Having A Holistic View Of Education: Why Parents Need To Modify Perspective

The word “education” has been derived from the Latin word “educere” which means to bring up or develop. Education is a developmental process and refers to the development of children and students. In the Indian tradition, the Upanishads refer to education as a part of “life activity”. The Gita emphasises the spirit of “karma” or acting without selfish interests as the main purpose of education. To what extent do you feel that the current mainstream education system helps develop the mind, a spirit of doing good, focusing on health, financial sustainability, and life skills in a child? This article, through real stories and tips, highlights the need for integrated education and gives you tips you may want to apply.

Case Of A Young Adult

Naman is a postgraduate from a top engineering college. He has a lucrative job in the credit card wing of a financial giant. He got married a few months back. His credentials and milestones look good on paper, except that he is anxious, heartbroken, and has lost self-confidence. His main challenge is his inability to connect with his partner who prefers to spend time with her friends.

Prioritising- Deprioritising

Naman reflects that he worked from Class 8 onwards to fulfil his engineering dream. However, this dream came at the cost of dropping out on hobbies, social life, sports, interests, vacations, and overall well-being. Basically, for about a decade of his life, he developed academically and in terms of his grades, market value, job prospects, and earning potential. However, his ability to manage himself, grow friendships, have hobbies to engage in, and learn how to nurture others as well as himself were neglected. Now, he finds himself completely unable to handle the social and relationship challenges of married life and the adjustment it requires.

Education Is A Developmental Process

Expanding Our View Of Education

Naman’s situation is not unique. For decades, parents and educators have encouraged youth to focus on success, competition, and grades in middle and senior school. There is no time to breathe and create space for meaningful friendships and relationships at home. Parents and educators also are also victims of the same mindset with no reflective moments to see if school education is really helpful in real-life challenges. Naman’s fallout and finding himself at a loss is a clear indication of why we need an integrated perspective on education.

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Case Of A High School Student

Smita, a psychology teacher in a reputed school was part of an academic meeting where the progress of a sporty student was being discussed in a staff meeting. In Classes 11 and 12, the student was missing school on most days due to training camps and practice. He was also representing the school, district, zone, state, etc. in many tournaments. His classwork was incomplete, and they had to miss many of the school tests and exams due to the demanding sports schedule. The teachers were rather grim and felt the school was making a mistake in giving as much attention to extracurriculars as academics. Their recommendation was to detain the student in the current class so he could attend all tests and clear the exams next year.

Leadership With A Different Philosophy

The principal of the school had a different philosophy. She stated emphatically that if they don’t encourage sports persons at the grassroots level, they will never have a great team, making the teaching staff aghast. The principal supported the student wholeheartedly and the boy rose to bring fame to himself, his family, and the nation. Smita, the psychology teacher, sat back and journaled that day on what she learnt about the everyday confusion and challenges of integrating sports and education in schools.

Integrating Education With Everyday Life

As education has become formalised over the century, it is a watertight process with fixed milestones, learning objectives that are focused on syllabus, rote learning, and the ability to rewrite textbooks. The number of pre-boards, tests, and assessments provide no room for the student to learn with understanding and integrate with everyday life.

Relating Textbooks To Real Life | A simple physics concept like inertia can be explained easily in everyday life. Integrating force, pressure, and gravity in a physical education session could make learning so much more fun and application-oriented. Teaching botany in a walk through a botanical garden and spending time in nature walks helps children learn, develop social ties, and spend time with nature.

Less Support For Creativity | Our current system is unable to support creative educators who want to invest in this developmental process. Parents are also competing, in a hurry to get admissions into Ivy League or reputed institutions abroad. Students learn that they cannot spend their time pursuing hobbies, reflecting, and writing, and are conditioned to evaluating their self-worth only through marks and medals.

In this watertight process, students develop sharp test-taking abilities and often lack empathy, compassion, and other ingredients necessary for a relationship. And so, there are hundreds of professionals like “Naman” ruling the organisational hierarchy today. They look great on paper but feel emotionally conflicted inside.

Also Read | The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure: Making Your Child A Passionate Reader

Learn With Your Understanding And Integrate It With Everyday Life

What Can Parents Do?

What do you do as parents who want to educate students in a more integrated way? Here are some tips for you which may help you bring a more balanced perspective to your teen.

Engage With Your Child

Ask your teen what they are reading in school or class. Ask them if they find the concept relevant to everyday life. Invest time in building relevance for one concept weekly or fortnightly based on your area of expertise. For example, if your teen is reading about poverty and inflation in Economics, engage with them to help them understand these terms. Use examples of people around you who may be below the poverty line and share their challenges, or those of how the current inflation rates are increasing and how it impacts the earning and spending power. You may also take them for a visit to the bank or surf an investment website together. Engage with your children to connect the dots and you will learn as a parent too in the process.

Share Your Struggles

If your ward shuts down on the mention of studies, perhaps they find it too overbearing already. In this situation, you could take them out for a drive, nature walks, hike, and share some areas where you struggled growing up. Sharing your failures and vulnerability may open the doors for better communication and allow them to see their setbacks in perspective. You could also sense which areas or topics bring light to your child’s face and focus on those areas more.

Also Read | Why Communication Is Key To Understanding The Needs Of Your Growing Child

Encourage More Holistic Living

If you find that your ward is too focused on grades and marks and prefers to study rather than go out, perhaps it is a good idea to encourage small group gatherings or outings. Make exercising or nature walks a family activity and try to engage in some sport or exercise regularly. Encourage your ward to engage in activities that give them joy. Allow them to pursue it for the joy and satisfaction it brings.

Most coaching centres and hobby classes advertise competitions, and medals to woo parents who are seeking to showcase their children’s talents. This can kill the joy of doing something just for the experience. Allow yourself and your child to enjoy and immerse in areas you both like be it art, pottery, poetry, puzzles, coding, cooking, photography, sports, etc. This is critical at all stages including high school students who may be under a lot of academic pressure.

Also Read | How Can Extracurricular Activities Be Transformative For Your Child?

Encourage Your Child To Engage In Activities That Give Them Joy

Teach Some Life Skills

Help your child inculcate some essential life skills.

Financial Awareness | Ask your ward to maintain an expense sheet for all their study and recreational expenses, help them manage their pocket money, and share tips on saving and investment. Financially responsible behaviour is learnt at home through parents as role models.

Basic Culinary Skills | If your cook or household help takes leave, you may choose to cook up a meal together and seek their help rather than ordering in or dining out. Cooking is a life skill and is often neglected and unknown to many adults too. Allow and encourage your children to tidy their rooms or even do some grocery shopping. Try to make this a priority area so they know how to run errands, share housekeeping tasks, fix healthy meals for the future, etc.

Stop Comparing

Remember, in most cases, if you choose a natural developmental learning process, you will not be enrolling in every competition! You may feel discouraged at first as we are so conditioned to constant validation from outside. However, over a period of a few months, you will see a sea of change in your own growth and that of your child, as well as in your confidence as a person.

Remember that when you choose to look at life in an integrated manner, life nurtures and smiles back at you.

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Srividya is a Career and Life Coach who works with teens, adults and returning professionals to help them find joy and alignment in their careers and lives. After working for over two decades, she founded LifeVidya in 2019 and has worked with hundreds of students, professionals, and women. She can be reached at www.lifevidya.in.