THE TRUTHS ABOUT EDUCATION

Education is the number one key for societal transformation. It brings out the best in people. It empowers the minds of a child and makes him productive and solution to the problems his society. A well educated child is a model of good work. A well educated child is civilized and is a custodian of peace and love. Every child deserves quality education. Both the poor and the rich deserve it. It is the responsibility of all to make sure that every child is given the gift of quality education. When we educate our children we reduce crime. When we educate our children we protect our society. We all need to pay extra price to make education available to every child. Here are the truths about education.

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Education brings out the best in a child.

§  Education opens multiple opportunities for success.

§  In investment in education pays the best interest.- Benjamin Franklin

§  Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world- Nelson Mandela

§  Without education you are not going anywhere in this world- Malcolm X

§  Education helps us to maximize our innate potentials.

§  Education is the key that opens the door of success.

§  Education is the hammer that breaks the backbone of poverty- MOCET-VOLUNTEERS

§  A man without education is like a building without foundation.

§  A balanced education is the greatest gift you can give to your child or anyone else.

§  Education is the training of the mind to think for productivity.

§  Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today- Malcolm X

§  Education is the best provision for old age- Aristotle

§  Educated children are the greatest assets of any family.

§ The roots of education is bitter, but the fruit is sweet.-Aristotle

§ The greatest price in this world is the price of giving our children a balanced education.- MOCET-VOLUNTEERS

b   By Comrade Arinze

TOP REASONS KIDS SHOULD EXERCISE

HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

TOP REASONS KIDS SHOULD EXERCISE

Physical exercise is health maintenance exercise that is good for both children and adults. Exercising is a healthy lifestyle. Today parents are advised to monitor their children’s body mass index (height-to-weight ratio) as the obesity epidemic among children ages 6-19 has reached 15 percent, almost tripled what it was in late 1960s. Physical activity will not only help today’s children by preventing them from becoming obese or helping them to lose weight if necessary, it will also teach them healthy habits that can last a lifetime. Here are top reasons kids should get plenty exercise:

1. Kids who exercise are more likely to keep exercising as an adult.
2. Exercise helps kids achieve and maintain a healthy body weight.
3. Regular physical activity helps build and maintain strong, healthy muscles, bones and joints.
4. Exercise aids in the development of important interpersonal skills-this is especially true for participation in team sports.
5. Exercise improves the quantity and quality of sleep.
6. Research shows that exercise promotes and improves school attendance and enhances academic performance.
7. Kids who exercise have greater self-esteem and better self-images.
8. Participating in regular physical activity prevents or delays the development of many chronic diseases (eg., heart disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension) and promotes health.
9. Children who are active report fever symptoms of anxiety and depression and a better overall mood.
10. Exercise helps improve coordination and enhances the development of various performance skills.

IMPORTANCE OF EXERCISE

Regular exercise is necessary for physical fitness and good health. It reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases. It can improve your appearance and delay the aging process.

We all know that exercise is important in our daily lives, but we may not know why or what exercise can do for us.

It’s important to remember that we have evolved from nomadic ancestors who spent all their time moving around in search of food and shelter, travelling large distances on a daily basis. Our bodies are designed and have evolved to be regularly active.

In the same way that a sports car is designed to go fast, we are designed to move. If the sports car is taken out once a week for a 3 mile round trip through a town centre then it would probably develop engine problems fairly quickly.

Over time people develop problems if they sit down all day at a desk or in front of the TV and minimize the amount of exercise they do.

THE BENEFITS OF EXERCISE

There are many benefits of regular exercise and maintaining fitness and these include:

Exercise increases energy levels

Exercise improves both the strength and the efficiency of your cardiovascular system to get the oxygen and nutrients to your muscles.  When your cardiovascular system works better everything seems easier and you have more energy for the fun stuff in life.

Exercise improves muscle strength

Staying active keeps muscles strong and joints, tendons and ligaments flexible, allowing you to move more easily and avoid injury. Strong muscles and ligaments reduce your risk of joint and lower back pain by keeping joints in proper alignment. They also improve coordination and balance.

Exercise can help you to maintain a healthy weight

The more you exercise, the more calories you burn.  In addition, the more muscle you develop, the higher your metabolic rate becomes, so you burn more calories even when you’re not exercising.  The result, you may lose weight and look better physically which will boost your self-esteem.

