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 r
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)
No comments:
Post a Comment