Educate your children to understand the value and the power of knowledge and money

Educate your children

• Educate your children to understand empathy.
• Educate your children to understand the value and the power of knowledge and money.
• Educate your children to observe how those with money are forever feted in the media.
• Educate your children to observe how the media microphone constantly follows, reports on, and seeks the opinion of those with money.
• Educate your children to know and understand that money does not buy happiness, but it does buy power and influence in all of its forms.
• Educate your children to know and understand that the brain responds to hard work and effort and that it rewires and enriches the brain accordingly.
• Educate your children to know and understand that the brain responds equally to no effort, and that it prunes neurons accordingly.
• Educate your children to know and understand that there is not one skill that exists that can be achieved without the required constant and regular application of hard work, hard goals, stretch goals and relentless ongoing effort.
• Educate your children to know and understand that the only thing that matters to the brain is what you do. As Coyle (2009) in his book, The Talent Code points out; when it comes to neurological wiring and rewiring, the neurophysiology of the brain “doesn’t care about who you are. It only cares about what you do” (p. 61). Brain biology only cares about what the individual has done. The biology of the brain only cares when and how the individual studied or practiced; how many times and for how long the individual studied or practiced. To the biology of the brain, nothing else matters! Money does not matter; social status does not matter; political or social status does not matter; cultural mores do not matter; which school you attend does not matter; who your friends are does not matter; what type of clothes or shoes you wear does not matter; what celebrities you follow does not matter; what you read on the internet does not matter; how many internet friends you have does not matter; how many different apps you have or how many times you post yourself on the internet does not matter. None of these personal, social, financial, technological, cultural, social, political values means anything to the neurophysiology of the brain. All that matters is: What you do, i.e., how often you work, study or practice. That is what matters to the biology of the brain.
• Educate your children to know and understand that they are responsible for what they think, do, say, learn and choose. This is about the power of personal responsibility. Glasser (1986), writing in Control Theory, adds to this by pointing out that ultimately, individuals are accountable for their own attitudes, actions and behaviour. This means we are responsible for our thoughts, choices, actions and consequences. In support of this Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, points out: “We are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.” This is further supported by Alfred A. Montapert who points out: “Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey...Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his [or her] choices.”
• Educate your children to value, apply and live the words of Buddha: “What we think, we become.”
• Educate your children to value, apply and live the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “We must become the change we want to see.”
• Educate your children to value, apply and live the words of The Dalai Lama: “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others, and if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”
• Educate your children to value, apply and live the words of Robert Kennedy: “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a [person] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”
• Educate your children to value, apply and live the words of Aesop: “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
• Educate your children to value, apply and live the words of Jimmy Carter: “A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It’s a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.
• “Everything we think, do, and feel is generated by what happens inside of us.” (William Glasser).
•  “You cannot always control circumstances, but you can control your own thoughts.” (Charles Popplestown).
• “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” (The Dalai Lama).
• “If not me, then who? If not now, then when?” (Hillel the Elder).

About the Author

Dr Ragnar Purje holds the position of Adjunct Lecturer and Research Higher Degree Student Supervisor, at CQUniversity Australia.

Ragnar completed his PhD thesis in cognitive neuroscience, under the supervision of Professor Ken Purnell at CQUniversity. Ragnar’s thesis focussed on researching the success of his new and pioneering form of acquired brain injury complex movement therapy.

This new form of therapy was first applied in 1993 to an individual who received an acquired brain injury, as a result of being hit by a car; causing in an incapacitated condition. This incapacitation remained in place for 28 months. During this 28-month time period medical care and medically directed physiotherapy and hydrotherapy was applied, however the incapacitated condition did not change.

When Ragnar introduced his new therapy, despite having been incapacitated for nearly two-and-a-half years, the patient began to walk 10-12 weeks later; four weeks after that the patient ran 10 metres into the arms of his fiancée (and later wife). The basis of Ragnar’s doctoral research was to try to discover what had taken place to create this cognitive, physical and behavioural change from incapacitated to ongoing ambulatory recovery, which continues to this day.

Ragnar’s thesis led to his therapy being classified as Complex Brain Based Multi-Movement Therapy (CBBMMT).

In addition to this Ragnar’s thesis added two new descriptors into the lexicon of human biology; these are neurofluidity and hólos. Neurofluidity are the neurological processes that lead to the condition of brain plasticity. The hólos is a term which, for the first time in history (to the best of Ragnar’s research and understanding), provides a descriptor which unifies the brain and the body, with one word.

Prior to this the brain and the body had always been referred to as two separate entities, i.e. the brain and the body. Hólos derives from the Greek: ?λο? ? ? ólos. The English word holistic is derived from hólos. Holistic and hólos offer the same classification. Holistic and hólos incorporate the concept of holism.

Ragnar is the author of Responsibility Theory?. He is the initiator of NeuroNumeracy?, an intensive self-motivating neuroscience brain based numeracy learning program for children, the purpose of which is to enhance their skills, knowledge and understanding of the four operations in mathematics.

Ragnar has also completed three Master of Education degrees (one in education; one in guidance and counselling; and one in leadership and management). He has two Bachelor degrees (Physical Education and Psychology). He has also completed five Post-Graduate awards (education; sports science; exercise and the sports sciences; health counselling; and communication studies). Ragnar is a former Australian karate champion.

Ragnar bases his achievements as a result of him undertaking and passionately persevering with the traditional martial art of Goju Karate that began in January of 1970. Ragnar continues his practice of Goju Karate on a daily basis. “Every day one kata.”

Responsibility Theory? is available online from Amazon/Kindle. The book can also be obtained from the CQUniversity Book Store. au   Phone: + 61 7 4930 9421. Website: bookshop.cqu.edu.