#BTColumn – Stop giving the wrong things

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Julia Hanschell

These days, we must support our children in looking to their future. However, we must change how WE LOOK AT IT, in order to guide them.

Let’s examine four disparate subjects: Science, Art, Technology and Business.

Often from very young children just instinctively KNOW an area is where their future lies. Biology and Chemistry students assume Medicine is their path. Those gifted in Art cannot imagine a future in which they are not creative. Technology lovers, even if this presents as gaming, are passionate about the challenges of this activity.

Students who enjoy the mental acuity of Business and Economics are transitioning from just managing money to questioning opportunity costs more closely.

What the COVID pandemic has clearly demonstrated is that while doctors are in short supply, it is those in research who are going to actually solve the problem.

This intersects with Technology, because as the robotic age we live in accelerates at an unprecedented pace, new technologies must be developed to ensure that the tools required by researchers are available.

To literally ‘save the earth’ takes Science facts, but it is brought to human awareness by the images created by Artists, who integrate the psychology of human nature to affect paradigm shifts. Technology helps ‘spread the word’ and this can be easily done through those who ‘game’. But these ‘players’ need to start CREATING by turning games for entertainment into games for awareness which drive solutions.

Everything takes money to make ‘it’ happen. The focus of our Business students should be on how to source it, so that it can be utilised in areas in which enough funding, directed appropriately, will make the impossible, possible.

So, it’s not just a matter of what the Curriculum is (and it truly does not matter), but HOW it is taught. Teachers must no longer be satisfied with the regurgitation of facts or correct calculations or answers. Their responsibility is to plant the seeds of what students will do with the knowledge they acquire.

Exam results eventually fade into obscurity; it is the light bulbs that figuratively ‘go off’ when a student realizes the purpose of what they have learned, and how it can be applied, that matters. THAT is where their future begins to emerge.

Therefore, every topic taught should be within a present context; a current problem. Students silently question these: ‘How is this (topic) of any use to my future?’ And the most basic question of all: Wii FM? This is the universal radio station of the human race: What’s In It For Me?

The truth is that we already have skill-building tools in place. Science students learn how to conduct Lab experiments, but are they ever asked to conceive a Lab to discover facts and draw conclusions beyond the curriculum? No.

Art students master creative skills, but do they use them to change mindsets? No. Technology students learn the ancient history of floppy discs, or more recently, how to programme. But do they have the opportunity to find a problem and use programming to solve it? No. Business students learn about types of businesses and even examine entrepreneurship. But are they asked to come up with a concept, based on global research, that they could adapt to their island’s current needs? No. Not unless they have a teacher who makes the time to ‘stretch’ the syllabus beyond its traditional objective and insert what should be there – and then teach it.

Let’s not forget all of those students who will be the technicians of the future; those whose strength is literally ‘in their hands’. They are not considered ‘academic’ and society still places them in the ‘second class category’. However, no job of the future will exist without the brilliant problem-solving mechanical skills of those with gifted hands.

So, parents, let’s change HOW we look at the future. Every child has a skill, a talent, an inherent ability. It’s time to embrace these and nurture them. 2050 IS THE FUTURE and we need to prepare for it NOW. How you may ask?

Give differently

Rather than buy them a new computer game, send them to Coding and Robotics classes to learn how to create one. Rather than reward their grades with gifts, reward them with an old car engine they can pull apart.

If they are artistic but are stuck in a Science stream at school, get them involved in a community project that requires artistic collaboration within a ‘brief’.

Do you pay your children to do their chores? Stop! Have them download an Investment App and invest the money they theoretically earn to discern the issues that impact profitable investment.

STOP GIVING THE WRONG THINGS just because they are easy or tangible, or because society measures your parenting, or what brings your child false peer validation, by them having ‘stuff’.

The future demands VISION and COURAGE. Your children need both of these in their arsenal. And they need these now.

Christmas is coming. Think carefully about the gifts you choose. As the New Year approaches, it’s time it was filled with NEW PRACTICES.

Parents are a child’s BEST RESOURCE. Always.

Julia Hanschell can be contacted on smartstudying@gmail.com.