a bully
and was getting his master's
in "thievery."
Every day I had my students
memorize a quotation from a
great thinker. As I called
roll, I would begin a quotation. To be
counted present, the student
would be expected to finish the
thought.
"Alice Adams - 'There is
no failure except ..."
"In no longer trying.' I'm
present, Mr. Schlatter."
So, by the end of the year,
my young charges would have
memorized 150 great thoughts.
"Think you can, think you
can't - either way you're right!"
"If you can see the obstacles,
you've taken your eyes off
the goal."
"A cynic is someone who
knows the price of everything and
the value of nothing."
And, of course, Napoleon
Hill's "If you can conceive it, and
believe it, you can achieve
it."
No one complained about
this daily routine more than Alan -
right up to the day he was
expelled and I lost touch with him for
five years. Then one day,
he called. He was in a special program
at one of the neighboring
colleges and had just finished parole.
He told me that after being
sent to juvenile hall and
finally being shipped off
to the California Youth Authority for
his antics, he had become
so disgusted with himself that he had
taken a razor blade and
cut his wrists.
He said, "You know what,
Mr. Schlatter, as I lay there with
my life running out of my
body, I suddenly remembered that dumb
quote you made me write
20 times one day. There is no failure
except in no longer trying.'
Then it suddenly made sense to me.
As long as I was alive,
I wasn't a failure, but if I allowed
myself to die, I would most
certainly die a failure. So with my
remaining strength, I called
for help and started a new life."
At the time he had heard
the quotation, it was a pebble.
When he needed guidance
in a moment of crisis, it had become a
diamond. And so it is to
you I say, gather all the pebbles you
can, and you can count on
a future filled with diamonds.
By John Wayne Schlatter
from A 2nd Helping of Chicken
Soup for the Soul
Copyright 1995 by Jack Canfield
and Mark Victor Hansen
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