Why should I study?

Motivating children to study is one of the biggest challenges faced by parents. Either explicitly or implicitly, every child has this question on their mind, "Why should I study?". In parents mind, this question has a very straight forward answer but children are not convinced about it.

In our generation (70s,80s), most of us believed that only education can provide financial security and better lifestyle. And we put our best efforts in studies. While it still holds true, our children can't understand and accept it.

The reason is, our children's basic needs are well taken care of. Most of them get more than they need and have not experienced financial difficulties. In their world, the trending professions are YouTuber, Influencer, Sports, Gaming, Chefs, Music bands and what not. These professions don't directly depend on education.

This change in mindset comes along with 30+ yrs of rapid economic and technology evolution !! It is inevitable. We need to accept the new mindset and align ours.

1. Redefine education: Traditional as well as modern schools have innovated ways to sell education to parents. They have started aligning to the current trends and parents' demands. Similar way, we need to redefine education to our children aligning to their mindset.

Asking them to get marks, won't work any more.

We need to help them see that the school is an environment where they learn to respect, understand diversity, deal with failures, stand-up for ourselves, make friendships and develop never-give up attitude. It is about becoming better everyday.

2. Remap education to life: In every profession, basic life skills and core qualities are necessary to be successful. Like focus, patience, consistency, self-confidence, adaptability, problem solving, time management, prioritization, decision making, presentation skills etc.

We need to explain to our children that, these skills won't get automatically develop at the age of 21....Education is a framework to develop these life skills.

Learning is beyond literacy.

3. Reset expectations: These life skills and core qualities require practice with increased complexity aligned with the brain development. Academics/Studies is a way to practice these skills. Each child makes progress at their own pace based on their capability and efforts they put in.

We need to set realistic expectations based on our child's capability rather than following set standards/norms.

It is not about joining the race for marks but levelling up your best.

4. Realign with reality: Let's not compare and judge them based on marks. Don't pressurize them to mug up the information and get marks. It will not work with our children.

Work with them to design a plan to become better at each of these skills. With consistency and hard work, the change will happen.

While we can push them to do better, let's not break their morale and self-esteem.

We can blame the education system but let's not forget, WE MAKE THAT SYSTEM. So if we want the system to change, let the change begins with us.

Children don't want to be judged based on their marks. It is up to us to see them as a human, beyond their marks.

When children understand that academics is not about their continuous evaluation but the training ground, they will play their natural game and improve. With that self-confidence, they will be able to play finals at their best. And they will understand, "Why study?"

Written by Chaitali Shroff, Co-fonder of HEAL Foundation