We may all remember what was drilled into us as a child coming to grips with spelling in English where annoyingly words spelt the same are pronounced differently and where words pronounced the same are spelt differently – let us not go there again, thank you very much! One rule though that we might remember is the age-old “I before E except after C”. So, it is “receive” and “believe”. But please do not jump in and point out that even that rule with its stated exception also has many other rule-breakers, with words like science, ancient, neighbour, weigh, weird, seize. It is weird for sure.
However, this is not intended to be an English lesson. The ‘rule’ above does have echoes of a saying where we are reminded what comes before something else. Vince Lombardi, a celebrated sports coach in the US once said (as allegedly did Vidal Sassoon, the British hairstylist and businessman), “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary”. Wise words indeed. We could add our own versions perhaps, pointing out that failure comes before success in the dictionary as is often the case in life, and failure in turn often comes after despair, difficulty and disappointment in the dictionary and in life too.
But, we note too that those experiences beginning with the letter D, of despair, difficulty and disappointment, in turn come after the letter A in the dictionary where we consider now the words or conditions of Aptitude and Attitude. We might note that in spelling there is not a lot of difference between the two words, just one letter, but there is a vast difference in meaning and indeed impact or effect between the two words. The question is: which comes first, aptitude or attitude? Alphabetically, it is obvious! We might also think that ‘pea’ comes before ‘tea’ in a meal (OK, we are stretching this a little now!) as the letter P comes before the letter T but does that mean that aptitude (with the letter P) comes before attitude (with the letter T)? Which is more important?
When it comes to education, people tend to think that aptitude is all that counts; results are all that matter. Yet that would be so wrong. Attitude is what drives aptitude. Without the right attitude, aptitude can be wasted. Aptitude is what is seen on the outside, but attitude stirs it from within. Employers and universities therefore look far more at attitude than aptitude. We have to develop and reward the right attitude far more – too often we only recognise and reward aptitude.
The type of attitude we want is certainly not platitude, that idea of a statement that is trite, meaningless, or prosaic, that is” aimed simply at quelling social, emotional, or cognitive unease”, with a flat, dull, or trite remark, uttered as if it were fresh or profound. In short, it comes across as an unhelpful cliché. Instead, it should be more of a beatitude (literally meaning a blessing) where we might pronounce it more as a be-at-it-dude or a be-attitude – in other words, it is more about who we are (our being) than what we do (our doing).
How then can we develop attitude? Again, we might look at the dictionary to help prioritise things. Our attitude can be developed far more quickly and completely by adversity rather than perversity. Yes, perversity can help, those contrary, unreasonable, stubborn, unconventional traits can shape our attitude, depending on how we handle them but they may also develop poor attitude. Diversity in turn can be a valuable source of developing attitude, learning to deal with different people and different situations. Facing the same situations all the time can lead to casualness.
However, adversity (difficulty) can be more of an advantage than a disadvantage (the latter being what we often consider, while looking for pity and support), as it shapes our character (the Bible speaks of how “suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character”). We should not be rushing to spoil our children as such interference in the form of assistance will not help them to learn or to grow. And note, university comes at the end of the line alphabetically and attitudinally.
Both aptitude and attitude are obviously important, but when it comes down to a choice between the two, we have to get it down to a T, and attitude is the far greater indicator of success. Who we are is far more important than what we do. We need as schools to have the right attitude when determining which is better in our children. The answer is not in the dictionary. So let us be at it.