In India, a lot of importance is placed on family bonding, be it a relation with your siblings, parents, cousins or in-laws. We can spot a lot of things peculiar to Indian culture if we compare the same with Western culture in which, it is a norm for children to move out of their parent’s home and stay independent, after a particular age. Even their guardians prefer their children to be more independent so that they are well prepared to face the struggles of life.
However, in India, it is not the same scenario as over here, parents want their children to be with them for as long as they can as well as take important decisions on their behalf, be it anything related to their education, career choices or choosing a life partner. This sort of behavior on the part parents make their children very dependable and as a result, they grapple to deal with the smallest issues of their lives, especially when they are teenagers or adolescents and that includes their academic issues too.
Here are some of the tips for parents that will help them to teach their teens to take up their academic responsibility –
Set them free, don’t put pressure
Many Indian parents want their kid to grow up and be someone which they want him/her to become and that acts as an impediment to the thought process of a child. It is only when a kid will be able to think freely what career he/she wants to adopt, he/she will be able to think of which subject area he/she needs to focus upon. So, do not push them to opt for or not opt for any particular subject as they are the best ones to judge and decide what they like or dislike. Anything forceful puts additional pressure on them and they fail to take wise decisions by themselves.
Encourage them to be more interactive
More you talk to different kinds of people, more knowledge you gather about different aspects of life. Encourage them to enroll themselves in inter school competitions, educational seminars/conferences as they get in touch with some great minds at these forums which provide them with fruitful career guidance. As a result, teenagers are able to view their academic decisions from different angles which helps them to be more confident of their vital decisions.
Self study is the key
As rightly said, the best learning comes by doing it all by yourself. Therefore, it is important to apprise them of the benefits of self learning. I am not saying that it is worthless to join coaching centres or to seek help from teachers but relying only on them won’t do much good. Hence, as a guardian or parent, it is your responsibility to push your kid for self study as much as possible. This will lead to him/her becoming more responsible towards his/her academic duties.
Introduce creative teaching methods
Try to introduce some creative methods of study, if academics can be made as interesting as any other activity like sports or cultural activities then teenagers will be motivated to take up academic responsibility with sheer enthusiasm which is generally lacking as studies are viewed as something that requires excessive mental effort. Hence, parents and schools/institutes should try to introduce audio-visual methods of learning as well as focus more on practical knowledge rather than theoretical.
Show some confidence
If you have heard of the social psychologist Douglas McGregor‘s theory Y, it assumes that in any organization, employees are happy to work, self motivated & creative and enjoy working with greater responsibility. Therefore, leaders who embrace this theory always believe in delegating responsibility to their subordinates as they display confidence in their subordinates‘ abilities.
The fact that I am trying to highlight here is, even kids/teenagers need to know that their parents/guardians have confidence in them as it further boosts them and inspires them to become more focused and diligent. On the contrary, if parents intervene a lot in their academic decisions then even kids eventually develop laid back attitude when it comes to shouldering their own academic responsibility. So, as a parent, be a little more confident about his/her academic capabilities.
The above mentioned points would be helpful for parents to view their teen’s academic responsibilities from a different perspective and these simple steps would eventually mitigate their mental pressure which they face while taking excessive burden of their children’s education and career.