Exercise improves brain function

Exercise increases blood flow and oxygen levels in the brain. It also encourages the release of the brain chemicals (hormones) that are responsible for the production of cells in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls memory and learning.  This, in turn, boosts concentration levels and cognitive ability, and helps reduce the risk of cognitive degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Exercise is good for your heart

Exercise reduces LDL cholesterol (the type that clogs your arteries), increases HDL (the good cholesterol) and reduces blood pressure so it lowers the stress on your heart.  Added to this, it also strengthens your heart muscle. Combined with a healthy diet, exercise lowers the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Regular exercise lowers your risk of developing diabetes

Regular exercise helps to control blood glucose levels, which helps to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes.  Additionally exercise helps to prevent obesity, which is a primary factor in the development of diabetes.

Exercise enhances your immune system

Exercise improves your body’s ability to pump the oxygen and nutrients around your body that are required to fuel the cells that fight bacteria and viruses.

Staying active reduces the likelihood of developing some degenerative bone diseases

Weight bearing exercise such as running, walking or weight training lowers your risk of both osteoarthritis and osteoporosis – the adage of “use it or lose it” really does apply to bones.

Exercise may help to reduce the risk of certain cancers

Being fit may mean that the risks of colon cancer, breast cancer and possibly also lung and endometrial cancers are reduced. Studies by the Seattle Cancer Research Centre have suggested that 35% of all cancer deaths are linked to being overweight and sedentary.

Exercise not only makes you physically fitter but it also improves your mental health and general sense of well-being.

Active people tend to sleep better

Physical activity makes you more tired so you’re more ready to sleep. Good quality sleep helps improve overall wellness and can reduce stress. 

Exercise improves your mood and gives you an improved sense of well-being

Physical activity stimulates the release of endorphins which make you feel better and more relaxed.  These in turn improve your mood and lower your stress levels.

Exercise can help prevent and treat mental illnesses like depression

Physical activity can help you meet people, reduces stress level , cope with frustration, give you a sense of achievement, and provide some important “me time”, all of which help with depression.

Keeping fit can reduce some of the effects of aging

There is overwhelming evidence that people who lead active lifestyles are less likely to suffer from illness and more likely to live longer.

Exercise can be fun

Getting fit is not just about running on a track or treadmill for hours in your local gym, it can be a dance or a new hobby like fencing or mountain biking. It could be a group or team activity like football or a karate class.

Whatever form of exercise you choose, you will almost certainly meet new people and may make new friends.

 

Comrade Arinze Okwara

   Youths Counsellor

    Founder: MOCET

WHAT WILL YOU LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED FOR?

There is motivational power in the life history of achievers. I love reading the history of great achievers. I have found that to be very inspiring to me. The story of achievers gives me a kick in the ass to take a positive step towards becoming a great achiever. It gives me a pat at my back encouraging me to go for great future. Recently, there has been a nudging in my heart to start publishing a newsletter or a magazine that will publish the history of achievers in Nigeria and around the globe. I want to publish the history of great achiever who started young. My aim for this project is to counsel, inspire and motivate young minds (Teenagers, youths) to go for great future. Many young people are wrongly influenced to focus on things that do not add values to their future. I want to give solution to that problem. I have discovered that I was created to help young minds understand themselves and to give them direction and focus to go for great future. This is exactly what we want to do through BBF TV Magazine. The magazine will be given out for free while we source for advert to cover the cost. My blog; buildinggreatfuturetv.blogspot.com.ng will do the same. I came across a great achiever in Nigeria who started with the habit of excellence at early age. She gained admission at 14 and graduated at 19 and has achieved great feats at her career with myriad of accolade. I was so motivated by her biography I read in her blog and I decided to share her story to young minds. I did this because I know her story will give you a push to go for great future. I give her the credit. I want you to read her life story. It will inspire you to pursue greatness. You have what it takes to reach the top. Take actions with a desire for excellence. Make excellence a habit and it bring you to limelight. Read her story;

OLAJUMOKE ADENOWO is a multiple Award winning Architect. She has been called the “Face of Architecture” in Nigeria. She was featured on CNN African Voices, and profiled on CNN as Africa’s Starchitect, and has been featured in the world’s leading Architectural Publications such as America’s Architectural Record Magazine.

