Some parents say that they had great financial distress during their childhood and therefore had no option other than studying hard. Because their kids have resources available to them, they do not have that kind of motivation to work hard. On the surface, this looks like a very genuine problem. However, if we dive deeper into this, it will reveal significant issues with the mindset.
Doesn't that mean that the value of education in the minds of students as well as parents is restricted to employment. Is education just a tool to earn livelihood? Probably, as parents, we have been unable to inculcate the value of education in the minds of kids. A toddler learns to walk and talk effortlessly and without all the calculations about its utility. It is because the toddler is interested in exploring new things in life, and he wants to walk out of his room to the other room to explore what lies in that room. He also wants to talk to his parents and friends to share his explorations and to get to know the explorations of his friends. He is interested in learning new words so that he can listen to stories and explore the world of imagination. Learning is so intrinsic to the life of human beings. We are born explorers yet as we grow, somewhere this spirit gets lost.
We lose the spirit of exploration because somewhere down the line, we get fixated on a frame of life. Somewhere we fill our minds with the false ideas that the sole purpose of our life is to take care of the family and kids and earn livelihood for them. The sole purpose of the job is to get a salary at the end of the month. The sole purpose of the education is to help us get a good placement and nothing beyond that. That makes this a dull game. We have to work hard at studies and at the job so that we get our livelihood, and if somebody settles his aspirations low, maybe a small home and little savings in his account, then he can get rid of the hard work at the school, college, and office.
When we are students, almost 80-90% of our active time goes for studies, and when we are in a job, almost 80-90% of our active time goes in the office. Now if we have a mindset that this 80-90% of the time is just to get the livelihood so that we may survive or get some comforts and pleasures out of the money that we earn and be happy with that, I feel that we are stupid of the highest order. How can somebody be unpleasant 90% of his life to have pleasure 10% of his life. That's a very false notion of life. Why would any sane person waste that 90% of time and energy? That is the biggest problem in this thought process.
If the children are made to understand that life is wholesome. It is all about exploration. Exploration while studying and exploration while doing the job. If the spirit of the toddler to explore is kept alive inside the children, why would they make studies as a tool to get the job, and job as a tool to get money, and money as a tool to get some pleasure. That's an escape mechanism because they have become fixated on the limited frame of pleasure. They have been told fairy tales of comforts and pleasures by the society, unfortunately, by their parents who have believed these stories and kept seeking these comforts and pleasures the whole of their lives. They have not been honest to tell their own experiences as to how quickly these comforts and pleasures turn into boredom. they have not been able to tell them honestly that it was their struggle period that they still relish because they learned so much during that period. The moment children get to know the reality and understand the futility of running after the comforts and pleasures, they toddler spirit to explore becomes alive again and once that spirit is alive, schools as well as office become the laboratory to explore new phenomenon rather than a concentration camp to for 5 days a week just to have some carrots at the end of the month.
Once we connect education and office work with exploration, the entire ecosystem will change magically. Children will attend school eager to learn about new phenomena each day, and employees will go to the office excited to discover new things daily. Why would anyone avoid their responsibilities if they know that tackling new assignments is both enjoyable and an opportunity for exploration? I feel that, first and foremost, we restrict our children’s broader horizons, narrowing their perspectives by repeatedly telling the exaggerated stories of kids in our neighborhood who landed lucrative jobs or secure positions at the expense of what they loved. We rarely share our feelings and experiences of feeling trapped. We also do not give ourselves the chance to confront the truth. We live within a very limited framework throughout our lives, making our children prisoners of a restricted mindset, and then complain that kids lack financial motivation, hence their reluctance to study. That is sheer nonsense. Unless we tackle our mindsets and recognize how constrained we have become, how can we inspire our children to grow and explore?
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