education

MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE

/ Motunde Dada / Leave a comment

All through life, one thing is certain: there will always be choices to be made as different opportunities arise, offering options and alternatives. An economic concept that readily comes to mind that serves as a guide to decision-making is that of OPPORTUNITY COST. In simple terms, opportunity cost can be described as the value that a person forfeits by choosing one course of action over another. It usually involves both time and money and is present for every decision that is made. Alternatives and options are always present, and it is important to weigh the opportunity cost in making decisions. e.g., I was privy to the decision of a mother to finance her son’s university education abroad at the cost of purchasing a property in a prime location in her country. It was a choice based on her priority, after consideration of the opportunity cost of either option.

I was recently invited to mediate in a conversation between Mr. Babalola and his son, Derrick. Derrick had recently completed his National Youth Service, and his father, who ran a grocery store, had offered him the opportunity to manage the business with the promise of accommodation and a car attached to the offer. Derrick, however, had his sights set elsewhere. He had recently attended an Interview with a Multinational Tech company and was certain he would get the position of a Management Trainee. Though he would have to relocate to another city, the offer would provide him with the opportunity of extensive training and travel. It would, however, mean that Derrick would have to share a rented apartment with a friend and commute to and from work by public transport. The father prevailed on him to weigh the opportunity cost of rejecting his offer, especially in the light of succession to the business.

Derrick weighed the opportunity costs and decided that the opportunity cost of passing up an offer with that multinational corporation was, to say the least, “humongous.” He knew so many of his peers who would give anything for such an opportunity. He projected that the training and experience to be gleaned would catapult him into a league in corporate dynamics, far beyond the management of his father’s retail business, and he was ready to forego the immediate attraction of comfort for the perceived long-term gains. Besides, he opined, the training, experience, and network gained would be of futuristic benefit to his father’s business if he decided to return to it in the future. Following up, Derrick got the offer letter and moved on with his decision.

The importance of discussions like this, especially with teenagers and young adults, cannot be understated. Every day, choices are made, and options need to be weighed carefully in relation to one’s objectives. The opportunity cost of a choice is what is lost by not going with the alternative. I have seen some interesting choices made where a mother would rather owe on school fees and use the money for aso-ebi to the detriment of the child who was kicked out of school for default in fees. Also, the choice of material possessions over qualitative education.” After all, a school is a school, quality of education notwithstanding,” some would say.

I recall my discussion with a young man who said that when he gained admission to the university, his father never lectured him against joining cults but merely pointed out the opportunity cost of cultism versus concentrating on his studies, and that nailed it for him. He could be a cultist gaining popularity and notoriety, with the likely outcome of rustication, or face his studies squarely and achieve recognition through outstanding success, which opens doors for mouth-watering opportunities.

It is my prayer that we exhibit wisdom in our choices and teach the coming generations how to weigh their choices to enable them to make the right choices.

Love

Havilah

CRUSHING ON YOUR MENTOR/MENTEE

/ Motunde Dada / 1 Comment

Have you ever wondered why people have a crush on others? That fleeting infatuation which seldom develops into true love. One doesn’t usually have control over who one grows soft on. It often defies logic. Sometimes it is bizarre especially when it involves blood relations, leading to incest as even captured by some incidents in some religious books. There is no rule of thumb as to who first develops the infatuation, especially in a mentor/mentee relationship which will be our focus today.

Temilade, a tall fair-skinned science student in her secondary school days, could be described as ‘beauty and brains’. Adamu, a graduate of engineering was posted to her school to serve his national service as a Mathematics teacher. Mathematics though considered a difficult subject by many students, happened to be Temilade’s favorite subject and she easily excelled in Adamu’s quizzes.

Back in the school hostel, many of her classmates often teased her, with insinuations that teacher Adamu, the youth corper, had a soft spot for her. Temilade always negated the possibility saying the relationship was strictly that of teacher/student. “How many subject teachers would be having interest in me, if class participation would be the yardstick?” she often countered, which left her accusers speechless. In the absence of proof of any relationship between them, the teasing stopped.

Years after leaving school, Temilade’s mind would often drift to Adamu, not sure if she had had a crush on him. She remembered the racing of her heartbeat whenever he called on her for answers and how she had always wanted to appear neat to his class. Had he felt anything for her? She often just sighed, realizing she may never have an answer to that.

Tony was a computer teacher in the Community Secondary School. He was young and handsome. As ICT was a relatively new area of study in the community, several students, both male and flocked around him to learn something new, and he helped many of them to open mail addresses free of charge which they would have had to pay for in the local cybercafe. Tony had a personal laptop which aided his productivity, as it helped him in doing artwork designs for many subjects.

Tina was in the Commercial class and often sought the assistance of Tony the computer teacher to do her designs as she was interested in fashion design. Tony was quite helpful and often thought Tina had an unusual sense of entrepreneurial spirit, so he was always willing to render her assistance, using the Corel Draw application.

Tony started growing soft on Tina but was guided by the strict rules on teacher/student relationships, so held back. Luckily, he got a job in an ICT company in the city, and he and Tina lost touch for a long time.

Interestingly, Tony and Tina’s paths crossed once again during a trade fair in the capital city where Tony was the ICT consultant to fix the Wi-Fi connection for all participating companies. There, he saw Tina, who was showcasing her line of designer outfits at the trade fair. They had both had a teacher/student relationship whereby as a computer teacher Tony had assisted Tina with her designs as a fashion designer in training. Tony had considered her potential for entrepreneurship and developed an interest in her. Over time, he had been drawn to her but had stopped. Now, fate had brought them together again and they decided to catch up on the story of their lives as they sat down to lunch at one of the eateries at the fair.

During their conversation, Tina chuckled and said, “Sir, would you be surprised if I told you I had a crush on you while in school? It took a while before I outgrew it.”Tony’s eyes widened as he replied “I guess it was mutual. I confess I felt the same way, but I could not violate the rules on the teacher/student relationship. Well, it wasn’t meant to be as we are now both happily married. Tina’s response was “I thank God for His grace. One can’t have everything one desires.”

Love, ID

On behalf of Havilah