Admitted to the University of Ife to study Architecture at the age 14, she graduated at 19 with a BSc. (Hons) and subsequently with a record breaking distinction in Masters of Science (MSc) in Architecture (a first in the several decades of the history of the Institution). While in the University, she won several faculty awards for her academic work including best student in design in the BSc. Hons and MSc. programs and best overall student, Best Housing Studies Student amongst several others. In 1991, she was included in the “Who will be who in the 21st century” (young achievers section) by the International Biographical Centre Cambridge, England. She is an alumnus of a number of prestigious institutions including the Lagos Business School Chief Executive Programme (2002) and The IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain (2005).

As a chartered architect, she worked with leading Nigerian firms and at Femi Majekodunmi Associates where she had the privilege of designing the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja. She later started her own multiple award winning Architecture and Interior Architecture firm, AD Consulting with just 400USD in 1994 and has held the position of Principal Partner till date. The firm has gone from its small cubicle in central Lagos to 3 offices and is now recognised as the flagship boutique that pioneered Interior Architecture in Nigeria. AD Consulting, a boutique architectural firm providing bespoke interior design and architectural services to a discerning clientele, has executed the design and overseen the construction of over 70 outstanding projects for the Nigerian federal and state governments, multinational corporate organizations and private individuals. AD Consulting is the architect of note to MNCs such as Coca Cola International, L’Oreal, CRI, NGC, GTBank, amongst others. Possessing a deep understanding of branding, AD Consulting deploys design of the built space as a brand enhancer. AD has won several international awards for its designs and is the only Nigerian architectural firm recommended by the British Chamber of Commerce for architectural services in Nigeria.

In 1999, she founded Awesome Treasures Foundation to raise Transformational Leaders, its summits and other initiatives have attracted well over 50,000 attendees.

She is a speaker of note in demand at summits and conferences including the Harvard Business School (African Business Club), the Inspiring Woman Businessday Series, churches, and media platforms.

She hosts her own syndicated radio program Voice of Change on Leadership. She is an author of several books including the much lauded “Lifespring the Mothers’ Prayer Manual” and her most recent work “Designed for Marriage”. She writes a popular column on interiors in Thisday Style and is also a lyricist.

She serves on the board of several businesses, institutions and social initiatives. Including the Board of Governors of the elite British School of Lome, the Board of Fountain Holdings Limited, the National Think Tank, the Ekiti State Economic Council, amongst several others. She has been honoured with several awards a few of which are the Rare Gems award by WODEF in conjunction with the United Nations Information Centre, the International Property Awards (Best Public Service Architecture, 2012), African Property Awards (Best Mixed-Use Architecture), ( Best Office Architecture and Best Public Service Architecture, 2013), IDEA Awards (Best Commercial Designer 2012), (Best interior Architect 2013), (The Ekiti State Merit Awards 2014), IDEA Awards (Best Institutional Architect 2014), and honoured as an “Ambassador of Excellence” for outstanding achievements in Architecture and women development by her Alma mater.

Olajumoke is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators- 2015 ACIArb (UK) and a Member African Leadership Network.

She is married to Olukorede and they are blessed with two sons.

      By: Comrade Arinze Okwara

           Founder : MOCET

HOW TO PREPARE FOR BRIGHT AND GREAT FUTURE

You future is created to be great but you need to prepare for it and make it come to reality. You are designed great but you need to make it happen. If you fail to word hard for your great future, you may fall short of you potential. The part of becoming what you are created to be is your responsibility. God has played His own part. He has designed you with gifts and calling and has given you will power to choose how you want to utilize the great abilities He has deposited in you. You parents can’t make you great. They can only assist you. It is your duty to take your destiny in your own hands. I have seen children from very rich and powerful home who end up small. Some got soaked with bad habit and addictions and that has shattered their potential. I have people who started at zero becoming heroes. So it is about you. It is not about your parents. There are three simple steps to you great future. The steps are yours to take.

1.    DREAM IT – Dream for a great future. Choose great future. Choose the career course you want to pursue. Determine to be great. Let your dream be a big one. Do not go for small dream. Pst Bolaji Idowu Said; “Small dream, small achievement, big dream big achievement”. Your future depends on your dream. If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

2.    SPEAK IT – Keeping speaking about your dream. Share your dream with your real friends and well wishers. Avoid sharing with dream killers. Carry your dream in your mind. Picture it in your mind daily. Write down. Write it where you can always see.

3.  WORK TOWARDS IT - Work towards your dream daily. Work tirelessly to achieve you dream. Your dream is not enough to get you there; you have to work it out. Keep working towards your dream, you will get there. It will come to reality if you hold unto your dream. Langton Hughes said; “Hold on to your dream, when dream dies life is like a broken winged bird that cannot fly”.

