Dear friend,
Most people or farmers do not cultivate palm trees and some perennial crops due to the maturity period. These crops would take half a decade or more which is too long for harvest. This science behind the palm tree is the reason for most human failures and sea of poverty.
As I began my career, I got employed in a school with this motto: Be Resourceful!
It sounds like an order as well as instruction for action every time I set my eyes on the motto.
One day, I summoned courage and met the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) who coincidentally owns the school. I knew no one would probably understand the vision more than the visioner.
Sir, I am very curious about the school motto. I would need more understanding.
He said to me, “The palm tree is one of the rarest plants that every part of it is a finished product or raw material. If you look at the school logo, you would notice that the palm tree is embedded in it.
It was there for a reason. No palm tree cultivator should grow poor because when it reaches maturity, harvesting will become an annual thing and here is the secret: you will not need to plant a new palm tree in the already cultivated space.”
I jumped in to ask, sir, how could this be linked to teaching and learning in schools?
Mr. Aliyu, have you heard about the 8 intelligences? He queried. I was trying to process it then he continued.
“The job of a great teacher is to inspire and unleash the resourcefulness in every child. But how can a teacher do this without discovering himself or herself. Only a resourceful individual can withstand the season of growing and scarcity that the palm tree went through before maturity.
This season is an investment period where personal development, research and evidences about your practice is priotized.”
He gave me a resource document about Howard Gardner 8 intelligences to read and asked me to share my learning afterward.
Later that day, I began to think about resourcefulness as a skill to abundance and wealth. All my activities must be moving the needles in the direction of my goals so that I do not waste energy on distractions.
As I explored the material and engaged in further study, deplored the resources in classrooms, I got further insights about the unexplored capacity in every human being.
Then, One day, I came across Howard Gardner’s words in a published article which opened my eyes into the deepest understanding of the palm tree analogy.
As I paraphrased, Prof Gardner wrote, “Getting to 4 decades that I published ‘Frame of Mind’ where the theory of multiple intelligences was first proposed, my electronic mail is still getting oversubscribed for request from companies, corporations, government institutions and so on that need me to train and educate them.”
If you have the privilege to read this article, I do not know what it means to you but I write it to remind you of your talent that must be cultivated and nursed until it launches you to abundance of wealth and freedom.
You will succeed!
Jamiu T. Aliyu
Founder, Self-Actualization Mentoring Academy
