The Chairman of the International Youth Fellowship (IYF) in charge of West Africa, Rev. Hee Jin Park, has advised lecturers and members of the teaching fraternity to refrain from the usage of negative words on their students. According to him, negative words lower the spirit of students and prevent them from taking bold steps in their lives. Rev. Park gave the advice at a presentation organised by IYF Chapter of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) at the Institute of Education Conference Room on the theme “Power of Words in Mindset Education”. Rev. Park admonished members of the teaching fraternity not to use offensive words such as “fool, you can’t do it, stupid, irritated,” among others, as a panacea for correcting incorrigible or average students. He noted that the usage of such impulsive and unprintable words had the tendency to kill individual initiative and creativity to be productive, self-reliant and prosperous. Instead, he encouraged lecturers to use positive and considerate words to give life to despondent students in their class. He urged lecturers to reciprocate the good works of their students with words like “wonderful job, you are nice, angel, thank you, you can do it” among others. That, Rev. Park added, would serve as an inspiration to their students to work hard to achieve their goals and aspirations in life. He demonstrated to the audience to use a campaign dubbed “3.3.3 Campaign” where they held the hands of those sitting beside them to demonstrate how they can inspire their dispirited family members and say three positive words to spur them on. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K.T. Oduro, expressed gratitude to Rev. Park for his presentation and urged lecturers to demonstrate unalloyed love towards low-spirited students. He added that gender issues should be critical in the development of mindset education. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor called on Rev. Park and his team to consider setting up a chair on Leadership Mindset Education in the University. He advised the public to disabuse their minds from the negative impression about technical and vocational education in Ghana. International Youth Fellowship (IYF) is a global youth organisation, founded on Christian principles by prominent people from different walks of life, determined to solve youth problems.