SUCCESS HABITS FOR BRIGHT AND GREAT FUTURE

1.  Create a study chamber in your home: Even if you live in one room apartment, you can claim a corner of the room and place your table there as you study chambers. Great elites have study chambers. If you really want to build a great future, emulate the character of elites. You will become one if you prepare like them.

2.   Choose subjects that are associated with your choice of course: There are subjects associated with your dream course of study. Choose them as your core subjects.

3.   Draft a personal study timetable for your daily studies: Study habit is a success habit. All great minds identify with study habit. If you are going to build greatness, you must cultivate daily study habit.

4.    Have WAEC syllabus: Syllabus is a booklet where all the topics to be covered in all WAEC subjects are shortlisted. It is a very important booklet for smart students.

5.  Get all the need textbooks for your core subjects: Make sure you have textbooks for your studies. They are your tools.

6.    Launch a personal study routine: Study daily. Let it be cultivated as a habit. Reading is a success habit. You must embrace it. Go extra mile. Spent nights, invest quality time daily for your studies. Dig for knowledge. Know your subjects. It pays.

7. Determine to be the best. Determination is the key for success. Determination today leads to success tomorrow. Don’t just dream to be a doctor, dream to be the best doctor in the world. Don’t just dream to be an economist, dream to be the best economist in the world.

8.    Avoid artificial distractions:  Make sure you shun the new factors of this era that distract young people from focusing on their studies. Avoid over engagement in watching movies. It is not wrong to watch movies but you must moderate your craving to it. Make sure you manage your time well. Stick to your daily study timing. Create time to wind up. Do not place your study chambers where there is a distracting television. Check your indulgence to mobile gadget.  Addiction to social media and earphone may distract you from investing quality time in your studies. You need to guide against this distraction.

By: Comrade Arinze Okwara

Founder : MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION FOR CHILD EDUCATION AND TRAINING (MOCET)

INCULCATING GOOD VALUES IN YOUR CHILDREN

          

It is a fact that our environment is polluted with a lot of negative influence that can influence children wrongly.  Our media has not helped matters as well. Home movie written by people with wrong mindset are always there on our television. Musical videos showcasing lascivious scenes are rife sowing seeds of wrong influence to our children.  Nevertheless, wise parents can raise quality children with quality lives. To me, all wisdom is from God and knowledge came from man. The only true source of wisdom is God. Living by the principles stipulated by God in the word of God, the bible will definitely help. Parents that are initiated to biblical standard are surely to succeed in inculcating good values in their children.

The home environment can really be of good influence to children if parent can go extra mile in preserving and promoting good behaviour. Children are influenced for good or bad by their environment. To really impact good conduct and values into your children the following factors will be of immense help.

1. Create a home that is ruled by love. Love is not love until it is shared. You should run your home in such a way that love prevails. Sincere love should be shared between mother and father and to the children. Bonding between parents and children should be given room. The love should reflect giving intense interest in your children’s way of life. If you want to change the world you must first change yourself. Your daily living as parents should reflect love. Say thanks when you receive favour from people. Say sorry when you step on peoples toes. Have respect for people and their opinion. Do not allow greed into your family. Try to live with open mind. Owe no grudge for anything. Forgive those that offend you. Just be nice to people all the time. Love is sincere when you share it with every one around you not for your spouse alone. Be kind even more than you should be.

If you want your children to respect people around them, you should be one who respects people. Whatever you want your kids to do, do it first and they will learn by example. People who cannot change themselves cannot change others.   

2. Teach your children how to put God first in everything.

Your passion for God inspires your children for God. Live with the consciousness of pleasing God and you will influence your children to live that way. Your reverence for God rob off on them .Children are influenced by what they see and hear in their environment. If you walk with God by your attitude they will be influenced to do the same. Your life will teach them the potency of prayer and living by the will of God. Practice praying together daily and they will live that way all their lives. Teach them that the bible is the most important book in the world by how you hold unto it. If you attach great importance to the bible, you will influence your children to attach importance to it. Let your prayer point be lifted from the bible whenever you pray with them. Teach them how to claim promises from the bible by discovering the verses that gives them promises and let them know the verses.

