Stop fixing people

Helping people can actually serve to stunt their development. Not only do you take away their ability to think for themselves, when your goal is to help people do things "the correct way," you are functioning from a position of greater power. 

You are stronger than the person you are helping who has lesser capability, knowledge and strength. Others sense this unequal relationship. If they came to you as unequal--that you are the one with the knowledge in this situation--they may eagerly listen and do what you suggest. This relationship can work when people are starting new ventures and clearly lack skills, experience and knowledge. They want your help. 

On the other hand, if the people you are trying to help do not see you as the great one with all the knowledge, they won't hear you. Their resentment speaks louder than your words. They may even retaliate by doing something stupid or nothing at all. Then you judge them even more harshly. 

In contrast to helping, being of service is a relationship between equals. It is mutual. Serving is responding to a problem and collaborating with others to find the solution. You honour the perspective and knowledge of the people you are serving and then seek to open their eyes to new possibilities and ideas. You give information they are lacking and ask questions to make them think more fully about the situation. You explore possible consequences of their ideas. When they come up with plans for action, you ask them what particular support they need from you to be successful.

My question is "Do you serve or fix people?"

The Dearth To Reading Culture in Nigeria

"If you want to hide something from a black man, place it inside a book”, so goes the saying 

In functional societies, reading should be done in order to increase knowledge and awareness. It seems that our society is yet to achieve that level of functionality, or we simply do not care. Why has it been this difficult for the youths to cultivate the reading habit? What is it that seems to scare them from books? Have we considered the potential long-term effects of our poor reading culture on our society and the overall literacy level?

The complacent attitude towards books seems to form at very early ages – children in nursery and primary schools are hardly encouraged in schools and at home to pick up a book and read. Even in our secondary schools, students are being spoon-fed and not allowed to read and find information for themselves. There are books that have summaries of literary works, including the subject matters and themes as well as literary works. The import of this is that these students do not think it necessary to read the actual books and find out information for themselves. The invariable consequence is that our school system and society is producing people that are functionally literate, but effectively ignorant.

Since the advent of electronic revolution in all aspects of life, the reading and learning culture in Nigeria gradually declined thereby affecting the quality of graduates churned out from schools across the country.

Having established that the reading culture in Nigeria is very poor, and frankly, largely absent in large parts of the country, the question comes up: What can be done to improve this situation? What can individuals, parents, teachers and the wider community do to improve Nigeria’s reading culture?  Perhaps, it may be time to move away from the traditional and explore the unconventional. It may be time to ask: What exactly are we doing to improve the reading culture in Nigeria?