Shepherds College Character Trait #1: Diligence

Definition of Diligence – constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent exertion of body or mind.

As I wrote in the blog, A College with Character, Shepherds College emphasizes six character traits to equip students for internships and life after college.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be showing you what each trait looks like in our program.

After reading the above definition for diligence, I had this thought, “Wow. I am so not the person who should be writing about this topic.”  

I am the woman who purchased birthday cards for every friend and family member at the beginning of the year – in 2005. They are still sitting in pristine, unsigned condition at the bottom of my sock drawer.  They’re Hallmarks, so I figure in 93 more years my descendants can sell them at an antique fair and feel the love at that time. 

I’m the woman who began writing a journal when I was nine or ten years old. I told everyone that I would daily document my life’s journey with the written word. I kept at it diligently for about… about… well, hmmm, the last entry I remember making went something like this, “My goldfish Killer died. I forgot to clean his stupid tank and my stupid sister didn’t remind me. Good thing Jaws and Orca are still alive, but they look funny. It was a bad day.” Jaws and Orca died that night and my last memory of those poor fish is wrapping them up in a paper towel and putting them at the bottom of my sock drawer to await burial in the spring.

I’m the woman who made the resolution to become the oldest power walker in the 2016 Summer Olympics after hearing that these athletes have the lowest percentage of body fat compared with the other Olympic athletes. I trained a total of about 5 minutes then realized I was too sinfully proud to waddle around the neighborhood in Spandex. My cute, new athletic socks ended up at the bottom of… um, my sock drawer.

I’m also the woman who intends to clean out her sock drawer every weekend, but always finds something else more pressing – like sorting magazine recipes by dominant vegetable used, or color-coordinating my hangers to match my shirts. To be truthful though, I’m also a little bit scared to find out what other guilt/shame/horror-inducing items lay at the bottom of my sock drawer. I think I’ll leave that for my descendants to discover too.

So now that I’ve come to the realization that sock drawers = the death of diligence, I’ve decided to go with my original instinct - I really shouldn’t be the one writing about this. I’m going to let the Shepherds College staff tell you about it themselves:

Angela Houk, Dean of Shepherds College, said, “At Shepherds College, diligence means investing my time and energy to complete each task assigned to me. Students learn this character trait by completing class assignments, chores and service projects. When students invest time completing assignments, their grades reflect their efforts. When students complete chores, the students and those living in their residential area all benefit from a clean community. 

It may be easier to take the quick way out, but when we invest time to complete tasks, we receive the satisfaction of a job well done.”

Miss Luchterhand is one instructor who teaches diligence in her classroom. She is having the students do research projects in Language Arts. The students have to find information about a state using books and the internet. They wanted to give up when she told them that they can’t use Wikipedia, but that gave her the opportunity to talk about the importance of diligence.

In Study Skills, the students show diligence by keeping their lockers clean. Miss Luchterhand randomly performs locker checks. Usually there will be at least one messy locker which gives her another opportunity to discuss diligence with the students.

Mr. Andrus supports the teaching of diligence through his use of repetition in the classroom. He asks his students to repeatedly perform tasks on the computer until they learn the skill – a great example of diligence in action!

Mr. Gaschke, Residential Life Faculty, teaches diligence through the use of tools such as check lists, instruction notebooks and chore charts. These tools keep the students accountable for their tasks and also serve as reminders until the jobs get done.

The character trait of diligence is a vital one in the work force so we teach and support it in multiple ways throughout our program. The students learn to give 100% of their time and energy to important tasks. 

At Shepherds College, the students will learn to diligently follow their dreams of Appropriate Independence - as long as they stay out of my sock drawer.

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.