Preparing the Next Generation

Preparing the next generation: Freedom or Discipline?

‘The world today is increasingly tough and competitive. It is useless to pretend that children know best. They do not. Parents and teachers need to make decisions for children and ensure – by all means possible – that children achieve the highest academic standards. This will benefit the child and, ultimately, the nation.’

Indifference or criticism? Pain in freedom, or happiness in captivity? Sometimes the path is not clear enough for us to take. Dealing with education and methods authority figures have in the lives of learners could be constituted to be part of the thought provoking.

There are many ways the pressure of academics could be seen. The most astonishing would be the two extremes. On one hand, pressure is not so great, academics are not important enough to be a burden as students have given to it what they are willing and capable of doing. On the other hand, academics means everything, from all around the students, pressure is being loaded on them either from parents, teachers or even peers. To them the grades that are achieved and the successes from being the best is the top priority in their lives. There is no right way on how to have the best in life. One way or another, there are always negative factors, yet there are also positive factors to be found.

In many cases, the work of the parents influences the child's thinking. Often the strict parents, such as those often found in Asian cultures, would breed children who are competitive, fierce on themselves and who are driven to always be the very best. These children would grow up to be theoretically excellent in the educational field. Sadly, the same children would lose to their peers in creativity and fields outside of academic subjects. For the other case, the parents of the students do not place high expectations for their children. Such parents are common in Western societies. The parents would encourage their children to do their best in academics and support the choices made by them. The children would grow and develop individual characters, have choices in their lives, and often make their own goals and expectations. They may not win against the academic strengths of other students on the Eastern Hemisphere, but this upbringing does reap benefits. These children would grow to be happier for successes in the real world, to be creative and to be the rulers of their own lives after being taught from a young age to be dependent on themselves.

On another point, there will always be a negative to everything. Parents and teachers though hoping to be doing the best for the students could actually be harming them instead. In Western societies, the way of being lenient could bring unwanted reactions such as the cultivation of lazy attitudes, a distant relationship with parents, poor judgment or being ruthless to the point of being an embarrassment to the population. For the Asian societies, the constant pressure and expectations could cause some students to admit defeat, cause a feeling never feeling content, sleep deprivation due to constant studying, or even some who break under the pressure and give up on life itself with the act of suicides.

With these arguments on both sides, my opinion is that there is no right way on dealing with the way students should be made to do their studies. A hybrid of both ways would in my opinion be the best alternative. Parents and teachers should not exert pressure on them but instead use encouragement while keeping them on track. Comments and recommendations should be given but the final choice to be made by the students themselves. Goals and expectations should not be set by any individual party, but instead discussed and deals should be made in which both will be content with. I believe there can not be the perfect way to achieve balance for seeking the best way to learn under, in which the whole world could agree to. Some things are just not meant to be solved.