3. Set and maintain routines in your home:

Teach your children etiquette. Train them to do domestics chores. Teach them time management by making out time for work, studies, prayer, exercise, watching movies or television Programmes, playing music e.t.c. .Programme their time for them and that will keep them busy. Time for rest should not be ignored. Time out for fun and get together should also be there for then. Life is fun if you learn not to waste time. Many children childhood are wasted. They used the time that is supposed to be invested into learning for playing. Many children in secondary today do not complete their school work load before their WAEC. This is because their times were not well managed. They wasted their time on things that never add any value to their lives. Time is like money, the way you spend it determines the value you will get from it. It is the duty of parents to make sure they avoid this waste of time. Time is an ultra valuable resource to mankind. It is free. All the most valuable resource to mankind is free. Other examples are the air we breathe. Without air we cannot live. Water is one. The brain is another valuable resource. Many waste these resources because they were never taught how to maximize them for success. Success is free. People just waste it and become poor and irrelevant to their society. Children should be nurtured to maximize their time doing things that add value to their lives. Time for reading can never be enough. There are a lot to learn. More time should be allotted to studies. You must teach them. Remember we learn every thing we do. If you want your children to know more, teach them to learn more. If they learn better, they will know better and if they know better, they will do better.

4. Exercise your authority: Discipline your child when necessary. Do not be harsh all the time so that they will know when you are serious. Learn to maintain a cordial relationship between you and your children and equally learn to correct them when they misbehave.Define rules and state clearly the things you don’t want in your home and be strict about your instructions. Devise a means to punish defaulters. Maintain a strict or rather modest force to make sure you have total control. Remember, they will leave your home one day, so within the period they are with you; they should be under your control and influence. Don’t forget that you need to strike a balance. There should modesty in you approach. Your aim is to raise them with wisdom. You must check their opinion and know when they are exhibiting a wise demeanour and allow them exercise their opinion. The rule here should not be hard and fast. The balance must be there.

5. Be wise enough to acknowledge their emotion and see how you can be of help. Always be sensitive to the emotion of your children. Dictate when they are happy and angry. Try to figure out when they are in trauma. Care to know what disturbs them and see how you can help with your counsel. Counsel them about relationship and sex before they learn it by experience or from friend outside. Your care and sincere counsel will make them get attached to you than anyone else outside the home. The mother or father can take up this aspect of training. It depends on who between the father and the mother that created better bonding. There is a need for bonding. You must start it before they get to adolescence stage. When you are the first person they ask question about their body change during the early puberty stage it means you have achieved bonding with your children.

6. Emphasize on the principles of character: Discuss the need for greetings, respect showing appreciation, humanity, alms giving, civic work, serving in the church etc. educating your children to be involved in work without immediate reward builds their character. Caution them when they disrespect anybody in your presence. Watch their attitude to others. Make sure they are not unnecessarily hostile to people. Ability to relate well with people is a treasure. That is human relation skill.  It is one important skill that should not be ignored in life. it is the core of leadership skill.

Emphasize on bad social habits like fighting, eating while walking on the road, talking while eating, dropping dirt on the road, urinating on the corner of the road etc. and advise them to do the right things. Children can learn if you teach them. Tell them why they should not do those things. Our environment reflects doing things wrong. Our leaders who are our fathers who are supposed to be the major source of influence have failed. They fight in the house of assembly, loot public fund, corruption in every corner but you can make your children make the difference. It is not everybody in Nigeria that is corrupt. The issue is that majority are on the wrong side. You can make the difference in your home. You can raise your children with a better value. You can raise godly children. The truth is that they will do better in life if they have better values.    

     

 

By: Comrade Arinze Okwara
Founder: MOCET

THE CONCEPT OF BALANCE EDUCATION

THE CONCEPT OF BALANCE EDUCATION

To raise children that will be relevant in the new global arena, there is a need to give children a balanced education. A balanced education for a child is the type of education that affects not just the child’s brain but the mind and the heart. The mind is the engine that controls humanity. When the mind of a child is affected positively both the child and the parents that did the good work of child development stands to reap the benefit of the work well done. Balanced education builds and develops the entirety of the child’s tripartite nature. That is the kind of education that will teach the child how to make use of the body, soul and spirit for creativity and productivity. Child development is like developing a building. To build a tall house you must consider the foundation. A building with a solid foundation stands to be more productive. You can always add more blocks on top to create more rooms. The same way an uncompleted building yields infinitesimal result that is how an under-developed child yields small result in life.   Balanced education gives a vital foundation to any child. The foundation must cover the following seven areas of education. This theorem of balanced education is developed by Missionary Organization for Child education and Training (MOCET) .A balanced education makes life rosy, easy and meaningful for children and to the creator who has made mankind for purpose. The kind of education your child gets at his or her formative years depends on you. Parents should be the child’s first, favorite and most important teacher. MOCET THEOREM OF BALANCED EDUCATION covers the following seven areas of education below: These are what we are to learn all through lifetime and the best thing you can do for your child is to inspire him or her to love learning. The best time to learn the good habit of love for learning is from the formative (childhood) years.

