National Adult Literacy Database

May 27, 1996

This week we feature an essay written by Sandra MacDonald of Saint John, New Brunswick. Sandy is a married woman with a family. She has been a participant in a C.A.S.P. program for approximately two years and has advanced her grade level by at least three years . Her objective is to write the G.E.D. exam and thereby obtain her High School equivalency. Sandy hopes to get into some branch of social work , consequently the essay on the Thinking Process. Her strongest point academically is English and essay writing.

Decisions: The Thinking Process

by Sandra MacDonald

The first step in making decisions is learning the language. This consists of words by putting letters together.

A baby begins to learn by listening to its parents as they talk to each other and especially to him, also by singing and laughing with him.

As the infant develops, he will decide what food, colors, toys, and parents he likes the most. He also has the ability to know what he does not like.; like vegetables, clothes, color, animal and relative. It's through the five senses that he learns, taste, touch, smell and hearing.

Positive decisions can produce positive results. The story continues as the small child develops into a young adult. He is now in High School, Now he must start deciding what he is going to do in the future. Should he go on and study at University or should he take a year off to think about his decisions. He finally graduates, thankful and happy because he knows now he made the correct decision by finishing his education and he soon will be becoming a lawyer.

Negative thought patterns most often produce negative results. Here is an example of wrong decisions. In this scenario we have a couple, father who is an alcoholic, he abuses his wife and children while under the influence of alcohol. The child has no positive outlet for his pain, and hurt, so he starts running with a bad crowd, he drinks, fights, and breaks the law. Eventually the law catches up with him, ending with his court trial and imprisonment for robbery and murder.

Now he is faced with accepting responsibility for his action, Now he will start, hopefully to make some correct decisions, if he is to use his life usefully.

Decisions affect us in every aspect of our lives, starting with families, to society and our jobs. Positive decisions can decide on the way we live, to our styles and the type of friendships we make, to the type of adults we become as we grow older.

It was through positive thinking that I was able to write this essay, but first I had to overcome the negative thoughts which told me that I could not.

Positive thinking is believing you can do something and you can succeed at it.

[Used with permission from the Literacy Coalition of New Brunswick and the John Howard Society C.A.S.P. of Saint John, New Brunswick.]