The New Year is here and so is the exam time for all schools who will be winding up their academic year. Stress is building up in children, parents, and teachers. Teachers are pressed to complete their curriculum, children feel the pressure to cope up with the full year’s curriculum and parents must make sure their children perform well. As parents and educators, one must remember that exams are not the measure of your child’s success and failure. You need to reinforce this in children, keeping in mind that this is not your exam, but theirs to pass. Your child will sense your anxiety and stress, so make sure you remain calm and composed. Check on them regularly and do some stress-busting activities with them.
A competitive environment is good and helps children perform better, but we need to also train our children to accept defeat if any. They need to give their best and then be content with the result. However, if not done right, children may experience stress and anxiety, which may eventually affect their performance. Most of our education still focuses on rote learning rather than understanding and applying the concepts learned. Children must be taught that companies are no longer considering your academic scores for jobs.
We have to step away from pushing our children into an artificial race from the moment they are born. Parents must not enroll your child in various classes so you can tick off a ‘good parent’ box, but build on their child’s interest. Take time to step back, breathe and participate in your child’s life in a way that develops compassion, intellectual curiosity, resourcefulness, independence, problem-solving ability, stillness and the most important the ability to learn and to be alone and enjoy.