SEVEN MODT IMPORTANT TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE FOR THIS INFORMATION ERA

1. ACADEMIC EDUCATION: Here a child needs the knowledge of reading and writing and ability to calculate numerical figures. The child also needs to understand his or her environment. This is the type of education children obtain from primary school and secondary school.

2. PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: Here a child needs the knowledge of job skill. This is the type of education we get from higher institutions and vocational training centres. This type of education equips a child to contribute to our society with his or her work. This type of education helps us to have professional or job skills. Our profession builds us and builds our society through us. We are all designed to contribute to our society and our profession makes it possible.

3. FINANCIAL EDUCATION: Here a child needs the knowledge of how to make money and how to have money labour hard for us instead of us laboring hard for money. We are created to work for money, we are rather created to have money work for us. This is the concept of financial intelligence. It equally teaches us how to convert our talents into cash. This covers financial prudence and financial management. It teaches a child about financial management skills. Financial management can be learnt from home. It is a major job of wise parents to teach their children how to manage money. Money grows like a tree if you manage it well. Money is a friend to those who know how to manage it and it is an enemy to those who mismanage it. That is why those who mismanage money are always in scarcity of it.

4. HEALTH EDUCATION: Here a child needs the knowledge of how to maintain health naturally. Most ill-health ravaging people have their root from what they take into their system as food. This teaches a child about good food and activities that promotes good health. It exposes the importance of physical exercise, eating healthy food and keeping a healthy environment.

5. EMOTIONAL EDUCATION: Here a child needs the knowledge of how to use our faith to achieve feats instead of fear. It teaches the emotional quotient needed to overcome this challenging world. Here we teach a child to learn to stand up when he or she fall instead of staying down. The child learns how to move despite daunting odds. This is motivating children to remain courageous in a situation of discouragement. This is building their strength and will-power to continue even in a discouraging situation. It is teaching them not to accept defeat but to press forward against all odds in order to achieve desired objective.

6. SPIRITUAL EDUCATION: Here a child needs the knowledge of how to live connected to our source, living in acknowledgement of our maker who gave us the gift of life. We teach a child how to engage his spirit, soul and body for good work which we are created for. This teaches a child the five purpose of life on earth. It teaches a child the need to live for God and for others.

7. HUMANS RELATION EDUCATION: Here a child needs the knowledge of how to relate with others in love and kindness. This is where a child learns about true leadership. True leadership is rooted in attitude of kindness, love and selfless service. This is called the skill of human engineering. It is about associating with people. That is social skills and team spirit.

GOOD LIFE BEGINS WITH LEARNING THE BEST VALUES IN LIFE.

Every human person supposed to keep learning about these seven types of knowledge and the foundation of the knowledge should begin from dependent stage of life. That is the childhood which is between day one to year eighteen and all through life. I happen to be the second child in a family of eight. I practically trained my younger ones. My parents were partially uninvolved in their parenting style, though they were very committed in their caring and controlling roles as parents. I was motivated to love learning by a childhood friend of mine and I passed on that motivation to my younger ones. I was majorly involved in the training of my younger siblings. I can say that I complemented the effort of my parents in the training and education of my younger siblings.  I constantly urge my younger sibling to study daily after school. They equally observed me studying diligently. I made them harbor the thought that we can be the best in class and that became my family culture to study diligently to come first. My family was known for academic excellence and that was as a result of my words and actions. I gave them well-defined picture of a great future. I made them realize the promise of the future and that gave them the courage for paying the price of being the best in the various educational endeavors. My mother and my grandmother played a great role in instilling the spirit of hard work, discipline and fear of God in us and that created a good balanced. Child training should be all encompassing. It must cover the seven area mentioned above if you must raise a balanced child.

MENTAL PROJECTION

I made them choose courses of study. I projected their mind for the need and importance of having university education which will give them job skill. I inspired them to not just dream of proceeding to university but to dream to be the best. By so doing I was preparing them for a profession. Children live by the influence they have in their environment.

