<![CDATA[ - 'NMIRA Tracks' Blog]]>

Success is Hidden in Everyday Routine
By Rooster Morris

Ever since a little boy in an eastern New Mexico school asked me, "Why read?" I've been on a mission to find true success stories to share with students. Why? Because there's an old saying, "Information tells, but stories sell." Rather than preaching to kids to turn off the television and read, experience tells me that kids are more likely to listen if there is a true story that teaches the lesson in a fashion that they can relate to. After all, kids are humans too, and we humans need all the help we can get when we are changing our habits.

This story is about an illiterate single mom who is raising two boys on her own. The boys are in school and she is working hard to provide a home, food, and clothing. The mom begins to notice that every day when she comes home from work, her two sons are glued to the television. One of her sons, Ben, is failing horribly in school. His classmates are making fun of him. Ben tells his mother, "I don't have an imagination, my mind can't learn." His attitude has gone down the tubes.

In the meantime, the mother takes on another job, cleaning house for an accomplished gentleman who has a huge library in his home. Books, books, and more books are shelved from the floor to the top of the high ceiling. Books are stacked everywhere in the room. As she is dusting, she notices books are stacked in front of his television. There is no way that he could see the screen, and the dust tells her he hasn't seen that screen in a long, long time. As she looks around his beautiful home, she asks him, "Have you read all of these books?"

He answers, "Most of them."

When she goes home from work that night, the mother finds the boys lounging in front of the television, totally absorbed. Without hesitation, she walks over and turns the set off and lays down new rules. "Pick one program for the week. The rest of the time, this TV stays off. Tomorrow you are going to the library and you boys are going to read two books a week and write book reports." As expected, the boys are shocked and dismayed. TWO BOOKS A WEEK? No one could possibly read that much. But the television stays off and the librarian becomes accustomed to seeing the boys every few days.

As reading becomes a daily habit, a change comes over Ben. He and his teacher see his grades start to improve. One day, as Ben is listening to a story being told by his pastor, he actually sees the story in his mind. He DOES have an imagination and it DOES work! All of a sudden, his classmates are watching Ben win the spelling bees and awards for academic accomplishment.

"It was at that moment that I realized I wasn't stupid," he recalled later. All of this happened because he changed his habits.

The secret to our success is hidden in our everyday routine.

Ben fulfills his mother's prediction when he goes on to college at Yale University. He is close to finishing when he has trouble with a chemistry class. He tells his girlfriend, "I am just not getting it. I go to class and listen, but what I hear, I can't remember. I am on the verge of flunking out. I can't do this."

She says, "Well, what can you do?"

"I can read."

Her advice, "Go read your textbook." So he did.

Ben reads and rereads his lessons. The day comes when the course grades are posted. Ben passes with flying colors. His daily routine of reading pays off.

Ben goes on to medical school and becomes a neurosurgery resident. In September of 1987, Carson develops a procedure to separate a pair of seven-month-old German Siamese twins, who are joined at the head. Carson is the lead surgeon on the team that performs the complex procedure. Dr. Ben Carson is considered the top pediatric neurosurgeon in his field.

I often think about Ben Carson and wonder what would have happened if Ben's mother didn't have the backbone to do what she did? But it wasn't just telling her sons to read, she actually learned how to read, too.

Should we assume our children's successful education and bright futures will just happen? Do we have to get involved? Scrutinize their daily routine, as well as our own? Depends on what we want for our kids' future. Ben's mother wanted her sons to have every opportunity in life, and she knew that television wasn't going to give them that.

We can all take a lesson from this true story. So, saddle-up partner, let's make a difference. Take your children to the library, visit bookstores, read together, and let's allow those TV circuits time to cool.

In the year 2000 Rooster retired from ranching and moved to Perryton, Texas, where he began working with elementary educators all over the nation for the sole purpose of getting children excited about reading. With fiddle and books in hand, Rooster traveled near and far to entertain kids and to show them how reading can be fun. More and more children were asking Rooster, “Why don’t you write your own books?”

“I couldn’t ignore questions like that,” said Rooster. So, he began writing the first book of the series. Axle Galench and the Gate of No Return, which was released in both book and audio book form in the fall of 2004. The Axle Galench series is for readers third grade and up. Reviewers are calling Gate of No Return “riveting, compelling, playful, and absolutely hilarious.”

After having performed in over 1,500 schools across the nation for over four million children, Rooster is even more driven to show kids that reading is the most important skill anyone can master. Rooster has also developed a writing workshop designed to help students think creatively while generating a desire to write.