By Karen Kin
Staff Writer
At the North Central Ohio Educational Service Center annual opening day teacher convocation, educators and others in attendance heard a motivational appeal to strive for individual growth and to inspire students to live lives that are "wildly outside of average."
NCOESC hosted Andy Andrews, international speaker and best-selling author of "The Traveler's Gift" and "The Noticer," at The Ritz Theatre Friday morning. Andrews presented the seven principles he said determine personal success, and told his personal journey through hardship that led him to uncover those principles.
At 19, Andrews lost his mother to cancer and his father in a car accident. He said he made choices after that that led him down a destructive and dangerous path. He even was homeless for a time, sleeping in garages and under piers.
"I took a bad situation and made it worse," he said.
Andrews then began to study the lives of strong, successful people from history, and formed a list of seven principles he said were common factors in their success.
Those seven principles include responsibility, seeking wisdom, taking action, having a decided heart, making a decision to be happy, practicing forgiveness and persistence.
Andrews said harnessing those principals provides a life path with an intentional direction and destination.
Andrews said it is critical to "teach children principals so they live lives of expectations and achievement." By having strong personal goals and behavior governed by principals, he said, teachers can lead their students not only with encouragement and wisdom, but by example.
Andrews said his eighth-grade teacher is the first person who had confidence in both his humor and his writing abilities, and he challenged each individual in the audience to teach that what we say, hear, and do is vital to the impact we make on the world, and on the community around us.