Whenever any of them feel discouraged or worried prompted by a failure or challenge from any daunting adventure, I motivate them with my words by telling them that worries do not change anything. I will ask them to think of what do as an option rather than worrying about a situation they cannot change. I kept telling them that obstacles or challenges are their friends telling them to quit or they succeed. I kept telling them that winners don’t quit even when they fail; they keep trying until they succeed. By so doing, I was giving them emotional education. My words were always encouraging and that created bonding between me and my siblings. During their teenage, they always introduce their friends to me. I knew both their male and female friends. I created time to chat with their friends and with my encouraging words I bond with them. I was there as a mentor to them. That gave me the opportunity of advising them when I notice any friend that will be of negative influence to them.

I equally encourage them to be involved in athletics. We played football together. Source for fruits and try to balance our food even in the situation of lack.

We prayed together as a family. We got involved in religious activities in the church. My mum will not take any excuse from you for not being in church on Sunday morning. The word of God we heard at childhood shaped our mind and barred us from getting deeply involved in juvenile delinquencies.

We equally learnt the virtue of being nice to people true our grandmother. My grant mum is such a nice and kind woman who can take any child around her as her own child. She was known for sharing food stuff to other women in my extended family. We learn to be nice to people through my grandmother’s attitude of meeting peoples’ needs selflessly which was a good foundation for human relation education. A balance education for a child covers the seven areas. Children learn what you teach them. At formative years, the minds of children are like a clean slate whatever you write on their minds is what they grow up with. The person you spend much time with has the greatest opportunity of influencing you. That is a simple fact. Parents should be their children greatest influence. To influence anyone positively you should be a balanced person. This is written to shape your mind so that you can shape the minds of your children positively.

      Comrade Arinze Okwara

Founder: MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION FOR CHILD EDUCATION AND TRAINING                                                                                       (MOCET)

CHILD EDUCATION AND TRAINING

CHILD EDUCATION AND TRAINING

TOPIC: CHALLENGES IN RAISING TEENAGERS

Parenting is the process of taking care of children until they are old enough to take care of themselves. It is the responsibility of parents as the heads of the family to take proper care of their children in such a way that will enable the best in their children to manifest as the grow up. We learn everything we do in life. We learn to walk, we learn to eat, and we learn to read. There is a need for parents to invest time and resources to learn parenting skills so that they can give their best in their parenting responsibility. In this column, we will be dishing out information about child education and training to inform parents and equip them with the knowledge that will be useful for them to give their children the best education and training. We are majoring on challenges in raising teenagers on this piece.

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES IN RAISING TEENAGERS

Teenagers are children between the ages of thirteen and nineteen. Research shows that children change in attitude and appearance during this stage when certain developmental process both physical and mental takes place in children. It is a challenging stage both for the children and parents. Children need in a large extend parental guide at this stage if they must be groomed to be responsible adults.

In raising adolescence children, there are two paramount factors that can be of great help. The two factors are simply wisdom and understanding. When one is learning a new skill, no doubt there will be difficulty in understanding some basic rules in that field but learning the skill is not outrightly impossible. Raising teenagers may pose a little difficulty but it is possible to learn the skill if you want to. All you need is to seek the necessary skill to give your teenagers the best guide that will make them responsible and intelligent children. The first key is for parents to try to understand just what is happening during this exciting but often confusing stage of growth. The following are certain behavioural changes that occur during this period:

1.    The teenagers’ desire for independence makes them rebellious.

2.    The teenagers’ get more opinionated and can question parent’s authority.

3.    The teenagers’ get more self-conscious about their appearance

4.    The teenagers’ get more secretive and would want to have more privacy.

5.    The teenagers’ prefer to be with their friends rather than with their parents.

6.    The teenagers’ at this stage are developing a power of reasoning.

Parents’ understanding the behavioural changes that are associated with this period in the life of their children helps them to apply wisdom when dealing with them. The Bible acknowledges that in time, man will leave his father and his mother to prepare for greater responsibility in adulthood. Youths need experience in making decision. Teenage is a time for preparation for adulthood. Reasoning ability is developing at this stage. They need extensive explanation for whatever you want them to do. Doing so will mean training their perspective powers. The growth surge of teenagers makes them aware of how they look. This makes them more self-conscious especially the girl child.

