If you do not know by now DAGPAW is the acronym that I use to describe the six necessary skills that one needs to acquire ANYTHING that the mind can think of. It stands for Discipline, A’s & B’s, Goal setting and accomplishment skills, Perseverance, Attitude, and Work Ethic.
I invented the word and started teaching its concepts in my classes ten years ago. There is not a class that I teach, even to preschoolers, that I do not find an opportunity to dispel its value. Yet, (I could be wrong but) I feel strongly that if left to their own devices ninety-nine percent of the parent of the children that I teach would not reinforce my teachings at home, and I am positive that children who do not continue to black belt level of the curriculum turn their back on it as soon as they leave.
Statistically speaking, ninety-five percent of all students who start class with me quit before they reach the black belt level. It seems to me that the influence of DAGPAW allow should be enough to motivate parents to see the program through, but like I said ninety-five percent drop.
So, I ask the question, is DAGPAW nonsense?
When I was eighteen and, in the Army, I found myself doing a stint at Fort Belvoir Army Base in Alexandria VA. Before then, I was a ghetto brat who went to school with cardboard in his shoes to protect my feet from the elements in rain and snow. We were so poor that there were times when the entire family shared one (1) egg for dinner. My mother used to send us to school in the summertime so that we could get breakfast and lunch (when there was no more food to be offered during the day my brothers and I would simply go back home not to class).
I joined the Army to escape that life and hopefully make something of myself (I did not know what because there were no role models that I gravitated to).
Alexandria was like another planet to me. Fort Belvoir is right at Mount Vernon and the GW parkway so I would bike down the trail toward town on my days off. As I was biking, I could not believe the land, homes, gardens, cars, boats, and general wealth that was available to people who were lucky enough to be successful, and I silently mourned to myself for being unlucky enough to be born to a woman who had no idea of how to help me acquired such things.
As time passed my natural gifts (and a lot of luck) were able to help me get to a station of life that I never could have dreamed of.
Once I “made it to the top” I committed myself to help kids like myself find a way to fulfill their dreams and get the things that they desire on of life, so I changed my style of teaching and I even wrote a book about how parents can guarantee their child’s success, but so far after a little more than ten years I can count the success stories from my labors on one hand (figuratively speaking).
Intellectually, I know that there is not a parent on the planet that does not want their child to do better than them, yet it is kind of like the “Forest for the tree” metaphor where a hunter is told that he will find his next meal in the forest, and he quips that he cannot find the forest because there are too many trees around.
In this case, the keys to a parent’s child’s success are in DAGPAW yet very few use them because they are too busy looking elsewhere or do not have the time, desire, or patients it takes to make the system work. Am I right? Is that it? Or is DAGPAW nonsense?
If it is not, it is not too late. This coming year let us commit to buckling down and making the system work. Do not do it for me, do it for your kid.
Here is my two-person recommended plan for the upcoming year:
I will continue working with your child with my DAGPAW program.
You, purchase one of my DAGPAW books to give you more insight on what is going on and reinforce what your child is learning at home. It is a double whammy! I look forward to collaborating with you.
The holiday season is close upon us, my book will make a great gift to friends of yours with children or who might be thinking about having children.