They seem more secretive. This is dangerous. Privacy is different. Seeking out lonely place is a good value. Youths need some personal space and parents should respect that space. Privacy helps youths to think. Thinking is a necessary skill that will help teenagers a great deal in adulthood. Parents should understand this vital fact and give the teenagers the chance as they need.

In the same vein, establishing friendship is part of teenage behavioural change and it is part of growing up. It is a fact that bad association corrupts good manner. However, a true companion is a brother that is born when there is problem. Learning to maintain good friendship is a good skill that is very essential in the life of teenagers.

Parents are expected to acquire the understanding to handle the above situation when they arise in the course of raising the children. The ability to respond to a situation in a way that will give the best guide to the teenager is very important and in that case wisdom is needed.

The place of wisdom in raising teenagers cannot be over-emphasised. It may seem hard to be accepted, but the truth remains that teenagers are no longer little children. They are adults in training and parents are their teachers and mentor. You have the power both to build and to destroy a child’s self-confidence, determination and focus. The wealth of character standard you inculcate in them carries them all through adulthood. The following factors are essential in giving them a proper guide that can make them responsible adults.

1.    Communicating Well: Communicating well means giving them vital reason for whatever you want them to do. Hearing and listening is an essential factor in this case. Allow them to express their feeling before you provide the needed advice. Take time to listen to them when they try to explain things. Do not shout at them when relating issue but make them see reason for your point. One Danielle recounted her experience with her daughter to be true in this case, “I had an issue with one of my daughters over the way she talked back when I ask her to do anything. But she told me that I was always shouting at her and ordering her around. We resolved this conflict by sitting down and really listening to each other. She described the way I spoke to her and how it made her feel; I equally described my impressions and feelings to her”.

The woman found that being swift about hearing help her discern a deeper issue.  “Now I try to be patient with my daughter, and I try to speak to her angrily when I am not angry”. She added, “Our relationship is improving”. Communication is an essential factor. Ironing issues out amicably instead of yelling at your teenage children will go a long way in cementing a good relationship in the family, probably understanding will prevail.

2.    Independence: Your children need some freedom at this stage but giving them unchecked freedom may be dangerous. Proverb 29 vs. 15 warns that “A boy let on the loose will be causing his mother shame”. Teenagers need firm guideline and parents should be implementing family rules. Giving teenagers a degree of independence helps prepare them to make wise decisions later in life. Allow them to go out to sort their problems out themselves. The issue of doing virtually everything for them is not a ggod one, for example, so many parents do not allow their children to go for function alone. They either assign a driver to their children or assign someone else to take them to the function and bring them back home. It is an unnecessary protection. Doing all things for them and assigning someone to take them to function will not really grant the chance to learn from their mistake which prepare them for life challenges. I remember during our secondary school days, while we were writing external examination, some parents brought their children to the invigilator to take them to locate their seat for them, tell them sit down on the seat. They will even go as far as helping them sign documents. They will equally wait until the end of the examination and they will drive them home. They do virtually everything for their children. This to me, is over-pampering a child and it does not allow such teenager to stand on his or her feet early enough in life. Such children lack the needed confidence in terms of challenges. Many adult today cannot fill a form appropriately. This is due to the fact that people have been handling things like that for them. They are never allowed to fill their form for the fear that they may make mistake. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn to those who can try.  You hamper the child’s ability to sort his own problems out on his or her own if you don’t allow them to take up responsibilities. Think, for example, how you learnt to walk. At first, as an infant you had to be carried. In time, you began to crawl and then walk. It is not quite easy becoming mobile. It is even dangerous but you kept a close watch on your child and still allow your little baby to move about on their own. Probably after a number of inevitable falls, your child learns to walk. Having independence takes a similar process.

Even at preteen age, Jesus was granted a measure of independence. Jesus was very loyal to his parents and at the same time knew that he has a greater work to do for his father in heaven who sent him. You should grant your children such degree of independence with a degree of restriction as well.

The fact that your teenager may be upset by your restriction does not mean that you should relinquish your authority. Do not forget that teenagers are inexperienced in life and they still need guidance. Do not let yourself intimidated by your children’s feeling and allow them more freedom than they can handle. You should reaffirm your authority when they try to cross your independent boundary. They will surely reject your restrictions but don’t relent. They will eventually be grateful for your strict guidelines. When you spare them, you spoil them and they will live to blame you for not giving them the proper training and the shame bounce back to you.

 

By: Comrade Arinze Okwara

 He is the Founder of Missionary Organization for Child Education and Training (MOCET)